Long Beach drops volleyball takeover plan

The message Tuesday night was loud and clear: Don't mess with beach volleyball.

Wednesday, the City of Long Beach listened.

After a night of sometimes-heated debate over a proposal that the city take over management of popular summer tournaments, city officials agreed to let the two long-standing leagues manage themselves. City officials had considered taking over the leagues after growing resident and public safety concerns.

The leagues will make some changes to address the concerns, including staying in nonresidential beach areas and removing volleyball net poles so they don't hamper emergency response vehicles on beaches.

"I think it's going to be better in the long run because it's fostering cooperation between the two leagues and the city," said Richard Heiles, who owns one of the leagues, Hampton Bays-based East End Volleyball. "They [city officials] figured we would run the best program and that was their intent, to get the best for the volleyball players of Long Beach."

The two summer leagues, East End Volleyball and Long Beach-based Evolutions Volleyball, have been Long Beach fixtures since the mid-1980s, hosting weekday evening tournaments on the city's beaches. Together they have grown to more than 1,000 members, Heiles said.

"The city would like to thank the league owners for their responsiveness," Council president Fran Adelson said in a statement after the deal was brokered Wednesday.

She added that there will be a "standardization of fees and procedures to benefit all volleyball players," and that tournaments will be added on Monday nights at a discounted rate.

"The leagues have grown and prospered, and with that has come some growing pains for the city," Long Beach Parks and Recreation Commissioner Bob Piazza said at the Tuesday meeting.

The meeting came after concerns about a city takeover dominated topics on local blogs for a week. About 150 players gathered at the Long Beach Ice Arena on Tuesday to hear a proposal for restructuring the leagues -- and made it clear they don't want a city takeover.

"Nobody wants the city to run these leagues," said Gary Gerns, a volleyball player who moved to Long Beach for the league teams and started the Facebook group Long Beach Volleyball Players with Voices and Votes, where members posted their thoughts on the potential takeover.

Long Beach residents and summer lifeguards Chris Sullivan and Vincent Leis developed the proposal for city league management that involved fewer games per day, cheaper member fees and a more-regulated approach to tournaments.

Sullivan said Wednesday that they wanted "to better the quality of volleyball. It didn't matter to me if the city or the private businesses take it over."

Agreement between the City of Long Beach and Hampton Bays-based East End Volleyball and Long Beach-based Evolutions Volleyball about summer beach league play:

Teams will play in non-residential areas of the beach at Long Beach

Players will remove volleyball net poles after play to keep beach access open to emergency vehicles

The city will keep a public restroom open and available for player use during tournaments

Fees will be standardized