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The organizers of the AVP Crocs Cup Shootout Mason announced today, Sept. 5 that next year's event will expand to the 10,000-seat Stadium Court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. Matches were previously been played at the 5,000-seat Grandstand Court.

"Based on plans that we are now organizing with some of the Cincinnati-based Fortune 500 companies that we've been blessed with — if not all of them, in the end — we are proud to announce that the AVP Crocs Tour event is going to be bigger and better than ever next year, our fifth anniversary," said Bob Slattery, president of Reach Event Marketing, local organizer of the AVP Crocs Tour event in Cincinnati/Mason and Louisville.

The Aug. 31 women's final between gold medalists Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh and Elaine Youngs/Nicole Branagh hit a 3 local rating on NBC (WLWT-Ch. 5), dominating the competition during its time slot. The rating was a significant increase from last year's local television rating, which scored a 1. The upset victory by Youngs/Branagh drew a standing-room-only crowd at the Mason venue.

"Our ticket sales were 25 percent ahead of last year, and that was before the Olympics happened," said Mario Cicchinellli, director of Reach Event Marketing. "Once the Olympics were over, and people realized we would have both gold medal teams playing here — and four of their Olympic teammates from Beijing as well — this place just caught fire."

Organizers said the event, thoroughly embraced by volleyball fans and sports fans alike, is reaching out to a new constituency by reaching people uninitiated into the sport, and with five local charities benefiting, the AVP Crocs Cup Shootout truly has become a major, community-oriented enterprise. The five charities are the Ronald McDonald House, the Hamilton County Special Olympics, the Barrett Cancer Center, the Mason Parks Foundation and the Lindner Center of Hope.

Assisting in the organization of the AVP Mason event were many representatives from the local GE workforce, which contributed more than 400 volunteers who helped out in a variety of ways.