Anaheim's Honda Center: A Final Rehearsal for Olympic Volleyball 2028 and Unanswered Questions

On a Tuesday afternoon in my small office in Osaka, I received an email from an old colleague. The subject line was simply: 'Anaheim, Honda Center.' I opened it, read it three times, then looked out the window. Outside, the city was still busy with its daily routine. But for me, the world had just changed. The Honda Center – the arena in the heart of California, known for its storied hockey and basketball history – would become the stage for a volleyball tournament serving as a 'rehearsal' for the 2028 Olympics. Not a small friendly, not a showcase event, but a true dress rehearsal.\n\nI have followed women's volleyball for over two decades. I have sat on creaky wooden bleachers at second-tier tournaments, watched girls emerge from changing rooms without air conditioning, and written three-page reports that no newspaper would publish. So I understand what it means for a venue like the Honda Center to be chosen. It is not just a location. It is a statement: women's volleyball deserves the best.\n\nThe initial information from the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) focuses only on organization: venue, tournament format, broadcast plans, Olympic qualification mechanics. There is no statistical data about the sport itself – no passing percentages, no attack efficiency, no tactical formations. But that is exactly what caught my attention. When a major tournament is first discussed in terms of venue and logistics, it means the organizers are laying the foundation for a first-class event. They want everything to be perfect, not just on the court but in the overall experience.\n\nAnaheim is no stranger to sports history. The city is the gateway to Disneyland, an icon of the American dream. The Honda Center, with its distinctive curved facade and over 18,000 seats, has hosted NHL finals, international matches, and major concerts. There is something very 'American' about turning a place traditionally associated with men's sports into a stage for female volleyball players to shine. That is a symbolic shift.\n\nBut I refuse to see only the glamour. I have lived through too many cycles of hope and disappointment to trust that the shiniest things are the most sustainable. In 2026, after leaving the World Cup in Russia, I wrote 'The Forgotten Voice' with all the anger of someone who had watched female colleagues pushed behind barriers while male reporters freely entered press conferences. That feeling has never cooled. It has only transformed into vigilance.\n\nSo when I read the news about the Honda Center, I ask myself: are we witnessing real change, or just another performance by the sports industry, where women's teams serve as a backdrop for beautiful advertisements? To answer, I need to look beneath the surface.\n\nWomen's Olympic volleyball has a long history of injustice. Since 2026, when volleyball first appeared at the Tokyo Olympics, female athletes have had to fight not only their opponents on the court but also prejudice off it. They have had to prove they deserve investment, deserve primetime television slots, deserve fair pay. In many countries, the women's team is still seen as a 'warm-up' for the men's team – a deeply outdated mindset that persists.\n\nIn this context, a rehearsal tournament in Anaheim could be a test. If the event is successful, it will set a precedent for women's tournaments to be held in bigger venues, broadcast more widely, and sponsored more generously. If it fails, it will become another excuse for the claim that 'women don't watch sports' – a phrase I have heard too often and always find amusing.\n\nFrom personal experience, I know that female athletes in Asia, and specifically teams from developing volleyball nations, often face disadvantages when playing far from home. Jet lag can ruin their sleep weeks before a match. Unfamiliar food can affect stamina. California's dry air can affect their skin, breathing, and muscles. Therefore, a rehearsal tournament one year before the Olympics is a golden opportunity. It helps them eliminate external variables and focus entirely on the sport.\n\nI called a Japanese coach friend. He told me his girls are excited but also anxious. They have never played in an 18,000-seat arena. They fear the noise, the lights, the feeling of emptiness when walking onto the court, and the pressure of expectations. He said, 'We need this tournament not just to test our tactics, but for the players to know they can survive in such a big arena.'\n\nThat sentence reminded me of many calls during the pandemic, when women's volleyball players called me not to talk about tactics but about fear. They feared being forgotten, their careers ending in silence, and their contribution being remembered only as a small footnote. Hearing those voices taught me that sport is not just numbers, not just victories, but how we treat other people's dreams.\n\nBack to the Honda Center. I don't know which teams will participate, how many days the tournament will last, or whether it will be broadcast live. But I know that one of the greatest lessons I have learned from years of observing women's sport is that historic changes often begin with seemingly mundane administrative decisions. Choosing a venue. Choosing a time slot. Choosing a sponsor. These dry choices, when accumulated, create a different world.\n\nYet I also want to emphasize something. The choice of Anaheim should not be a one-off event. It needs to be followed by a series of synchronized policies: investment in youth training, building facilities in developing countries, increasing the presence of female referees, coaches, and commentators in major tournaments. We cannot just build a lighthouse while forgetting the roads that lead to it.\n\nFrom the perspective of Vietnam, where women's volleyball has a passionate fan base, we can dream of a day when our national teams play in truly worthy arenas. Currently, many domestic tournaments are still held in multi-purpose gymnasiums with temporary stands and lighting that doesn't meet broadcast standards. But I believe that if the world is changing, Vietnam will change too. And Vietnamese women's volleyball players, with their power and resilience, deserve a place in that picture.\n\nFinally, I want to mention one thing that keeps my faith in the future: persistence. People say women's sport lacks spectators, but I have seen packed arenas in regional women's volleyball finals. I have seen young girls queueing for autographs from their idols. I have seen mothers bringing their daughters to training not for medals, but to teach them confidence. That persistence never disappears. It is just waiting for a door to open.\n\nThe Honda Center, therefore, is not the destination. It is a door. And the biggest question I want to leave you with is not 'Who will win the rehearsal tournament?', but 'After this door opens, how many other girls will we let through?'\n\nI wrote these words with all my heart, as if I were still sitting in that small room in 2026, writing for a blog nobody read. But this time, I am writing for a future I believe in. A future where the Honda Center is not an exception but the norm. A future where women's volleyball is not mentioned as 'a women's sport' but simply as a sport, with exciting tactics, breathtaking rallies, and extraordinary people.\n\nI will follow this event closely. I will record every development, every story, every vulnerable moment, and every explosive moment. Because I know that somewhere in this tournament, there is a girl stepping into a big arena for the first time, trembling, nervous, maybe wondering if she belongs. And I want to tell her: You absolutely belong here. And we – the ones who wrote about you, believed in you, waited our whole lives to see you shine – we are here, cheering for you.