Armato taking it to the beach
OC Register 5/28
By; Marcia C. Smith
May 28, 2002
HUNTINGTON BEACH -- His cell phone rang every five minutes. On the other end was a client, a corporate sponsor, his assistant, or someone from the all-important Rolodex who needed Leonard Armato's assistance.
Armato, the sports agent best known for brokering nearly $250 million in deals for the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal, was taking calls Friday courtside - center courtside at the Huntington Beach Open, the first stop on the Association of Volleyball Professionals tour.The AVP, which Armato co-founded with Sinjin Smith in 1983, is now his top client. He bought it. He owns it. He is its commissioner.He is its lifeguard, performing mouth-to-mouth on the once-glamorous pro beach tour that nearly drowned because of player feuds, untelevised tournaments, absent sponsors and bankruptcy.
Armato could have stayed the millionaire super agent, living a healthy, wealthy existence in designer sportcoats and the climate-
controlled confines of his El Segundo-based company, Digital Media Campus.
Instead, Armato, a former beach volleyball player, is out here, making his mark in the sand, getting whipped by the wind, wearing an AVP T-shirt, khakis and black Nikes that fill with sand at every step. "Excuse me for one second," Armato said, taking a sip from a Jamba Juice smoothie before taking yet another call, making another rescue, this one to please an AVP marketing partner.Karch Kiraly, the three-time Olympic gold medalist and enduring attraction, is out here, too, making a save by playing the game. The 41-year-old from San Clemente is still bronze, barechested and sporting Speedo trunks and the hot-pink hat with the upturned "Speedo" bill. And he's still winning, still making sacrifice-your-sternum saves to
keep the match - and this tour - alive. He even is a co-host of the "AVP Hour," Thursdays on KMPC/1540 with Smith.
"Leonard laid out a strategy for us, and the players are on board," said Kiraly, the winningest pro beach player with 142 titles and nearly $3 million in earnings. "We want to bring the AVP back to its glory years."
In less than a year, Armato, 49, has used his influence to restore luster to the tour he last managed a decade ago.
He called for a "new AVP," unified the men's and women's tours, and  he had the players sign four-year contracts. They agreed to get along, play under FIVB (volleyball's international federation) rules and sell the sport. Armato signed the star players - Kiraly, 2000 Olympic gold medalists Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana and world-renown women Holly McPeak
and Elaine Youngs - and kept the admission free. "This is the beginning of the a new, better and bigger AVP," said
McPeak, 33, who has won 56 titles and who married Armato in November. "We feel like pros again."
Armato got the AVP a new look that included bright yellow and black tour logos on banners, flags, the borders of nets and on souvenir merchandise. He landed blue-chip sponsors for about $1million apiece: Nissan, PepsiCo's Gatorade, Microsoft's Xbox, and Anheuser-Busch's Michelob Light. Hair care company Paul Mitchell pitched a sponsor tent in the sand.
Wilson furnished the official ball and branded the giant inflatable volleyball. The U.S. Army put up a rock wall for spectators to climb. Canadian company Kinesys produced a line of AVP-logo-bearing sunscreens. He pitched his AVP as a "sexy sport," perfect for summertime, with its fast-paced game played by barechested men and bikini-clad women who are beautiful, tanned, trim and toned.And he got the cameras rolling. NBC will broadcast two events in August and Fox Sports the remaining five on tape-delay."I don't see how Leonard could have done any more," said Kiraly, scanning the Huntington Beach venue that, compared with last year, featured more grandstands, more corporate signage and more promise for the future.
Seven hours after he was ankle-deep in the Huntington Beach sand, Armato was courtside again - at Staples Center for Game 3 of the Western Conference finals between the Lakers and Sacramento Kings. Armato has floor seats across from the Lakers bench and across from O'Neal, who last summer fired Armato, his agent for 10 years, in part for devoting too much time to resuscitating the AVP.The two still talk. "I see an upside to the AVP, which was a tour in the ER, flatlining,"
Armato says. "Now, with a three-year plan, the right players and  sponsors, we've put it on life support and have tried to give it a life of its own." Armato could have been just fine being the superagent, donning the sportcoat and watching a client score 20 points and pull in 19 rebounds in the best show in town from the best seats at Staples. Instead, Armato is answering the call to run his own show. And he will have to save it first to make it last.