The dudes who bought the tattered remains of the AVP are now suing Manhattan Beach over use of AVP trademarks. Sounds like a great use of resources, you know, considering all the other stuff they've got going on. Durrrrrrr.

AVP parent suing city for trademark infringement

Former AVP beach volleyball player Hans Stolfus has unveiled that he and partner Josh Glazebrook of Rev2 Media have been working closely with the AVP (whoever that is now -- Nick Lewin?) to help with the "difficult task of rebranding" the now-defunct tour.

The simple placeholder page that has been AVP.com since last August has now been replaced with ... a simple Wordpress blog. Hey, it's a start. And check out this super-sweet artist's rendering of the 2011 AVP Championships.

From Stolfus' lengthy blog post on the topic, it sounds like he's been a little more involved than with just branding aspects. But I don't think that's a bad thing: the guy's got passion, charisma, and a vision for what the Tour could be. He's a journalist at heart and values truth and transparency. (In fact, he kinda reminds me of ... me.)

Making the business aspect actually work is a whole other matter, but for the guy driving the ideas, I vote Stolfus 2012.

Matt Garthoff produced a pretty hilarious low-budget volleyball version of A Christmas Carol. I roffled pretty hard, especially at the Nick Lewin appearance. (Lewin is the head dude at RJSM and put The Net Live dudes on hold during a live interview.)

Favorite quote: "No ... Hans! I don't want to tweet!"

The majority shareholder of the now-defunct AVP has purchased the sandy skeleton of the once-proud beach volleyball tour at a bankruptcy auction for $3.8M in cash and debt forgiveness -- relative chump change for total ownership of the premiere US pro beach volleyball tour. When the AVP served its last ball of 2010, it had $184,000 in assets and $4.97M in debt.

RJSM Partners LLC now owns the whole shebang: assets like the AVP name, intellectual property, Avp.com domain name, gear, furniture and probably cases and cases of leftover Gatorade and Fiji Water.

Maybe it was RJSM's shrewd plan all along to acquire the AVP by stringing it along with some cash, letting it die, and knowing they could get it for a song. Then again, what are you really buying? A bunch of gear, some balls, some signs, a domain name and a business model that is anything but lucrative.

How they earn a return on their money waits to be seen with the AVP's supposed return in 2011.

20/20 anchor John Stossel is apparently a hardcore Central Park beach volleyball player. Who'da thunk?

I liked him better when he was trying out pro wrestling, though.