ESPN To Broadcast 2017 Beach Volleyball “President’s Cup”

In a recent move, ESPN has obtained the broadcasting rights to the 2017 WSOBV President’s Cup that will take place in Long Beach, California from July 13-16. This was announced as a collaborative effort between the creators of The World Series of Beach Volleyball, Management Plus Enterprises (MPE), and ESPN.

The WSOBV is now in its fifth year and it has grown to be the largest ever all-encompassing beach event in the U.S. It features thousands of players with amateur, junior, and professional matches being played. The new “President’s Cup” will feature a new format, attempting to give spectators the chance to see the best players from around the world.

The President’s Cup is an internationally recognized and FIVB sanctioned competition that features the top eight beach teams from the USA competing against the top eight international teams from across the world. Expected to compete in the tournament are the current reigning Olympic gold medalists Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst from Germany, along with three-time gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings – who is currently working on a new partner.

“This event is the biggest and best even the USA has ever seen and has more heart and soul than any event I’ve played in outside of the Olympic Games. I look forward to it every year and love bringing home gold for the USA,” said Kerri Walsh Jennings.

CEO of Management Plus Enterprises Leonard Armato knows that volleyball is a growing sport, “Volleyball is the number one participation sport in the United States among girls ages 12-21 and the fastest growing NCAA sport in history. With over 17 million participants in the US and approximately 500 million worldwide, volleyball’s popularity and reach is increasing at staggering rates and it has the strong potential to draw a large-scale viewing audience. Working with ESPN to showcase a Triple Crown event on their networks and raise the profile of the sport and its athletes will be just the first step in harnessing beach volleyball’s high growth potential, especially as a women’s sport.”

ESPN’s executive vice president of programming and scheduling, Burke Magnus, is proud of the steps that ESPN is taking to display a competitive sport in that of beach volleyball, “ESPN takes pride in cultivating a robust, diverse programming portfolio across all of our platforms, and we’re pleased to enhance that with The World Series of Beach Volleyball President’s Cup. The athletes involved make this a first-class event and the high level of competition will be compelling content for our viewers.”

All of the matches will be aired on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2, with live streaming on ESPN3 via WatchESPN and the ESPN app. This broadcasting will mark the first collaboration between ESPN and MPE. MPE is taking a new initiative to expand the World Series of Beach Volleyball platform by working closely with ESPN to develop at least three major tent pole beach events that are set to take place during the summer of 2018.

ESPN schedule (subject to change):

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