Several superstar athletes and celebrities have joined forces to invest in a new sports initiative. With the popularity of volleyball skyrocketing in the USA, fans were desperately looking for a full-time professional volleyball league in the country. With the help of basketball superstars, including Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, and Candace Parker, fans are finally getting what they wished for.
These basketball stars, along with several other athletes and celebrities, have raised a whopping $35,000,000 to fund the first-of-its-kind professional volleyball league in the USA.
A Big Step for Professional Volleyball in America
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After the USA Women’s team bagged gold medals in both Indoor volleyball and beach volleyball during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the sport’s popularity has grown exponentially in the United States of America. Volleyball has become one of the most played sports by women in America. Seeing volleyball’s rising popularity, many athletes and celebrities saw the potential in the sport and decided to invest in America’s first full-time professional volleyball league, League One Volleyball (LOVB).
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LOVB announced this week that the league has raised $35,000,000 in Series B funding from various basketball superstars and celebrities. The investment was led by 2-time NBA Champion Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman, who already had investments in the league through their joint venture Boardroom Sports Holdings. The Slim Reaper was joined by Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum and WNBA legend Candace Parker. Apart from these basketball stars, Olympic gold medalists Jordyn Poulter and Lindsey Vonn, comedian Amy Schumer, and World Cup winner Amy Griffin also invested in this first-of-its-kind league.
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LOVB will be in full swing very soon
With sizable funding and backing from so many elite athletes from multiple sports, LOVB’s first season is scheduled to start in 2024. The Women’s League has already announced its first five clubs in the cities of Houston, Omaha, Salt Lake, Atlanta, and Madison. One more city is yet to be announced for the league’s debut season.
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League One Volleyball’s CEO Katlyn Gao is very excited about the new venture, believing, “This is volleyball’s era.” The co-founder might be right as fans are excited to see the beginning of a new era in American sports. With the Paris Summer Olympics coming in 2024, Team USA will look to repeat their amazing feat from the Tokyo Olympics and bring another gold medal home. That will not only boost the popularity of volleyball but will also become a perfect Kickstarter for LOVB. The league’s debut season will start in November 2024 and go on till April 2025.
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