Filling up a stadium for football in Nebraska is quite usual. Yet, when it’s in support of a women’s volleyball event, it garners attention. Following the Huskers’ announcement on April 27 about selling 82,900 tickets in under 48 hours, the sports community buzzed with excitement over such an achievement. Major media outlets took note. Sports business groups […]
Filling up a stadium for football in Nebraska is quite usual. Yet, when it’s in support of a women’s volleyball event, it garners attention.
Following the Huskers’ announcement on April 27 about selling 82,900 tickets in under 48 hours, the sports community buzzed with excitement over such an achievement.
Major media outlets took note. Sports business groups celebrated the milestone. Even a Belgian sports marketing firm showed interest. Patty Gasso, coach of the prominent Oklahoma softball squad, expressed a desire to discuss with her athletic director about hosting a game in OU’s football arena.
This sellout will add to the impressive history of sold-out occasions at Memorial Stadium, which has witnessed sold-out football games since the era of Bob Devaney. Likewise, the volleyball team has a track record of sellouts, having filled its home venue for all home contests since 2001.
On August 30, volleyball enthusiasts will flock to Memorial Stadium to cheer on the Huskers as they face Nebraska-Omaha at 7 p.m. Nebraska-Kearney and Wayne State will kick off the event that afternoon. A concert is planned to follow the matches, although the athletic department has yet to reveal the artist as of the latest update.
“This is incredibly thrilling. We aim to turn it into a grand volleyball celebration,” NU coach John Cook stated. “We’re striving to create something exceptional here. Our fans are amazing, and they wish to partake in it.”
When the event was first revealed in late February, it was generally expected to significantly surpass current attendance records for a match. University of Nebraska system president Ted
Carter confidently remarked that he wouldn’t be satisfied merely with breaking existing records. His aim was to shatter them completely.
“I’m not going to be satisfied with just 20,000 or 30,000,” Carter declared. “I challenge every Nebraskan. We have filled this stadium for all sporting events since 1962. Let’s fill this place up. We need to sell this out and showcase how fantastic we are as sports fans in Nebraska.”
Wisconsin currently holds the NCAA regular-season record, drawing 16,833 attendees for a match against Florida last September at the Kohl Center in Madison. Seven of the eight largest attendance records for any volleyball match, along with 12 of the top 14, have involved Nebraska in the national championship or semifinal matches. The 2021 NCAA title match featuring Nebraska and Wisconsin attracted the largest audience ever for a college volleyball match, with 18,755 spectators at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Ticket sales began for season ticket holders on Tuesday, April 25, with an initial sale of 17,900 tickets. The response was so tremendous that the ticket office had to address a few issues on the first day, which were eventually resolved.
The general public had its chance the next day at 10 a.m. The first batch was sold out in less than an hour, prompting the NU Ticket Office to open up the remaining seating. By Wednesday evening, only limited-view seats were available, and all of those were gone by 6:40 a.m. on Thursday.
Alongside the mentioned sales, students quickly acquired the allotment of on-field tickets, which weren’t included in the initial sales figures.
“This is a moment that everyone wants to brag, ‘Hey, I was present,’” Cook asserted.
With the sellout, Nebraska, which has topped college volleyball attendance records since relocating to the Devaney Center – which accommodates just under 8,000 for volleyball – has ambitions not only to break sports records but also to potentially host one of the largest audiences for any women’s sporting event.
The current record for a women’s sporting event was established in March 2022, when Barcelona witnessed a UEFA Women’s Champions League match against Real Madrid that attracted 91,553 at Camp Nou. The second-largest event was the 1999 World Cup final (90,185) between the United States and China at the Rose Bowl.
While reaching those figures will pose a challenge, the volleyball match could very well enter the top five, which currently includes a match between Australia and India at the 2020 Cricket World Cup (86,174 in Melbourne), the 2012 Olympic soccer gold medal contest (80,203 in London), and a 2019 friendly soccer match between England and Germany (77,768 in London).
A few days after the announcement of the sellout, Nebraska played a spring match in front of a sold-out crowd of 2,096 in Central City. Cook expressed that he found it difficult to grasp the magnitude of everything that had transpired that week for the Huskers. He noted that if he had attempted to pitch it as a recruitment strategy based on recent events, no one would have believed it.
“This week has been astonishing for me,” Cook remarked after the spring match. “This is incredible. No one else has undergone this or is experiencing it. No other college program is achieving these feats. So they truly need to appreciate, embrace, and relish this moment.”
“Talk about raising the ‘net’ on volleyball attendance! 🎉🏐 Who knew Nebraska could turn a stadium into a volleyball paradise? I can already hear the ear-splitting cheers echoing through Memorial Stadium. Here’s to a record-breaking night and somersaults of joy! 🌟🙌 #HuskerPride #GameOn”