Get out your overly tight bikinis and your SPF 45 — Bruce Ratner
is bringing professional beach volleyball to Coney Island.
Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, an affiliate of Ratner’s New
Jersey Nets operation, has inked a deal with the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball
Tour (the people who brought us the hottest Olympic sport since Greco-Roman
wrestling) to build a temporary 4,000-seat stadium on the beach at Coney
Island.
The hot and sweaty, two-on-two team tournaments will take place Aug. 17-20.
It’s the AVP’s first beachhead in New York City.
More than 150 of top professionals in the “sport” will compete
— and the event will be televised live on NBC.
That last detail was even more important to Coney Islanders than the skimpy
bikinis.
“The TV coverage is going to help bring thousands of people to Coney
Island,” said Community Board 13 District Manager Chuck Reichenthal,
who predicted that the stadium plan would blitz through the review process
like a Kerri Walsh spike.
And Brooklyn’s volleyball-fan-in-chief, Borough President Markowitz,
was jumping for joy — not as high as Holly McPeak (but, then again,
where was she during the transit strike?).
“Beach volleyball may have had its origins on the West Coast, but
with an AVP tournament coming to Coney Island, the sport has hit the big
time — Brooklyn,” Markowitz said.
For those who don’t want to pay to see the Sports Illustrated swimsuit
issue come to life, there will be plenty of preliminary contests on the
beachfront flanking the stadium.
While many fans enjoy beach volleyball for less-than-sportsmanlike reasons,
it’s important to remember that American women won the gold and the
bronze medals at the 2004 Athens games..
