APNewsBreak: Beach volleyball hopes ESPN draws Olympic fans

Beach volleyball hopes ESPN draws Olympic fans

Beach volleyball has a new ally as it tries to grow from an Olympic phenomenon to an every-year attraction: ESPN.

Event organizers hope the exposure will help beach volleyball attract new fans and hold onto the ones who watch during the Summer Games only to drift away until the next Olympics.

"Like so many other people, I watched the Olympics in Rio; volleyball — the indoor and the beach — was a primetime staple many nights," said Burke Magnus, ESPN's executive vice president of programming and scheduling.

Magnus said beach volleyball is attractive to the network because it's popular among both men and women, domestically and globally, and still has a lot of room for growth.

A former agent who represented Shaquille O'Neal and Oscar De La Hoya, Armato served as the commissioner of the AVP domestic tour and is married to three-time beach volleyball Olympian Holly McPeak.

The three-time Olympic gold medalist felt so strongly about beach volleyball's growth potential that she refused to sign on to the biggest domestic tour because it would have limited her options.