Adelaide bags beach volleyball showcase

Image: Volleyball Australia

The South Australian Government together with Volleyball Australia announced that Adelaide will play home to yet another major sporting event in two years’ time.

‘Volleyball Australia’ stated that the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be staged in Australia for the first time in 2025, with Adelaide winning the rights to host the event.

Canberra (Australia)-based Volleyball Australia, formerly known as Australian Volleyball Federation, is the national governing body for volleyball in Australia. Founded in 1963, the Australian Volleyball Federation is responsible for maintaining national volleyball competitions, alongside the State level associations.

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships is the double-gender world championship for the sport of beach volleyball organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, the sport’s global governing body.

The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, commonly known by the acronym FIVB, is the international governing body for all forms of volleyball. Its headquarter is located in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its current President is Ary Graça of Brazil.

‘Volleyball Australia’ further stated that the World Championships will be held on the courts of The Drive, with around 1,000 cubic meters of sand brought in to turn the famed tennis venue into a beach volleyball colosseum.

The 6,500-capacity Memorial Drive Park, more generally referred to as the ‘Memorial Drive’, is a tennis venue located adjacent to the 53,500-capacity Adelaide Oval in the parklands surrounding the center of Adelaide, South Australia. The Memorial Drive took its name from the winding avenue, known as the War Memorial Drive, which separates the venue from the River Torrens.

In addition, Adelaide is now also set to host a round of the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour for the next three Summers.

The above announcement delivers yet another major international sporting event to the Australian calendar along the ‘Green and Gold Runway’ to the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games and the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.

The 2026 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Victoria 2026, is a multisport event for members of the Commonwealth scheduled to take place across four regional sites in the Australian State of Victoria: Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, and Gippsland.

The 2032 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXV Olympiad and also known as Brisbane 2032, is an upcoming international multisport event scheduled to take place from July 23^rd to August 8^th, 2032 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said he is looking forward to hosting the best beach volleyballers in the world as another chapter is written in the storied history of the Memorial Drive – “This is the latest in a long list of major national and international events that are fast-recognizing South Australia for the proud sporting State it is. The World Championship will expose South Australia to the world, an opportunity to show millions exactly what our beautiful State has to offer.”

Volleyball Australia President Craig Carracher said the World Championships would be the most prestigious beach volleyball event held in Australia since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Added Malinauskas, “When it comes to beach volleyball, the biggest events stand out – the World Championships, the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games – and Australia will play host to all three in the next decade. Adelaide has been one of the homes of beach volleyball in Australia for almost three decades with some of our top athletes training here at the South Australian Sports Institute (SASI)-based national training center, so it’s only fitting that the World Championships are coming to South Australia. History shows that having the opportunity to compete at a home World Championships provides a real home court advantage and I know our leading players will be primed to take on the world in front of a home crowd.”

Volleyball Australia welcomed the support of longtime partners Hancock Prospecting and Scape who add the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships to the extensive list of events and programs they have been a part of.

Perth (Australia)-based Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited is a leading Australian-owned mining and agricultural business run by Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart and head honcho Garry Korte.

Sydney (Australia)-based Scape is an award winning student living specialist with a focus on developing thriving learning communities. It is a fully integrated developer, owner and operator of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA).

Hancock Prospecting has supported Volleyball Australia for a decade, with the Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart giving her time in an honorary capacity as Patron of Volleyball Australia since 2013.

The partnership has witnessed the women’s beach program excel all the way to the Olympic podium while also funding the elite women’s indoor volleyball program.

Contemporary student accommodation and global living specialist Scape Australia is a generous, longtime supporter of Australian Volleyball and has been instrumental in bringing international volleyball events to Australia before, such as the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League and the Beach Pro Tour.

The FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior women’s national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, the sport’s global governing body.

The 2022 Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour was the first edition of the global elite professional beach volleyball circuit organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) for the 2022 beach volleyball season.

Commented Carracher, “Volleyball Australia welcomes the support of the South Australian Government and the South Australian Tourism Commission to host the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships alongside our generous and longtime commercial partners Scape and Hancock Prospecting.”

The FIVB World Championships will add to the impressive and successful major sporting events being staged in Adelaide including LIV Golf (professional golf tour), Australian Football League (AFL’s) Gather Round (all games in one home-and-away round are played in a single City and its surrounds), Tour Down Under (cycling race), Adelaide 500 (annual motor racing event), and this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup™.

Maintained Leon Bignell, Chair, Major Events Attraction Committee, “These events don’t just come to us, we have to get out there and fight hard to secure them. It was great to meet with the senior executives of world volleyball in Switzerland last year to promote South Australia’s credentials as a first-class host of major events and it has been terrific to work with Volleyball Australia for the past six months to bring these events to Adelaide during the next three years.”

Last year’s World Championships in Rome attracted 16 million global fans on Volleyball World’s digital platforms. This year, Volleyball World claimed top spot as the best-performing International Federation on social media.

The 2023 World Championships will be held in Mexico later this year, while beach volleyball at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be played under the world-famous Eiffel Tower.

The partnership between Volleyball SA and the State Government also guarantees Adelaide hosting rights for a further seven national and Asian volleyball competitions between 2024 and 2026.

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the biggest event ever organized in France. The Olympic Games will take place from July 26^th to August 11^th, 2024. The spectacle taking place during those weeks will go down in history and Paris will be the center of the world – the world of sport and so much more.

Adelaide, South Australia-based Volleyball South Australia is the administrative body for volleyball in South Australia. They manage the State League as well as various lower tier leagues such as the Murray Park Volleyball League.

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