Last week, only eight days before the start of the Huntington Beach Open, the first AVP tournament of the year, many of the tour's top athletes did not appear on BVB Info's list of registered players. The first sign of trouble emerged when Kerri Walsh Jennings sued the AVP for monies owed, and in an interview with the five-time Olympian also brought up that she was still negotiating her player contract with the AVP, saying, 'As of now, the contract is un-signable.' Four years later, player contracts are on every beach volleyball player's and fan's mind again, as the AVP has required players to sign a four-year exclusivity contract in order to compete on the 2017 tour. In 2013, the United States' two major professional beach volleyball tours, the Association of Volleyball Professionals and the National Volleyball League, butted heads over player contracts that prevented athletes from playing in both organizations' events.
