Feb. 24, 2005

New Orleans to Host the 2006 USA Open Volleyball Championships

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Volleyball is coming to the “Big Easy.” New
Orleans has been selected to host the 2006 USA Open Volleyball
Championships, USA Volleyball announced Thursday.

The nation’s second-longest-running annual volleyball event will be held in
the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and will be hosted by USA Volleyball,
the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, the New Orleans Metropolitan
Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Bayou Region.

"New Orleans provides the perfect venue to host a successful volleyball
tournament," said Stephen Perry, NOMCVB President and CEO. "With so many
hotels, world-class restaurants and family attractions within walking
distance of the convention center and sports venues, the city has earned a
reputation as a popular sports destination."

The Morial Convention Center boasts a total of 1.1 million square feet of
contiguous exhibit space and 12 separate but combinable exhibit halls—all
under one roof on one level.

"The Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and the Convention and Visitors
Bureau have a great history of hosting and managing volleyball events,
including the annual Cajunland Volleyball Easter Classic, the Junior Olympic
Championships in 1999 and most recently the 2002 NCAA Volleyball
Championships in the New Orleans Arena," explained Jay Cicero, President and
CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. "Hosting the 2006 Adult
Open National Championships not only continues that tradition, it also
continues to build on our strong relationship with USA Volleyball."

The Crescent City will also be the site of the 2006 USA Volleyball Annual
Meetings, traditionally held in the same city as the Open Championships.

“Our adult population is looking not just for the competition but for the
destination,” said Mike Chandler, USA Volleyball’s Managing Director of
Events. “It has been very apparent that our success in growing this event
truly relies on the host city.

“It was a tough decision this year because we had some pretty good cities in
line, but New Orleans submitted a really good proposal,” he added. “It is
some place I have been looking at and trying to get to for a few years
because of what the destination has to offer our adult members. It is going
to be a lot of fun both on and off the court.”

More than 5,000 players and staff are expected to attend the 2006 event,
which will be broken into two separate sessions of competition. The first
session runs from Saturday May 27 through Tuesday May 30, while the second
wave of competition begins on Wednesday May 31 and concludes on Saturday
June 3. The matches will be played on 40 portable courts within the
convention center.

The Open tournament, which originated in 1928 in Chattanooga, Tenn., will
take place in Louisiana for the first time. New Orleans did host the USA
Junior Olympic Girls’ and Boys’ Volleyball Championships in 1999.

"Finally USA Volleyball recognizes how perfect New Orleans is for this type
of event," John Cline, Commissioner of the Bayou Region. "I believe we will
see in New Orleans the largest number of teams to ever attend the USA
Volleyball Adult Open Championships."

Related Links:

USA Volleyball Events Homepage
http://www.usavolleyball.org/Events/

Bayou Region
http://www.bayouvolleyball.com/default.asp

Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation
http://www.gnosports.com/live/bookshow.pl

New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau
http://www.neworleanscvb.com/

Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
http://www.mccno.com/Default.asp
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