Wanted: Space to set up 103 volleyball courts and host 38,000 volleyball players, fans and officials.

When: Now!

That was the task before Atlanta hospitality officials Monday who criss-crossed the metro area trying to find a convention floor big enough to put on the Big South Qualifier, one of the nation's top volleyball tournaments.

The event is scheduled to begin Wednesday, but Friday's tornado knocked the site of the event — the Georgia World Congress Center — out of commission, sending the competition's organizers and city boosters scrambling for an alternative site. The stormy weather also took out rooms at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center that had been booked for the event, but hospitality officials have been able to find other accommodations.

Atlanta doesn't want to lose the business and Big South officials said canceling is not an option.

"We have close to 38,000 to 40,000 people who are coming to the city who have already purchased plane tickets," said Lauri Dagostino, executive director of Big South. "We have hotel contracts."

If the matches are not played, the teams — there were more than 850 in last year's tournament — will not be able to advance to the next round toward a national championship, Dagostino said.

By late Monday evening, organizers and convention officials were close to finding space, but nothing had been finalized, said Mark Vaughan, executive vice president, chief sales and marketing officer for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Logistics has made finding new digs for the competition challenging, he said.

Because the event is so large, it will have to be held in a number of venues, he said. Possibilities include the Georgia International Convention Center and Cobb Galleria Centre.

ACVB Presidents Spurgeon Richardson said he is confident everything will work out.

"Everybody works together in Atlanta to make it happen," he said. "That's the Atlanta way."