Beach Volleyball’s biggest global tournament of the year is coming to Adelaide, after the Malinauskas Labor Government won the rights to stage yet another significant sporting event.
The FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships is coming to Australia for the first time in November 2025 – and Adelaide will host the event.
The World Championships will be held on the courts of The Drive, with around 1000 cubic metres of sand brought in to turn the famed North Adelaide tennis venue into a beach volleyball colosseum.
About a thousand athletes, staff, officials, media and volunteers will converge on Adelaide for the event, which is likely to feature 192 players.
Volleyball Australia expects the event to attract more than 11 thousand spectators from interstate and more than six thousand from overseas.
Last year’s World Championships were held in Rome and attracted 16 million global fans on Volleyball World’s digital platforms. This year, Volleyball World claimed the top spot as the best performing International Federation on social media.
Held every two years, the Championships are one of the highest honours in International Beach Volleyball, surpassed only by the Olympics.
The 2023 World Championships are being held in Mexico, while at the 2024 Paris Olympics beach volleyball will be played under the world-famous Eiffel Tower.
The partnership between Volleyball SA and the State Government will also guarantee Adelaide hosting rights for a further seven national and Asian volleyball competitions between 2024 and 2026.
The FIVB World Championships will add to the impressive and successful major sporting events being staged in Adelaide including LIV Golf, AFL’s Gather Round, Tour Down Under, Adelaide 500, Adelaide Equestrian Festival, this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup and last night’s State of Origin.
Quotes
Attributable to Peter Malinauskas
This is the latest in a long list of major national and international events that are fast-recognising South Australia for the proud sporting State it is.
The World Championship will expose South Australia to the world, an opportunity to show millions exactly what our beautiful state has to offer.
Attributable to Leon Bignell
These events don’t just come to us, we have to get out there and fight hard to secure them.
It was great to meet with senior executives of world volleyball in Switzerland last year to promote South Australia’s credentials as a first-class host of major events and it has been terrific to work with Volleyball Australia for the past six months to bring these events to Adelaide during the next three years.
Attributable to Volleyball Australia President Craig Carracher
When it comes to beach volleyball, the biggest events stand out – the World Championships, Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games – and Australia will play host to all three inside the next decade.
Adelaide has been one of the homes of beach volleyball in Australia for almost three decades with some of our top athletes training here at the SASI-based national training centre, so it’s only fitting that the World Championships are coming to South Australia.
History shows that having the opportunity to compete at a home World Championships provides a real home court advantage and I know our leading players will be primed to take on the world in front of a home crowd.
Volleyball Australia welcomes the support of the South Australian Government to host the 2025 Beach Volleyball Championships alongside our commercial partners Scape and Hancock Prospecting.
