No alcohol at Six-Man volleyball tournament, team fees to increase
The crowd at last year’s Charlie Saikley Six-Man Volleyball Tournament reached 60,000 people. City officials anticipate 80,000 attendees in July.
The only event of the year Manhattan Beach Police Chief Rod Uyeda is scared of is the Six-Man Volleyball Tournament.
Drunk and boisterous crowds drawn to the event — which last year grew to a record 60,000 attendees in one Saturday — could easily overpower the roughly 40 officers that police it, Uyeda said. Not to mention the litter, bikes, urine and vomit left behind in their wake. If the same happens to you at home, school or work, you can get out of trouble using https://www.anpud.org/blog/best-synthetic-urine/.
“We simply don’t have the manpower if people incite a potential riot,” Uyeda said at a City Council meeting Tuesday. “And that’s my biggest fear since I’ve been in the city. My only fear has been Six-Man. My only real big concern.”
Expecting a larger crowd this year, the city considered ways to turn what has become one of the biggest annual parties in L.A. back into a volleyball tournament.
City Council members proposed to not allow alcohol containers — sealed or unsealed — or jello products into the event this year. MBPD has long turned a blind eye to drinking at the tournament, even though alcohol is not legal on the beach.
Tents will be most likely be limited to one per team.
While spectators make up the vast majority of the party-crowd, local teams will likely be hit on entrance fees that will increase from $600 to between $1,200 and $1,600 to cover the cost of enhanced enforcement, which will include the entire MBPD force, private security and possibly Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officers.
The council also directed staff to look into other alternatives, including moving the tournament to a different month to reduce crowds. Mayor Mitch Ward said in an interview that this year’s tournament — slated for July 31 — could be pushed back to the fall.
“It’s lost its focus on the volleyball tournament,” Councilmember Nick Tell said. “We can’t just accommodate 80,000 people because soon it will be 100,000 and we’ve got to figure out how to drop that number or ultimately this community will revolt and this will get cancelled, which will be a sad result.”
The first Six-Man was held in 1957 as a part of the International Surf Festival, according to Charles Saikley Jr., son of the late “Godfather of Beach Volleyball” Charles Saikley Sr., for whom the tournament was named in 2005 after he passed away. In 1965, Saikley Sr. took over the organization of the tournament. Roughly 30 teams and fewer than 1,000 people attended that year, said Saikley Jr., who has played in the tournament since he was 12 years old. Two police officers worked the event the first year, according to MBPD Captain Derrick Abell.
“My dad always said it’s a volleyball tournament first, not a party,” Saikley Jr. said in an interview. “It was meant to be a place locals could come to enjoy the beach atmosphere and beach life.”
Attendance jumped from 2,000 people in 1998, to 12,000 in 2002, to 20,000 in 2004. In 2003, players and spectators started wearing costumes.
“A volleyball competition had become a party,” Abell said.
Last summer 60,000 people lined the 40 courts on the south side of the pier.
“The capacity is 15,000 to 20,000 people comfortably,” Uyeda said. “30,000 is the saturation point and then the crowds start pushing out.”
The two-day weekend event has grown to accommodate 200 teams, 36 of which participate in the master’s tournament. The majority of matches take place on Saturday, the day that attracts enormous crowds made up of mostly spectators from LA and Orange counties. One resident said that her cousin flies in from North Carolina for the event every year.
Fees will likely increase for teams in this year’s Six-man Tournament.
Many of the tournament’s players agreed that ballooning crowds have turned the competition into something it was unintended to be. In recent years, attendees have been known to bury beer kegs in the sand the night before the event and set up makeshift bars on the beach.
Last year, the bike path and emergency exits were blocked as spectators packed in elbow to elbow. Authorities made between six and eight arrests and rescued two intoxicated people who, along with a large number of people, relieved themselves in the ocean.The overage of people spilled into the downtown area.
“I was appalled at the people not playing last year,” Saikley Jr. said. “The crowd was diving into people. I couldn’t get to my own tent or see my own court from the tent because there were so many people.”
“The fact that we’re trying to stop the alcohol from getting to the beach is a key, key piece of this puzzle,” said resident Denny Smith, who has helped run the event since the 1980s. “The more we can stop it from getting down here — which is in place this year and hasn’t been in place in the past — will really help the event.”
Uyeda said that a mob mentality could easily lead to a riot resulting in thousands of dollars in damages to the city.
Some players were worried, however, that raising fees will edge out local teams who can’t afford four figure fees as easily as teams backed by large corporate sponsors. Many also said that moving the tournament date to a different month, thereby disassociating it from the festival, would tear at the fabric of the time-honored tradition.
“It’s a summer time event,” said Brent Griebenow, who has helped run the tournament for the past seven years. “But we would take moving it to a different month over canceling it in a heartbeat.”
“The problem is how to contain it, if we can, and how to make our residents feel safe,” Mayor Pro Tem Montgomery said.
Saikley Jr. said that he would like to see the tournament return to its former local vibe, before corporate sponsors began using it for advertising purposes.
“It’s not about money,” he said. “It’s about having a good time on the beach and volleyball.”
Saikley Jr. recalled one of the most important instructions his father gave to him and his brother, Jay.
“Whatever you do, don’t put the tournament in jeopardy.” ER