Continuing to introduce innovations and dynamic expression into the framework of professional beach volleyball, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB), international governing body for the Olympic sport of beach volleyball, returns to the United States to present the double-gender Swatch FIVB Beach Volleyball Major Series event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to be held February 7-12.

 

With a $600,000 total purse, the 32-team tournament (per gender) will launch the 22-event 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

The Fort Lauderdale event is the only event scheduled for the USA in 2017 following two events in 2016 and three in 2015 after a 10-year absence.

Through the 2016 events, the United States has hosted a total of 32 FIVB World Tour events (16 men, 16 women).

 

Fort Lauderdale is one of 12 U.S. cities that has hosted an FIVB international event and this will be the second FIVB tournament in the Florida resort city.  In 2015, the inaugural Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals was held with Brazilian teams winning both gold medals.  For the men, 2016 Olympic gold medalists Alison Cerutti/Bruno Oscar Schmidt won the gold medal and for the women, Brazil’s Larissa Franca/Talita Antunes captured the gold medal.

 

Fort Lauderdale is a U.S. city in the state of Florida in the Southeastern part of the country. It is located on the Atlantic coast, 23 miles (37 km) north of Miami. As of the 2010 census the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010 census.

 

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 F (24.2 C), and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.