SAND DOOM; BEACH VOLLEYBALL APPEARS TO BE MELTING AWAY IN SUN.

Byline: Dana Haddad Daily News Staff Writer

The professional volleyball tour made an unfortunate discovery last winter.

The endless summer is a myth.

When it all started in the 1970s, accelerated in the '80s and skyrocketed in the early '90s, those at the controls saw only upside and prosperity. They saw no sunset, no autumn, no cold winter on the horizon.

Summer has returned with the sun and 90-degree temperatures greeting the sole survivors of this sport, the Association of Volleyball Professionals. The AVP is barely hanging on, as the Miller Lite U.S. Championships, which culminated here on Sunday, has plunged from a $300,000 grand slam to a $50,000 tournament.

Years of poor management forced the Women's Professional Volleyball Association to scrap its 12-year-old women's doubles tour and the American Beach Volleyball League to disband its 7-year-old men's and women's four-on-four circuit this year. Both were overcome by debt.

The AVP, facing similar problems, played a 21-tournament schedule. The players are taking the brunt of it. Up to as much as $4 million four years ago, the AVP prize money the AVP this year is $1.3 million for the entire schedule, or $50,000 per tournament.

Harry Usher, who in January replaced Jerry Solomon as interim chief executive officer, told AVP players in March to take a pay cut or find a new way to make a living.

``They understood that if they did not . . . there was no way the tour could continue beyond May,'' Usher said. ``And, two, they could look around and see what happened to the women.

``I don't think we'll get back to the $4 million-prize money in the very near future. I don't think it should ever get back to $4 million. . . . I think prize money has been paid when it should not have been paid. This operation has never had money. It's always gone into the next year running on fumes.''

More than ever, said Usher, the former CEO of the 1984 Olympics and president of the United States Football League, the AVP has turned into a survival of the fittest.

Nobody knows this better than Matt Unger. Unger, a five-year pro, led the Cal State Northridge men's indoor team to the NCAA championship match in 1993. At 5-foot-11, he is one of the smallest players on the AVP. He has never won a tournament or been ranked in the top 10 but has managed to scratch out more than $113,000 in the four years before this season.

Then came the cutback in prize money, which meant only the top 17 finishers instead of the previous 25 collected checks. Unger is ranked No. 32 and has struggled to earn a little over $5,000 this year. Tour money-leader Karch Kiraly has pocketed $97,781.

``It's taking its toll on me a little bit,'' Unger said. ``I've been playing hard, I've lost some close games and the money's not as good as it used to be. It's a little more frustrating.

``It's a battle out here for everybody, not just for me.''

Unger is more fortunate than some. He has a sponsor who pays his travel costs. But it's those long flights to Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Wisconsin that have made Unger ponder his future.

``There's a lot more thinking about what's going on with this sport,'' Unger said, ``and where this sport is going.''

What happened to beach volleyball nobody was able to predict, especially in the early '90s when it was peaking.

``Everybody got caught up in it, but nobody looked down the road, for when it would cool off,'' said Rick Hazeltine, former editor of Volleyball magazine. ``For most sponsors, beach volleyball was just a hot commodity. When you're hot, people jump on the bandwagon. When you cool off, they jump off.''

Sponsors peddling lifestyle products like clothing and sunglasses have abandoned beach volleyball for the X Games, Hazeltine said.

``Without belittling the X Games, it's sort of faddish,'' Usher said. ``This is an established sport, an Olympic-medal sport.''

Still, said Hazeltine, the pro tours should have recognized that sponsors are fickle and can shift their support to the latest trend.

``They weren't ready when the downturn came. It always comes,'' Hazeltine said. ``They weren't ready to protect themselves. They didn't project to where they wanted to be.''

These days were hard to forecast, especially after the sport's popularity peaked when Kiraly and Kent Steffes defeated Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh for the first Olympic gold medal in men's beach volleyball in 1996. Not even Hazeltine, who was on staff at the Atlanta Games and witnessed a wildly successful fan turnout.

``I really don't know why,'' he said. ``But you've seen it happen to surfing. In the early '90s, it wasn't cool to wear surfware anymore. Volleyball and surfing are fringe sports and they go through cycles.

``Tennis is in a huge dip and it's not a fringe sport. Golf was until Tiger Woods. The X Games will have a downturn.''

The AVP has its share of positive stories this year, like Kiraly's assault on Sinjin Smith's record 139 tournament championships. Kiraly, 37, has 136 and continues to make a strong comeback from major shoulder surgery in '97.

But the tour has had controversy on the sand and in the courtroom.

Brazilians Emmanuel Rego, Roberto Lopes and Franco Neto have come on the scene to the dismay of some. Veteran players are quietly grumbling, saying the AVP should not have allowed newcomers any share of what has become precious little prize money.

Steffes has filed two suits. In one, he seeks the $55,000 in '97 prize money yet to be paid him. That suit against the AVP will go to court later this month. In his other suit, Steffes cites a conflict of interest by players who served on the '97 board of directors. Included is his old partner, Kiraly.

Usher has promised that the players will eventually receive all their back pay, but there is no timetable.

``These guys are pretty good guys who are pretty well educated,'' Usher said. ``And they have pretty good judgment - with the exception of one (Steffes).''

Most disturbing is the growing rumor that longtime title sponsor Miller Brewing Company will not be back next season. New board member Unger is optimistic that, should Miller sever ties, the AVP will be able to acquire a new flagship. He said 25 prospective new sponsors were watching the proceedings at Hermosa Beach.

Good news for anybody who now realizes the endless summer is merely a concept, not a reality.

``I'd like to keep the sport going as long as I can go,'' Unger said, ``because it's given me five good years of volleyball and an unbelievable life.''

BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY

1976: The first professional beach volleyball tour is started, giving root to what will later become the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour. . . . More than 30,000 watch the Olympia Championship of Beach Volleyball, won by Jim Menges and former Reseda High and UCLA basketball player Greg Lee. First prize is $5,000.

1986: Pro beach volleyball makes its television debut on ABC's Wide World of Sports, which shows tape of the Zuma Beach Open. . . . A group of women, headed by Pepperdine coach Nina Matthies and including Birmingham High alumna Linda Chisholm, forms the Women's Professional Volleyball Association (WPVA) and starts a women's doubles tour.

1991: Sherman Oaks resident Craig Elledge starts a pro beach volleyball league, the men's and women's pro fours.

1993: Beach volleyball becomes an Olympic sport.

1994: The AVP hits the high-water mark in prize money at over $4 million.

1996: Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes win the first gold in Olympic men's beach volleyball. . . . The WPVA boasts having attracted more than 950,000 fans to 140 tournaments.

1997: The AVP fails to pay players' prize money for the final three events and goes over $2 million in debt. . . . The pro fours tour is unable to find sponsors for all of its teams and is unable to pay the players after the season-ending championships in Honolulu. . . . Nearly $1 million in prize money is divided between 14 tournaments, but by the end of the year the WPVA faces a debt in excess of $1 million and fires executive director Nancy Lengel.

1998: C.E. Sports, the company owned by Elledge, goes bankrupt and the pro fours tour folds. . . . The AVP fires CEO Jerry Solomon and hires Harry Usher, former CEO of the 1984 Olympics and commissioner of the United States Football League. . . . The WPVA, after losing its title sponsor and failing to find a replacement, ceases operation. . . . AVP prize money, as much as $300,000 for grand-slam events the previous year, is cut to $50,000 per tournament.

- Dana Haddad

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Color) CSUN alumnus Matt Unger has struggled financially on the deep-in-debt AVP Tour, in part because prize money has been cut.

(2--Color) Sponsors have helped struggling Matt Unger travel to tournaments.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

BOX: BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY (see text)