OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A third U.S. women's professional volleyball league will launch soon, this one with a first-of-its-kind structure that brings together some of the world's top players to compete against each other and help develop the next generation of stars.
League One Volleyball, branded as LOVB, follows the Pro Volleyball Federation, which finished its inaugural season in May. Athletes Unlimited, a league that runs five weeks at one site, begins its fourth season Sept. 30.
The leagues are capitalizing on the wave of popularity the sport is riding in the United States and providing pro opportunities for elite American players who otherwise would have to go overseas to continue their careers.
For California-based LOVB, the pro league is only part of its business plan. LOVB, which said it has raised nearly $60 million in funding since its founding five years ago, has purchased or started 54 junior clubs with 61 locations across the country along with a training center near Appleton, Wisconsin.
More than 14,000 athletes, 3,000 coaches and 1,300 teams are affiliated with LOVB. The six LOVB pro teams are in Atlanta, Austin, Texas, Houston, Omaha, the Salt Lake City area and Madison, Wisconsin.
Each team's training headquarters will be at one of the LOVB junior clubs in its market.
That means Olympians such as Jordan Larson and Justine Wong-Orantes and their Omaha teammates will train at Premier Nebraska Volleyball's facility and interact with the young players who surely see them as role models.
“That’s insane, having them in the gym and helping us,” said Premier player Remi Christiansen, 14. “We’re training with the best of the best, and getting feedback from them is crazy.”
Larson's first club was Premier. She went on to star in college at Nebraska, played overseas and won a gold medal, two silvers and a bronze in the Olympics. Now 37, she said she could only imagine how her younger self would have felt seeing some of the top players in the world with her in the gym.
“This feels authentic, this feels real," Larson said of the LOVB structure. “This gives our young athletes a vision of what could come next. Women’s sports, the momentum behind it right now is huge, and I’m really excited to see where this can go.”
In all, nine of the 12 players and the alternate on the U.S. Olympic team in Paris have signed to play in LOVB. An Olympian from France and another from Japan also are signed.
“It's just another reminder what we’re building is very much akin to the NBA of volleyball,” LOVB CEO Katlyn Gao said. “It’s such an incredibly popular sport and one that’s very uniquely female-led, given the participation. Volleyball is to girls as football is to boys in this country. The quality of the product and the quality of the competition we set out to create is very much coming true.”
U.S. Olympian Haleigh Washington, who will play for Salt Lake, said she anticipates a “decent amount” of interaction between the pros and the juniors.
“There'll be a lot of outreach, maybe just individually,” she said. “I would like to coach camps, coach clinics and get my foot in the door as far as coaching goes. So it's an immediate pipeline. And there could be cool events we do. Last year we did a League One clinic with a club in California, and I would expect there'll be more of that as the league continues to grow.”
Lena Chan, club director of the LOVB-built Madtown Volleyball in Madison, said she first learned about the organization's club-to-pro strategy during the pandemic. She said the concept was exciting.
“And then there’s this cynical side of you that’s like, ‘This has been tried before in the U.S. and it didn’t work. So why is League One different,' ” Chan said. “In the last five years, the amount of impact that League One has had on the growth of volleyball is amazing and it’s tangible, too. You can actually see it changing how people view volleyball.”
Among the LOVB investors are Olympic skiing gold medalist Lindsey Vonn, four-time NBA All-Star Jayson Tatum, Fenway Sports Group partner Linda Henry, comedian Amy Schumer and two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker.
LOVB provides its clubs training resources and mentorship opportunities for coaches, clinics and specialized training for players and assistance in the college recruiting process. Club players and their families give the pro teams natural fanbases, and revenue from the clubs can help strengthen the league's financial position as it gets off the ground.
LOVB pros will earn a minimum salary of $60,000 for the 14-week inaugural season. Bonuses for individual and team performances can be earned. Transportation and housing costs are covered during the season.
Players also receive year-round health and dental insurance, mental health services and paid parental leave, among other benefits. Players cannot be cut or traded.
ESPN signed an agreement to air 10 matches on its linear networks and 18 matches will be shown on ESPN's streaming platform. Players will receive a share of media revenue.
The PVF showed there is a market for women's pro volleyball. The seven teams combined for an average attendance of 4,608, and a total of 3.9 million viewers streamed matches on YouTube.
LOVB and PVF will go head-to-head with their schedules in 2025. Two markets, Atlanta and Omaha, will have teams in each league.
Gao said there's room for two leagues to operate simultaneously.
“There’s a lot of baseball in different leagues. There's a lot of basketball," she said. "I don't think (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver ever gets questioned, ‘What do you think about you butting up against the three-on-threes and all the other start-up leagues?’ I think the reality is when it’s an extremely popular sport, the more people who watch it and the more people who consume it and participate in it, it’s a rising tide."
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AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee contributed to this report.