By Matthew Halverson
Pro beach volleyball? In St. Louis? In January? That’s the idea behind the AVP Hot Winter Nights Tour, which hits the Scottrade Center on January 11. But even more head-scratchingly intriguing are some of the numbers associated with turning the facility into a beach for one night.
200 The amount of sand, in tons, that will be brought into Scottrade for the “beach festival.” (Look for about 20 trucks rumbling down Clark Street.) • 5,100 The space, in square footage, that that sand will cover. (That’s 30 percent of the facility’s floor.)
• 12 The depth, in inches, of the temporary sandbox. (Below that? A layer of plywood, which sits on a vapor barrier, which sits on a protective cover for the ice floor.) • 12 The time, in hours, necessary to set up the event. (Ironically, the front-end loaders that will be used to spread the sand max out at 6.6 miles per hour.) • 6,000–8,000 The number of people AVP expects to show up. (About 9,000 could turn out the next night for the Billikens game.) • 70–75 The temperature that AVP hopes to achieve inside to encourage attendees to wear swimwear. (The average outdoor temp in St. Louis in January? 31 degrees.)
