Crowded stands are a hallmark of professional sports leagues in the United States. However, student sports are also of interest across the ocean. The day before, on August 30, an incredible record was set – tens of thousands of fans came to watch the match between the student teams of Nebraska and Omaha.

Even the legendary basketball player was impressed.

Interest in volleyball

In the American Lincoln (Nebraska), a world record was set at the Memorial Stadium – 92,003 people immediately arrived at the arena to watch the sports spectacle. After such dizzying numbers, the question immediately arises, what kind of miracle was presented to the fans? The Super Bowl in the NFL took place in the winter, and Lionel Messi, with all due respect to the talent of the Argentinean, has not yet collected such an audience in the USA. Perhaps the stars of the NBA and NHL together warmed up a baseball game with the participation of the heroes of the UFC and wrestling? But no! More than 90 thousand spectators gathered a match of women’s student volleyball teams.

To understand the scale of what happened, we can recall that the final of the 2022 Women’s Volleyball World Cup between the national teams of Serbia and Brazil gathered 6,376 people in the stands in the Netherlands. In Poland, 9,639 spectators turned out to watch their favorites play against Italy in the 2022 World Cup final. It seems that the interest in volleyball in Nebraska is higher than in Italy, Poland and the Netherlands combined. But it was not even national teams or top clubs that played there, but two student teams – the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Omaha Mavericks.

This record is not only for volleyball. The NCAA game has become the most attended sporting event involving women’s teams, surpassing football, with 91,648 spectators in the Champions League semi-finals in 2022 for the match between Barcelona and Wolfsburg. The attendance record of the Memorial Stadium was also updated, which officially seats a little over 85,000. But this arena hosts matches in the much more popular American football in the United States. About the best performance in matches of American student volleyball teams, it’s somehow not serious to talk about – the previous benchmark of 18,755 spectators was easily beaten.

“So many people in red”

Of course, not all records have fallen – American football still holds the lead in American college sports (156,990), followed by men’s ice hockey (113,400). But basketball players (just under 80 thousand), football players (22 thousand) and baseball players (16 thousand) are now lagging behind. By the way, volleyball turned out to be the only sport among the leaders, where the maximum audience was gathered by women’s teams.

Photo: © Myung J. Chun / Contributor / Los Angeles Times / Gettyimages.ru

So many people were wearing red. I’m shocked. Thank you to all the Huskers fans who expressed their support for women’s sports and the Nebraska volleyball team,” NBA legend Magic Johnson enthused on social networks.

Indeed, this time the stands were something incredible: when such a crowd turns on the lights on their smartphones or starts a wave, one can only admire. But the match itself, judging by the final score – 3:0 (25:14, 25:14, 25:13) – turned out to be not so stubborn. The local team, inspired by the support of tens of thousands of fans, simply smashed the rivals.

The phenomenon of record attendance has a logical explanation. The match was timed to coincide with Volleyball Day. As part of the promotion of the event, numerous local students were released from classes to motivate them to come to the stadium. If this match were played in a regular arena, it would be impossible to accommodate such an audience with all the desire. But the organizers were tasked with setting a record in women’s sports, and along the way, in the entire world volleyball. In the end, it was successfully resolved. At the same time, it makes no sense to accuse the Americans of showing off, because such an action not only looks impressive, but is also able to draw attention to volleyball and give impetus to its development in the country.