92,003 fans got together at the University of Nebraska’s football stadium in Lincoln to cheer on the women’s volleyball team. It resulted in setting a new world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event. The place was so packed that they had to add extra seats onto the field!
The Attendance World Record
The previous record was set in 2022 during a football match at the infamous Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, attended by 91,648 people. Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium only has seats for a little more than 85,000 fans. However, they managed to increase that number on Volleyball Day by adding extra seats onto the field.
On the day of the game, the university canceled all classes. High schools across the state also let their volleyball players attend. There was even a Scotty McCreery concert held there after the match.
A record number of fans turned out for the matchup between the Cornhuskers and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, located some 60 miles away. The Huskers have already sold out 306 consecutive regular-season matches. They were all held at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in downtown Lincoln. The team has been at the top of attendance among all NCAA teams ever since 2013.
Equality in Sports
The World Record for attendance at an NCAA volleyball match was broken by the 92,003 fans who turned up. The previous one was 18,755 people attending when the Huskers played the University of Wisconsin in the national championship in 2021. Ann Stewart, who played at Nebraska in the 1970s, said, “The boys had the football team. But now little girls have somebody to look up to, too. I’m so excited about the little girls who have Nebraska volleyball.”
The world record-breaking game happened a year after the 50th anniversary of Title IX. It had a huge impact on women’s participation in sports. In 1971, nearly 294,000 girls in the United States took part in high school sports compared to 3.7 million boys. However, In 2019, 3.4 million girls and 4.5 million boys played high school sports. It’s safe to say, this has been a huge step for women in sports.