MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday 1 June 2023

Beach Volleyball World Championships coming to Australia

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships will be staged in Australia for the first time in 2025, with Adelaide announced as the host city earlier today.

The World Championships will be held on the courts of Memorial Drive, with around 1000 cubic metres of sand brought in to turn the famed tennis venue into a beach volleyball colosseum.

Volleyball NSW welcomed today’s announcement with the event set to provide a boost for the sport right across the country.

Volleyball NSW CEO Baz Wedmaier said "Today’s announcement is a win for all versions of Volleyball and all states of Australia. This event has never been held in Asia or Oceania before and has been the result of tireless work of many in our sport over a number of years. Volleyball NSW is looking forward to doing its bit to ensuring the success of the event and the ongoing growth of Volleyball in Australia". 

Volleyball Australia President Craig Carracher said the World Championships would be the most prestigious beach volleyball event held in Australia since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

“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,” he said.

“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 gratefully welcomes the support of long-time partners Hancock Prospecting and Scape who add the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships to the extensive list of events and programs they have been a part of.

Hancock Prospecting has supported Volleyball Australia for a decade, with Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart giving her time in an honorary capacity as Patron of Volleyball Australia since 2013.

The partnership has witnessed the women's beach program excel all the way to the Olympic podium while also funding the elite women’s indoor volleyball program.

Contemporary student accommodation and global living specialist Scape Australia is a generous, long-time supporter of Australian Volleyball and has been instrumental in bringing international volleyball events to Australia before, such as the FIVB Volleyball Nations League and the Beach Pro Tour.

“Volleyball Australia welcomes the support of the South Australian Government and South Australian Tourism Commission to host the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships alongside our generous and long-time commercial partners Scape and Hancock Prospecting,” said Carracher.

Last year’s World Championships in Rome attracted 16 million global fans on Volleyball World’s digital platforms. This year, Volleyball World claimed top spot as the best-performing International Federation on social media.

The 2023 World Championships will be held in Mexico later this year, while beach volleyball at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be played under the world-famous Eiffel Tower.

The partnership between Volleyball SA and the State Government also guarantees Adelaide hosting rights for a further seven national and Asian volleyball competitions between 2024 and 2026.