New Long Beach Six Man promises v-ball & party
- The 2009 Charlie Saikley Six-Man Volleyball Tournament in Manhattan Beach. Photo by John Post
by Andrea Ruse
A website recently popped up promising a Six Man volleyball tournament next month with a beer garden, a bikini contest and a live concert on the beach.
Attendees are encouraged to bring costumes, loud music and a party attitude. The number of teams and players in the tournament will be unlimited, and entry costs for each team will be capped at $500, regardless of the level of its players.
“Don’t let the tradition die,” reads a tagline posted on each of the site’s pages.
In May, the Manhattan Beach City Council voted to restrict alcohol, limit the number of players and take other steps to remove the party from the city’s treasured Charlie Saikley Six-Man Volleyball Tournament.
A couple of longtime players, however, decided to keep the party and take the volleyball with it to Long Beach.
Beach volleyball Olympian and former World Champion Sinjin Smith — owner of Sinjin Volleyball — and pro volleyball player Albert Hannemann are putting on the first-ever Six Man Reunion tournament at Marina Green Park in downtown Long Beach. The event’s website claims it will be “reminiscent” of Manhattan’s tournament, which drew a crowd of 60,000 people last year, according to the city.
“I don’t know how the City of Long Beach feels about it, but that’s cool for them if they want to have that type of event,” Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward said. “Our focus in Manhattan Beach will be on volleyball, itself.”
Rumors that the Six Man Reunion would ultimately supplement or altogether replace the Manhattan’s Six-Man event were dismissed by both city officials and Smith.
“Some people got the idea that we want to compete with the Manhattan Beach Six-Man,” Smith said. “That is not the case. It’s all about a fun event and creating opportunities for people who won’t be able to play in the Manhattan tournament.”
The Reunion tournament is scheduled to take place August 6, 7 and 8, the weekend after the Manhattan Beach Six-Man.
“We originally had it scheduled for the same weekend, but we changed it out of respect for the Manhattan Beach Six-Man and the Saikley family,” said Bill Sigler, a Hermosa Beach resident who is promoting the Reunion tournament.
Pre- and post-tournament party schedules are listed on the tournament’s site, which slates the event as a “New Beach, Same Game, Better Party.”
City of Manhattan Beach recreation services manager Mark Leyman said that there is no affiliation between the two events.
“The [Reunion] tournament doesn’t mean anything as far as the city of Manhattan Beach is concerned,” he said. “The only issue the Saikley family or the city has is the use of the name ‘Six-Man.’”
According to Ward and Leyman, the city was not asked for permission to use the name.
“It’s basically a group of guys down there who want to have a tournament and are trying to capitalize on the name,” Leyman said.
Smith said in an interview Tuesday that, while it is not uncommon for tournaments to have the term “six man” in the name, he’d be happy to discuss renaming the Six Man Reunion.
“I’ve spoken with some people in Manhattan Beach who don’t want any confusion,” he said. “They’ve cherished the event for so many years and would prefer to see it called something else.”
The two-day Six-Man was first held in Manhattan Beach in 1957 as part of the International Surf Festival. In 1964, Manhattan Beach recreation supervisor Charlie Saikley took over its organization and remained the tournament director until his death in 2005 when the event was renamed in his honor.
Fewer than 1,000 people attended the first year’s tournament. Over the past decade, however, its growth has reached viral proportions along with increasing complaints by residents of rowdy behavior by attendees. Last year, 60,000 attendees crowded the beach during the event’s Saturday portion, spilling over into downtown and residential areas.
In May, the City Council scrambled for ways to turn the Six-Man back into an athletic-minded event and implemented several restrictions, including a zero-tolerance alcohol policy, increased fencing and the banning of boom boxes, multiple tents and large water coolers. The city also considered banning the wild costumes that have become a part of the event in recent years, but voted to continue allowing them.
“The decisions made by the City Council were based on advice from the police chief,” Leyman said. “I think they were good decisions based on the number of people attending the event and other factors to keep the event focused on volleyball.”
To offset the extra $93,306 needed to cover enhanced enforcement, team entry fees were increased from $600 to $1,100 for regular open teams, $1,000 to $2,500 for sponsored teams and $400 to $500 for masters teams. Fees secure 12 team spots with $100 extra per additional player.
“Lots of teams either didn’t sign up because they didn’t want to pay or were afraid the restrictions would be too much,” Sigler said. “It might not be worth it to guys, who just like to go out and have fun, to each drop two hundred to three hundred dollars.”
Sigler said that crowd problems could be exacerbated since many players who can’t afford to play in the tournament may increase the number of rowdy fans.
“They would still end up going down there,” Sigler said. “But now they’re not playing.”
Sigler said that the Long Beach tournament should help limit the rowdiness of the Manhattan Six-Man.
“I’m all in favor of it,” said Manhattan Beach Mayor Pro Tem Richard Montgomery. “If they want to take some people down there all day and leave the die-hards up here, maybe our tournament will scale down and be more about the players than the fans, take it back to how Charlie Saikley wanted it and give the residents some relief.”
Sigler called the Six-Man — which he has played in since 1994 — “the most amazing tournament on the planet.”
“The Long Beach Six-Man is an alternative for those who don’t want to spend the extra money or who want to do something different,” he said. “It’s not trying to replace the Manhattan Beach Six-Man by any means. It just gives people another option.”
Nonetheless, Leyman would like to see the name changed.
“There is only one Six-Man and it is what Charlie Saikley started in Manhattan Beach 45 years ago,” he said. ER