Could Promotion-Relegation work in College Football?
The Nebraska women’s volleyball team expects to break the world attendance record for a women’s sporting event on Wednesday when the Cornhuskers host Volleyball Day at Memorial Stadium, home of the school’s football team.
The university installed a volleyball court inside its Memorial Stadium, which has a listed capacity of 85,458 but has drawn more than 90,000 fans in the past. Nebraska has sold over 90,000 tickets for Volleyball Day, spanning a doubleheader with the Cornhuskers playing Nebraska-Omaha and another match between Wayne State College and Nebraska-Kearney.
Cornhuskers women’s volleyball has won five national championships, and it usually plays home games at the university’s Bob Devaney Sports Center, which has a capacity of 7,900 seats. The team has had 303 consecutive sellouts, the longest in any NCAA women’s sport.
The biggest crowd for a U.S. women’s sporting event was the 90,185 fans who attended the 1999 World Cup soccer final between the U.S. and China at the Rose Bowl. The world record of 91,648 fans was set in April 2022 when Barcelona hosted Wolfsburg at Camp Nou for a UEFA Women’s Champions League match. Nebraska expects to break both records.
“Yes, we believe that goal will be attained,” Nebraska athletics director Trev Alberts told USA TODAY Sports. “I think the number is going to be pushing closer to 95,000.”
Nebraska volleyball turned a profit of $233,454 last year as the only public Power 6 NCAA women’s sports program to make a profit in fiscal 2022, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
Wednesday’s Volleyball Day will also be a lucrative NIL opportunity as every Nebraska player has opted into a group licensing agreement with The Brandr Group. Fans can buy athlete-specific merchandise, apparel, and trading cards through NIL deals with Athlete’s Thread, Campus INK, The Athletic Collection, and ONIT, per Forbes.
