Spiking the Pros : Laguna Beach Officials Bar Professional Volleyball Tournaments Tied to Liquor Firms

LAGUNA BEACH — City officials remember with vivid clarity the giant tequila-bottle balloon that used to bob over Main Beach during the annual men’s and women’s professional volleyball tournaments.

It symbolized everything they didn’t like about the pro tournaments that had grown out of the village’s traditional amateur competitions dating back to the mid-1950s. Once the competition turned professional in 1979 and liquor companies began sponsoring the event, it seemed to city officials as if the giant bottle balloon was accompanied by rowdy crowds and blatant violations of city laws prohibiting drinking liquor on the beach.

So after suffering a collective hangover accompanying the city’s largest sporting event, the City Council decided in the mid-1980s to just say no to events sponsored by alcoholic beverage companies.

And in keeping with that policy, they are saying no to professional volleyball this year, choosing instead to return to an amateur tournament.

The City Council recently voted to spike plans to hold the professional tournament because the pros demanded that their new sponsors, Coors Lite and Miller Lite beers, be allowed to serve their products at the weekend tournament in June.

Rather than give in to pressure to allow beer company sponsors or to reverse the policy barring consumption of alcohol on the beach, city officials decided to forgo the syndicated TV exposure that comes with the pro athletes and the extra throngs that descend on Laguna Beach.

In fact, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said, the amateur event in June will probably draw a large crowd anyway.

“I don’t think we need any more exposure or prestige,” Frank said. “It always used to be an amateur tournament. We won’t have the big-name players, but we did not have the big-name players last year, and there were plenty of people.”

An official for the city’s parks and recreation division estimated that 100,000 people crowded into Laguna Beach for last year’s weekend tournament.

Part of the reason that the men’s pro tournament in Laguna Beach has not drawn the big names in recent years is that top teams are sponsored by Miller Lite. When the city began its anti-liquor sponsorship policy, said Janey Marks, general manager of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals, the group could no longer recognize the Laguna Beach tournament as an official AVP event.

Lower-ranked men’s team players with independent sponsors, however, were allowed to continue playing, Marks added.

This year, the city has a verbal agreement with the California Beach Volleyball Assn. to hold a Men’s Triple-A Open, similar to the kind of amateur tournament run by the city in the 1970s.

The tournament will cost the city about $1,000, primarily for police security--a cost that used to be picked up by the team sponsors.

In a city known for its proactive posture on social issues--it was one of the first cities in the state to approve an anti-smoking ordinance and an anti-discrimination law protecting the rights of gays--the decision to stand by its anti-liquor policy is typical.

“I think the people in the city will support whatever volleyball tournament comes here,” Councilwoman Lida Lenney said, “and in fact, will take pride that we did not knuckle under to the interest of the alcohol industry.”

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Cheryl Ryan agreed. She said local businesses support the council’s policy, even if it means fewer tourist dollars.

“Laguna Beach is kind of noted for standing behind what it feels,” Ryan said. “We are right there with” the council members.

Officials admitted that they have been lucky that the traffic problems have given them bigger headaches.

Frank, the city manager, said some spectators have arrived on the beach the night before the tournament and buried beer in the sand. He also remembered the time that a liquor sponsor distributed product samples during the event.

During the final round of the 1986 tournament, players and officials got involved in an altercation with a rowdy fan.

But even if Laguna Beach does not miss the pro teams, the city will be missed on the pro circuit, said Roxana Vargas, executive director of the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn.

“We would love to go back to Laguna if we can work things out,” she said. “Obviously, it’s one of those sites that’s very Southern California, and it personifies what we are all about.”