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Fourth of July celebrations may prevent the United States from hosting the FIVB Volleyball Nations League Finals next year.
The FIVB announced earlier this week that it altered its three-year agreement with USA Volleyball and will now accept bids from cities in other nations for the right to host to the 2020 Finals.
With the annual six-team event slated to take place July 1-5, the FIVB cited the annual U.S. holiday as a reason for the potential venue change.
“Our vision is to be the world’s number one sport,” FIVB President Ary Graca said in a statement. “By re-opening the bidding process, we can make sure that the stadiums are full, fans are inspired and the athletes are fully supported in their bid to win one of the biggest prizes in volleyball.”
The FIVB and USA Volleyball reached an agreement in 2018 for U.S. cities to host the next three Finals. The first of those Finals took place in Chicago in July and featured the host nation United States winning the silver medal.
The gold-medal match between the United States and Russia, though, had 4,375 people in attendance. France had 10,164 people in attendance for the gold-medal match when it played host to the 2018 Finals.
U.S. cities will still be eligible to submit bids to host the 2020 Finals. The deadline to submit a bid for that event is Nov. 11.
The Volleyball Nations League is a two-month event with 16 of the top men’s volleyball national teams competing around the world during round-robin preliminary stage. The Finals is comprised of the host nation along with the top-five teams from the Volleyball Nations League preliminary stage.