"And ultimately, that’s how everyone in charge of women’s sports should approach their jobs — not afraid of failure caused by dreaming too big, but afraid of regret because they’ve dreamed far too small." This applies so much to WNBA team owners. But, every one in a leadership role in women's sports should be thinking about what they can do to move the sport forward in a big way. I hope Nebraska volleyball plays a game in the football stadium every year and other schools take note of the success.
And that what happened wasn't just 92,003 watching Nebraska play volleyball. 92,003 watched Omaha - a number that probably represents several seasons' worth of attendance for that program. Omaha will always be part of that history, and a reminder to people like me that Nebraska volleyball doesn't just mean "University of Nebraska volleyball", but really "state of Nebraska volleyball".
The exhibition that preceded it, UN-Kearney vs Wayne State, didn't have official attendance that I could find, but based on a few shots of the crowd on the UN-K site, I'd guess somewhere like 30K or 40K were there already. To put that in context, the D2 record for attendance was 5,025 (also held by Nebraska-Kearney, from the 2005 title match). Not sure if this will count or not, but regardless, just like for their D1 friends, it was several times the size of the largest group ever to watch women's volleyball at that level ... and the guarantee that NU paid their fellow schools was more than worth it, both for the Huskers and for the other athletic departments.
As a neutral fan but ardent volleyball fan, this was amazing to see. I'm glad it went off so well and I hope we continue to see events like this in the future ... and I'm looking forward to the next event that wants to make a run at that 110,000 record.
"And ultimately, that’s how everyone in charge of women’s sports should approach their jobs — not afraid of failure caused by dreaming too big, but afraid of regret because they’ve dreamed far too small." This applies so much to WNBA team owners. But, every one in a leadership role in women's sports should be thinking about what they can do to move the sport forward in a big way. I hope Nebraska volleyball plays a game in the football stadium every year and other schools take note of the success.
And that what happened wasn't just 92,003 watching Nebraska play volleyball. 92,003 watched Omaha - a number that probably represents several seasons' worth of attendance for that program. Omaha will always be part of that history, and a reminder to people like me that Nebraska volleyball doesn't just mean "University of Nebraska volleyball", but really "state of Nebraska volleyball".
The exhibition that preceded it, UN-Kearney vs Wayne State, didn't have official attendance that I could find, but based on a few shots of the crowd on the UN-K site, I'd guess somewhere like 30K or 40K were there already. To put that in context, the D2 record for attendance was 5,025 (also held by Nebraska-Kearney, from the 2005 title match). Not sure if this will count or not, but regardless, just like for their D1 friends, it was several times the size of the largest group ever to watch women's volleyball at that level ... and the guarantee that NU paid their fellow schools was more than worth it, both for the Huskers and for the other athletic departments.
As a neutral fan but ardent volleyball fan, this was amazing to see. I'm glad it went off so well and I hope we continue to see events like this in the future ... and I'm looking forward to the next event that wants to make a run at that 110,000 record.