![]() ![]() The previous attendance record for the sport also belonged to Nebraska, but it came by way of a loss to Wisconsin in the 2021 national championship match in Columbus, Ohio, which 18,755 people attended. In Lincoln, an immediate catalyst for Volleyball Day was competitive fire. That one program was Nebraska volleyball. (Ask Husker fans about fair-weather fans of Creighton men’s basketball.)Īccording to public records obtained by The Lincoln Journal Star, just one of 522 women’s sports programs at public universities in six major conferences - the Big East, Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Southeastern Conference and Pac-12 - turned a profit in 2022. The state has no major professional sports teams, and the football program for its flagship university enjoys a near-monopoly on college sports fandom. Not every Division I school has the same set of circumstances that would allow it to conjure what Nebraska has with its volleyball team. Louis, rules allowing athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness, known as N.I.L., as well as shifting societal views on gender equity, have contributed to greater investment in women’s sports, leading to events like Volleyball Day. The Oklahoma softball team held a series of intrasquad scrimmages last October, treating its home crowd to a barrage of home runs before winning its third consecutive Women’s College World Series title.Īccording to Patrick Rishe, the director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. The Iowa women’s basketball team will host its own outdoor event on a football field this October, a scrimmage against DePaul that will highlight its star guard, Caitlin Clark. Now, business opportunities have manifested, many times in gimmicky ways previously seen mainly in men’s sports (for instance, recall basketball games played on aircraft carriers). More and more athletic programs are seeing gains from women’s sports that challenge the outdated notion that there isn’t enough demand to make women’s programs financially sustainable. ![]() Beer, which is normally not sold during football games, was flowing, and vendors surrounded the stadium, trying to capitalize on the mania.Īt a moment when the dominant issue in college sports is conference realignment in football, Nebraska’s Volleyball Day served as an example of a growing realization among universities that investing in women’s sports can be great for business. Fans packed downtown Lincoln before noon and made their way to Memorial Stadium hours before the Cornhuskers made their entrance, many carrying signs of support for the team. The event resembled a full-day party for the state of Nebraska. Barcelona and Wolfsburg that was attended by 91,648 people. as well as the international mark, set at an April 2022 Champions League match in Barcelona, Spain, between F.C. That broke the American record - 90,185, set at the 1999 Women’s World Cup final between the United States and China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The only suspense on Wednesday was whether the match would set a record for the most-attended women’s sporting event.Īfter the second set concluded with Nebraska well on its way to a victory, the public address announcer declared just that: a reported attendance of 92,003 people. champions, were about to surgically dispatch an overmatched opponent, the University of Nebraska Omaha, but that was a foregone conclusion. The musical choice was symbolic, to be sure, but it might have actually understated the aura surrounding the team and its big moment. ![]() As the Nebraska women’s volleyball team strolled out of the tunnel for its most unusual home match, “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project, the walkout song for the 1990s Chicago Bulls, blared over the stadium loudspeakers. ![]()
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