Next year’s Charlie Saikley Six Man Volleyball Tournament will be held in the middle of the week to reduce the number of unruly spectators that flock to the “drunk-fest-frat-party-free-for-all” on that weekend, the City Council decided at its meeting on Tuesday.
After reviewing safety concerns and hearing from a full chamber of volleyball players and longtime Manhattan Beach residents, for two hours before midnight, the council decided that the mid-week tournament was a compromise that many could agree on.
This year’s event drew about 60,000 people and was responsible for 39 arrests. The previous weekend, police made 7 arrests citywide. Homes on The Strand were rented out for upwards of $10,000 for the weekend, said Chief Eve Irvine of the Manhattan Beach Police Department.
A juvenile girl who was intoxicated was the first to be arrested, Irvine said. En route to the police station, she kicked out the window of the police car and had to subsequently go to the hospital.
Later that evening, a fight broke out at a local hotel between tournament attendees and a hotel patron, which resulted in the patron’s hospitalization and surgery, Irvine said.
On Saturday, 57 police personnel and 54 private security personnel were deployed for the event, according to a city staff report. About 50 or 60 more arrests could have been made, Irvine said, but the police chose to deal with some instances of intoxicated individuals by either flagging a cab or having an individual’s friends come and get them.
Some local businesses, including Starbucks, closed shop that day, after partygoers used its bathrooms and clogged its toilets.
Lou Giovannetti, owner of SideDoor bar, said his business benefited from the weekend. “I also have a lot of challenges from the weekend, but I meet those challenges with preparation,” he said.
About 1,064 parking citations were issued over the weekend, where as 795 were issued the previous weekend.
A mid-week tournament, tentatively scheduled by the council for a Tuesday and Wednesday, would likely reduce security costs for hosting the event, said Councilmember Wayne Powell. As a result, this could reduce entry fees, which increased this year from $600 to $1,100 for unsponsored teams and $1,000 to $2,500 for sponsored teams.
While council members and police agreed that volleyball players were not the problem, the players still showed up to advocate for continuing the event. “My six-man team, we are lawyers, we are financial analysts, we are business people, we are business professionals. There’s one weekend that we work for, one weekend that we all talk about, all year,” said Lucas Doub, a Hermosa Beach resident. “We have a party afterwards, we follow the laws…kept the music inside, did it the right way.”
Other players offered solutions. Chris Brown, president of the California Beach Volleyball Association, suggested a committee of police, local residents, players and council members be created to avoid the pitfalls that the event endured this year. He also suggested seeking approval from the Coastal Commission to charge admission to the event, which he believed would reduce spectators.
Council agreed to create a committee, the members of which will be decided at a later date. “Maybe we wouldn’t have costumes one year,” said Councilmember Amy Howorth, which she said contributes to a party atmosphere. “Weird ideas like that could bubble up through a committee.”
Event organizers, including Scott Hubbell who handles the sponsorships and Jay Saikley, were proponents of a mid-week event. “It’s ugly up in the city,” Hubbell said, adding, “It’s about playing volleyball. I like to party, but at the same time I don’t want to do it at someone else’s expense.”
