The University of Nebraska volleyball team broke the all-time attendance mark for a women’s sporting event on Wednesday night by taking over a football stadium and playing in front of 92,003.
The larger picture: A Champions League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid in 2022 established the previous record, which was broken by the game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
- The 1999 Women’s World Cup final set the previous U.S. attendance record for a women’s sporting event with 90,185 spectators.
- The game shattered the previous mark for volleyball attendance, which was 18,755 spectators watching the University of Florida face the University of Wisconsin.
Between the lines: With the Huskers’ five national titles, volleyball is a dependable and significant draw in Nebraska.
- In addition to holding the NCAA record for consecutive home sellouts in football dating back to 1962, the University of Nebraska now owns the record for consecutive home sellouts in volleyball with 306 games.
LINCOLN, Nebraska – Memorial Stadium was packed with 92,003 spectators on Wednesday when the five-time NCAA champion Nebraska Huskers volleyball team defeated Omaha 3-0, drawing the highest audience ever to attend a women’s sporting event.
The record attendance was revealed to the red-clad Nebraska supporters, who erupted in jubilant applause after the Huskers won the first two sets.
The match, which took place on “Volleyball Day in Nebraska,” was the result of months of preparation for a program and state that have long been at the forefront of volleyball fervor. The audience smashed the previous record for women’s sports attendance, which stood at 91,648 and was achieved in Barcelona, Spain, on April 22, 2022, for a Champions League game between FC Barcelona and Wolfsburg.
Also paid attendance for this event. Initially, tickets for the doubleheader cost $25 for adults and $5 for high school students and younger. Before the Huskers and Mavericks played, Wayne State defeated Nebraska-Kearney in a Division II exhibition game. However, the price of tickets on the secondary market went up to $400.
Andi Jackson, a middle blocker for Nebraska, said, “I don’t have the words to express it; it’s wonderful. “As we were leaving the tunnel following the second set, we overheard over the speaker that we had just smashed the world record”. We were all anxious but also trying to stay tuned in. I am so glad to be a part of it that words fail me.
The attendance also broke the previous mark for a women’s sporting event in the US, which was set on July 10, 1999 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, for the Women’s World Cup soccer final between Team USA and China, which attracted 90,185 spectators. That game, which the Americans won on penalties with Brandi Chastain scoring the game-winning kick, was a watershed moment for women’s soccer in general and for women’s athletics in particular.
John Cook, the coach of Nebraska, recalled that World Cup game as if it were yesterday. “It had such an effect watching those women compete and then have fun afterward. It had an impact on women’s athletics in this nation. They demonstrated what was possible.
The 2023 college volleyball season is only beginning, and No. 5-ranked Nebraska is now 4-0, but the stakes of the match on Wednesday weren’t equal to those of a World Cup final. However, the Nebraska team, the college, and the state took the fight for attendance seriously. Nebraska is renowned for their football (389) and volleyball (306) sellout streaks.
In the past, 18,755 spectators saw an NCAA volleyball event at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on December 18, 2021, when Nebraska participated in the contest against winner Wisconsin.
The NCAA attendance record for a regular-season volleyball match was also achieved by the Badgers in September of last year in Madison, Wisconsin: 16,833. That wasn’t large enough for the Huskers, so they went bigger.
“There’s a great business case and strategy around women’s athletics long-term that maybe college athletics hasn’t embraced,” said former Huskers football player and current Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts. We believe that Nebraska made major investments in women’s sports long before I was appointed athletic director, and you can see the fruit of those investments in the popularity and success of the volleyball program.
Many of the tens of thousands of spectators who had been waiting outside the stadium early on Wednesday arrived for the opening match, which began at 4:30 p.m. local time with the sun directly overhead and a temperature in the mid-80s.
When the Huskers were prepared to enter the field for a 7 p.m. start, the court was shaded, the temperature had dropped, the stadium was crowded, planes were flying overhead in formation, and the noise level of the supporters was loud.
Then the renowned 1923-opened stadium’s great volleyball team from Nebraska raced onto the field and the court that had been constructed there.
Cook chuckled and remarked that entering the sea of red and passing down the tunnel made him feel like a football coach. Cook, who has coached Nebraska’s volleyball team since 2000 and has guided them to four NCAA championships, claimed that he sobbed at least five times on Wednesday as a result of the emotion of being present for such a momentous occasion and seeing so many of Nebraska’s past players.
Lexi Rodriguez, a junior at Nebraska, claimed that the depth perception of playing in the stadium was different and that the wind occasionally performed tricks on the ball that naturally don’t occur indoors. She and the other players didn’t care about any of that, though. She was questioned on the potential effects of the nationally televised match.
“I’ve been saying it’s so important for young girls to see a women’s sport and volleyball being played on such a large stage, with so many people watching people invest in it,” Rodriguez stated. “You have huge hopes and enormous goals when you’re young. Many young girls who play volleyball will carry the thought of having someone like this to look up to in the back of their minds.
At Memorial Stadium, where Nebraska football is commemorating a century of memories this autumn, Wednesday’s game produced yet another spectacular occasion. Additionally, the fact that 92,003 spectators set a stadium record gave Nebraska football a goal to strive towards. In the past, Nebraska’s football victory over Miami in September 2014 had the largest crowd of 91,585 spectators.
After the game, Cook expressed his gratitude to the school’s administration, the state’s government, and the spectators as a drone presentation illuminated “92,003” adjacent to the stadium’s enormous video screen in the north end zone. For this occasion, University of Nebraska students had a day off from studies. According to Cook, just three events have ever caused school to be cancelled here.
Snowstorms, to name one,” Cook remarked. COVID, two. Three, stadium volleyball for Nebraska.
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