OCEAN CITY — Despite early success in a summer-long beach volleyball tournament series, resort officials this week had no inclination of allowing next weekend’s events to be expanded to include a wide swath of downtown beach during the Ocean City Air Show.
In April, resort officials approved the first phases of the Junior Atlantic Beach Series, a large beach volleyball tournament spread on the north end of Ocean City and sponsored by The Carousel. The original request was for the summer series to be spread over six weekends beginning May 14-15 and ending on Sept. 3-4, but after concerns were raised about the tournament played on seven courts spread out over one block of beach and the potential impact on other beachgoers in the area, the Mayor and Council in April approved only the first three weekends.
Town officials approved the event for May 14-15, June 4-5 and June 18-19, with the stipulation approval for the remainder of the weekend events in the tournament series would be dependent on the success of the early events peacefully coexisting with private property owners and renters on either side of the central Carousel location for the events.
With the first two events in the books, Junior Atlantic Beach Series promoter Rich Comley came back to the Mayor and Council on Monday seeking to expand the already-approved event for next weekend, June 18-19, to include courts on the beach between 4th and 6th streets from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. as a potential additional site. Comley explained the first two events had reached capacity at the north end venue and he was looking for permission to use the downtown beach courts to accommodate more entrants.
“It went great at the Carousel,” he said. “They liked it there even better than the Inlet. This would be a secondary location if the event gets bigger and we most likely won’t use it, but we don’t want to have to cap our event.”
Comley said the event draws hundreds of players along with their families, fans and other supporters. He said the tournament series might not need the downtown sites, but didn’t want to limit the event to just the Carousel courts if it meant cutting back on the number of entrants.
“This is a regional event and draws people from every state,” he said. “Restricting the event would make us close down registration a week earlier. Even if we cut it back, we still have to accommodate it in just one block. We don’t need the downtown location if we can get another block uptown.”
However, while supportive of the event, the council was less than keen on placing it on a vast section of downtown beach.
“You always have to play to your strength and our strength is the beach,” said Councilman Dennis Dare. “That weekend is so busy with the Air Show and the beach soccer and introducing this event in the downtown area would only compound that.”
Councilman Wayne Hartman questioned if the timing of the beach volleyball tournament could be coordinated so it did not overlap with the Air Show. Hartman said last year’s air show was probably the largest ever in terms of spectators.
“Beach volleyball is the kind of activity we need to increase and if there is any way to work out coordinating around the Air Show so we don’t have the traffic issue, I think that’s worth exploring,” he said. “I do agree we probably don’t need any more people downtown during the show. I think we all agreed that was the most people we’ve ever had on the beach in Ocean City.”
Council President Lloyd Martin agreed the tournament was a wholesome, family event the resort hopes to promote, but also voiced concern over the potential conflict.
“We love beach volleyball,” he said. “It’s a family event that brings the right people to town. I do think there would be a problem with the traffic conflict down there.”
Dare said it was likely too late for this year to allow the use of the downtown beaches on the same weekend as the air show, but said there could be opportunity to expand the north end venue in the future.
“Next year, we’re due for beach replenishment, so we could have a very wide beach up there,” he said. “Whatever the alignment of the courts, you have to be careful of where the dune is.”
Hartman said the promoters obviously ran a great tournament with few if any complaints after the first two events.
“When we granted the prior approval in April, my phone rang off the hook, but after the event, I got no calls, so you guys ran a great event,” he said. “Unfortunately, there appears to be no support for this tonight, but maybe next year we can work the dates out.”
Councilmember Mary Knight said consolidating the event at the north end site, particularly during the air show, could actually benefit the tournament.
“We may be doing you a favor,” she said. “If I was staying up north and had to drive down to 4th Street for a game, it would probably take an hour and I still wouldn’t have any place to park.”
