Students who attend the University of Nebraska had the day off of classes when the Husker women’s volleyball team geared up for a match that would make history. Much bigger than any football events on campus.
More than 92,000 students, alumni, and Husker fans flooded into Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium, which is normally busy on Saturdays for football gamedays. But on Aug. 30, 2023, the team broke a world record for the highest-attended women’s sports game of all time. Also taking the cake for the highest-attended event of any Nebraska football home game.
Nebraska has a history of volleyball success. The university was the first collegiate program to offer scholarships for women’s volleyball. This immediately put them ahead of the game and have continually grown their program from the ground up. The Huskers were the first collegiate program to have a volleyball game take place in a football stadium. The team has consistently shattered records in volleyball attendance– 13 out of the 14 highest-attended matches have included Nebraska.

Nebraska vs. Omaha
Memorial Stadium
Aug. 30, 2023
New York Times
With five national titles and a successful start to the 2023 season, Nebraska volleyball is just one component of the ever-growing attendance and viewership in women’s sporting events around the globe.
The 2023 Women’s Soccer World Cup took place in Sydney, Australia, which was highly viewed around the world. However, according to Forbes, viewership of the U.S. team by Americans has declined slightly this year. This was thought to be due to the location of the matches– for viewers in the U.S. the games took place between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.
For the final championship game between Spain and England, viewers in the U.K. totaled around 14.4 million. While around 5.6 million watched the match in Spain.
Both have an increase of about 5% in Women’s World Cup finals in years past.
The growth in women’s sports has brought higher attendance in WNBA games as well as new leagues creating more opportunities for women to play professionally after their collegiate careers. The WNBA has reported a 27% increase in attendance in the 2023 season compared to the previous one. Numbers have slowly been rising from post-pandemic struggles. The pandemic stunted growth of the league but in 2023, the WNBA saw its highest attendance records in 13 years.
In the past, the WNBA stood as one of the few women’s sports to have a pro league where female athletes could make a living. Athletes Unlimited is a new all-female league that includes softball, volleyball, basketball and lacrosse. This league gives athletes who were extremely successful in college a chance to play professionally. According to the AU website, “We are using this innovative player-centric model to create leagues across sports.” Their professional league model gives power to the players by having team captains each week drafting different players for their team. These athletes make money from the league but many of them thrive on sponsorship deals with popular sports brands. Many softball players have deals with companies like Demarini, Wilson, and New Balance.
But where do we see this growth on a local level? Al Green, the Associate Athletic Director at Florida Southern College said that “our women’s sports attendance has been increasing across the board.” In an interview with Green, he revealed that “women’s basketball and volleyball have had moderate increases in the last three years.”
In comparison with men’s sports at FSC, “women’s soccer tends to average slightly higher than men’s soccer.” Comparing sports like softball and baseball, is found higher attendance in baseball. Green thought this to be the cause of “the off-campus location for baseball which has more local visitors than an on-campus venue.” Attendances in women’s and men’s basketball show a winner with men’s games. Green’s response to this was to note “times of women’s basketball (5:30 pm) compared to men’s basketball (7:30 pm) or later which tends to pull more local fans in later games.”
Teams who have shown success like FSC’s women’s soccer team, who won the Sunshine State Conference in 2022, have seen a spike in attendance. According to Green, “women’s soccer is trending upward.” Throughout the 2022 season games began to see bigger crowds. Looking forward to the rest of the 2023 Green explained that, “there is an average attendance currently in non-conference play but expect to have more in SSC competition.” Many students from other sports come to support the Mocs at home games. Fans in the stands are attentively watching the games, excited to see how far they will go this 2023 season.
When asked about the rise in importance of women’s sporting events, Green explained that, “I believe it is about time. I am glad to see the increase in opportunities for woman to participate in sports.” Being a leader in Division 2 athletic program, Al Green gets to be apart of many sides of athletics. He feels strongly believes “the stigma of woman’s sports being lesser in skills and competiveness than men’s sports is starting to fade.”
Maybe FSC won’t bring in 90,000 fans for the next women’s volleyball game. But like many others Green says, “I strongly feel with the level of play and present interest in women’s sports it will continue to grow.”