The AVP beach volleyball tour now features team play. But will it be a (Dallas) dream or (Miami) chaos?

When Chase Budinger played in the NBA, he had a locker room full of teammates who worked together to win and supported each other off the court.

Since he switched to beach volleyball, it has always been just him and one partner.

That changes this season on the AVP tour, with a new competition format that brings a team concept to the two-person game, and with it a hometown and a nickname and all the other trappings of more traditional team sports.

“It just brings that team atmosphere, that team bond that I missed during my basketball days,” Budinger said in a recent phone interview as he transitioned from the Paris Olympics to the AVP’s new competition.

“It’s something that I’m kind of feeling again, where you’re cheering on your teammates and really having the support of another team,” said Budinger, who played seven years in the NBA before reaching the Olympics in beach volleyball. “It’s really cool because it’s so different from normal beach volleyball.”

Though it has long been the most prestigious beach volleyball tour in the United States, the AVP has struggled to find its footing in the sand as it tries to spotlight the sport’s quadrennial summer games during the non-OIympic years.

The new format is an attempt to solve some of the issues that may be holding back the sport’s growth, including shorter matches that are more TV-friendly, and more predictable matchups to capitalize on the name recognition of the biggest stars.

Most visibly, the AVP competition deviates from traditional beach volleyball, in which pairs traveled and competed for themselves, by pairing a men’s pair with a women’s pair and assigning them a city in the hopes of fostering support from their hometown. Teams are not playing for tournament titles, but to move up the season standings and reach the end-of-season championship in Los Angeles on November 9-10.

“It’s a total shock compared to what’s happened in recent decades,” said Brandie Wilkerson, a Canadian who won the silver medal at the Paris Olympics with Melissa Humana-Paredes; the pair now play for the AVP’s Palm Beach Passion, along with 2008 gold medalist Phil Dalhausser and Avery Drost.

“The team camaraderie is interesting,” Wilkerson said. “I never really had to think about any teammate other than Melissa. So that was fun and we’re going to work on it, get to know these players better. We can support each other.”

Other teams include the San Diego Smash, New York Nitro, Dallas Dream, Austin Aces, Miami Mayhem, LA Launch and Brooklyn Blaze. So far, the competition has moved from Los Angeles, where it played at the UCLA Tennis Center, to Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

“Playing in cities like other professional teams do and having big crowds in stadiums, what’s not to like about that?” said Olympic gold medalist Alix Klineman, who plays for Miami.

“It takes time. I don’t think people all became Laker fans overnight,” she said. “It was learning to love the organization and the players, and as they got better, more people became fans. Hopefully this format has the staying power that everyone hopes for, and then I think the fans will get on board.”

The league heads to the Honda Center, home of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, this weekend. While beach volleyball events are often held offshore on brought-in sand – including on the Champ de Mars under the Eiffel Tower during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris – existing stadiums offer conveniences not always possible on Manhattan Beach or Copacabana.

“It feels professional,” said April Ross, a three-time Olympic medalist who won gold with Klineman in Tokyo in 2021. “We have air-conditioned changing rooms and player lounges. I really enjoy those locations.”

Things are also different on the court, with sets increasing to 15 (instead of 21). The fast-paced play keeps fans interested, and it doesn’t hurt that the matches fit more reliably into a TV window. (A traditional beach volleyball match can last from 30 minutes to well over an hour, meaning a two-match broadcast falls outside a two-hour TV window, just when things are most exciting.)

“It’s definitely a big sprint,” said Ross. “It’s intense, I can say that. I enjoy watching it, and every point matters a lot. Strategically it is difficult: if you have a slow start, there is not much room to change your strategy and make a comeback.”

This year’s season was scheduled for the fall, to build on the Olympic bump; in 2025 this is expected to return to summer. There are three women’s teams from Paris: Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, and Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss, as well as the Canadians. The men’s side features American pairs from the recent Olympics: Budinger and Miles Evans, and Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, as well as former Olympians such as Dalhausser and Brazil’s Alison.

An AVP spokesperson declined to provide attendance figures other than to say they have increased each week through the first six events of the season. The players — including many from Southern California — say they hope the format will help beach volleyball grow as the sport’s birthplace prepares for the return of the Olympics in 2028.

“LA has their work cut out for them to surpass Paris,” Klineman said. “I’m excited about LA. I think our city has a lot to offer. But we also have to go a step further, do something like Paris.”