Beach Volleyball World Championships secured for Adelaide in 2025

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

The World Championships will not be held at the City’s beaches but will instead 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.

In addition, Adelaide is now also set to host a round of the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour for the next three summers.

Former South Australian Tourism Minister and currently chair of SA's Major Events Attraction Committee Leon Bignell advised “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.”

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.

Carracher noted “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 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 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.

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, this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup and last night’s State of Origin.

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.

Image: Various Volleyball players at Memorial Drive