Canberra Heat players have to pay their own way to be a part of the Australian Volleyball League, but coach Les Young hopes a big season will help attract sponsors to ease the financial burden.
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The Heat men's team started its season with back to back wins against the University of Technology Sydney at the AIS on Friday and Saturday.
But one of Young's biggest battles is trying to keep the best players in the capital given they can earn up to $A680,000 per season.
Heat players, in stark contrast, have to pay their own travel expenses to and from games, but Young believes that could be a thing of the past in the coming years.
"If we could actually offer the same product here, from ability to pay to not having to pay fees it would be phenomenal," Young said.
"The strength of the league is getting better, the teams are getting better, the organisation is getting better and the interest in volleyball is getting better."
"If we combine all of those together then suddenly we have a product people want to watch."I think we can do a couple of things off the back of this year to lead into next year that positions ourselves for the year after."
The Heat men's team beat UTS 25-30, 25-18, 25-23 on Friday night and backed it up with another dominant display less than 24 hours later with a 25-23, 31-29, 25-15 triumph.
The Heat women's side wasn't as strong, losing both of its matches against UTS in tight contests.
UTS won the first match 28-26, 26-24, 25-22 before a tense five-set 25-19, 25-22, 20-25, 12-25, 16-12 win on Saturday.
Captain Martin Collins said: "It was a shame the girls couldn't get over the line there.
"UTS will do pretty well this year ... we dropped a game against them last season so it's good to get 2-0 [to start the year]."
