What Is AVP Next? The Path to the Pro Tour

AVP Next is the AVP's official developmental circuit — the minor league of American beach volleyball. Its events carry a minimum $8,000 prize purse, award AVP ranking points under an elevated point structure, and exist for one purpose: preparing up-and-coming athletes to compete at the professional level.

The minor league of beach volleyball

The AVP calls AVP Next its official minor league system, and that's exactly what it is. While the pro tour features established professionals and Olympians, AVP Next events are built for the next wave: elite juniors aging out of the youth divisions, college standouts testing themselves against tougher competition, and pros grinding their way back up the rankings after a down season or injury.

The AVP's own description is direct: AVP Next is "designed for the next up-and-coming athletes to advance their level of competition and prepare to play at the professional level," with the goal of building "a stronger national pipeline to the AVP Pro side for aspiring professional athletes."

Prize money and points

AVP Next events are required to offer a minimum prize purse of $8,000 — modest by pro standards, but real money that matters to developing players. More important than the purse is the elevated point structure: AVP Next events award more ranking points than grassroots events, so strong finishes move players up the national rankings faster.

Those points are the currency of the whole system. AVP rankings are built from each athlete's best three results in the last 365 days, and they determine who gets direct entry into pro main draws versus who has to survive the qualifier. Every AVP Next final is a deposit toward a pro career.

The path: from Next to the pro tour

The path upward is straightforward. A player starts in local and regional competition — often AVP America events — and earns enough points to enter AVP Next. Strong AVP Next results build the ranking needed to enter pro qualifiers. Survive a qualifier, and you're in a pro main draw, playing for real purses against the best in the country.

In 2026, the AVP made the ladder even more direct: its AVP Next events were rebranded as Contender Series events with $20,000 purses in Austin, Pompano Beach, Virginia Beach, Aspen, Edwardsville, and Santa Barbara. The AVP also uses select Contenders as direct feeders — winning the 2026 Denver Open came with an automatic berth into the Manhattan Beach Open main draw. The line between developmental and pro has never been thinner.

More than a minor league

Historically, AVP Next has also served as the AVP's research arm. The tour has used Next events to evaluate new markets and promoters before committing full pro events to them — if a city can run a great Next event, it might earn a Contender or Heritage stop down the road.

For fans, AVP Next is also the best scouting in the sport. The players winning Next events today are the ones you'll be watching in Manhattan Beach finals in two or three years. If you want to say you saw them first, this is where you go.