Park Board-led league blocked after outrage from Vancouver beach volleyball players
The Vancouver Park Board has paused its plans to launch its own sports league just a few weeks before the massively busy beach volleyball season begins in the city.
The decision comes after hundreds of Spanish Banks volleyball players dug deep to save their beloved Monday night court times.
The fight began after Volleyball BC was notified that it would be losing many of the regular courts at Spanish Banks on Monday nights this spring and summer to allow the courts to be used by the new league led by the Vancouver Park Board. This left the organization to issue an appeal on its website and take to social media over the concern the impact would have on clinics and games.
Monday was chosen for the launch of the pilot as the Park Board found it to be the least busy night, and Volleyball BC would still have been allowed to maintain several permits for its use that night.
“The decision at the time to reduce Volleyball BC’s permit from 24 hours per week by three hours to 21 hours per week was not driven by a need to reduce league play for patrons, instead, the new league was intended to be accessible to more people through lower costs and a more equitable participation model,” a spokesperson told Daily Hive.
The decision to pause that plan has been celebrated by Volleyball BC.
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“We are very grateful that the Vancouver Park Board decided to restore our Monday night beach volleyball permit for 2024,” Volleyball BC told Daily Hive.
That means some 450 people will be able to play on Monday from April to August this year.
But it’s not completely killed, and there are still plans for a new league to begin in 2025.
“We have also been invited by the Vancouver Park Board to work together on a plan for beach volleyball going forward and we are excited to collaborate on shared goals in this important public space,” the organization added.
Spanish Banks Beach and the downtown Vancouver skyline. (Josef Hanus/Shutterstock)
A spokesperson from the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation told Daily Hive that the idea to bring in a Park Board-led Sports League was going to pilot with beach volleyball but would eventually expand to other sports, which would put management of several leagues into the hands of the board and not through facility users, like Volleyball BC.
The purpose is to address “ongoing concerns around commercialization and unauthorized use of public assets, in this case, the volleyball courts at Spanish Banks.”
As well as generate revenue, which they argued would be higher than that of rentals, and meet accessibility objectives.
“All revenue generated through the Sports Leagues would be redistributed directly back into services and infrastructure for the benefit of all those who live, work and play in Vancouver. As our Park Board facilities age and the population of Vancouver steadily increases, additional revenue is needed to improve the level of services offered,” a spokesperson added.
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With files from Nikitha Martins
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