Leonard Armato, a sports agent and commissioner of the Association of Volleyball Professionals, was in Tempe last week for an AVP event. He took a few minutes to talk about his league and his dealings with professional athletes with The Arizona Republic.

Question: What business lessons can be learned from the rise, fall and rise of the Association of Volleyball Professionals?

Answer: To become a major sport, you must serve the needs of sponsors, television, the news media, and the fans. This requires a service-oriented infrastructure and tremendous awareness and cooperation on the part of the players. The sport must also have an economic model in place that allows for the escalation of player compensation and benefits without bankrupting the organization. In the case of the old Association of Volleyball Professionals, the sport simply outgrew the organization's capability to manage it.

Q: What makes your league attractive, and what is your business plan?

A: The AVP Nissan Series Pro Beach Volleyball Tour is the fastest-growing sport around because it has a unique combination of assets. First, it has world-class men and women athletes playing one of the most demanding sports, two-person beach volleyball. This is a sport that has taken the Olympics by storm and is the hottest sport of the Summer Games. Second, AVP athletes are incredibly accessible and available to fans. You can see them wandering among the fans and interacting with them throughout the course of each AVP event, as they did at the Tempe Open this past weekend.

Q: The NBA experienced a 0.5 percent drop in attendance this year, and some playoff games are only at 80 percent capacity. What does the NBA need to do to bring fans back?

A: The NBA has become such a multidimensional and globally popular sport that it is difficult to use a half-percentage drop in attendance as a measuring stick for success. For example, the NBA has seen a huge growth in popularity this year in China, where over 1 billion potential fans reside. Sale of NBA merchandise is at an all-time high, and the NBA is doing a nice job of marketing across all fragmented media.

Q: What professional sports teams are models in reaching out to and bringing in fans? What do they do that sets them apart from others?

A: The Phoenix Suns and the Colangelos have always been incredibly innovative. America West Arena was the first modern facility to offer the kind of amenities now expected by fans.

Q: Can all four major professional sports teams in Phoenix be successful in a crowded sports market that also includes auto racing, professional golf, WNBA, arena football and ASU athletics?

A: The short answer is yes. The people in Phoenix are great sports fans and will support a quality sports product. However, it is incumbent upon the sports teams, leagues and tours to offer them something worthy of their support.

Q: What has been some of the greatest challenges in representing athletes and celebrities like Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar De La Hoya and Pamela Anderson?

A: The greatest challenge is understanding what is important to those clients as opposed to what you "know" as their representative should be important to them. It is also critical to understand what motivates them to maximize their potential. Some are motivated by money, others by the need for "respect" and even others by the sheer joy of competition.

Q: Who's your favorite client? Why?

A: Clients are like children - you love them all equally.