Home/US Sports

Nebraska Volleyball continues to define the heights women’s volleyball can reach. While holding the women’s sports live attendance record with 92,003 fans is arguably their greatest achievement, the team continues to blaze the trail in every possible aspect. Their latest breakthrough? Setting a new standard in ticket sales for every other women’s college volleyball team.

However, despite making it to the top of the list for generating revenue through ticket sales, the Huskers still lost to UConn women’s basketball by more than half a million dollars. As per Sportico’s 2022-23 report, UConn women’s basketball beat the Huskers’ volleyball in ticket revenue by $570,000. However, despite losing out, the Huskers still bagged a record, and are already catching up.

The Nebraska Huskers are catching up

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Spotico’s data reporter Lev Akabas posted about the top 5 women’s college sports teams in terms of ticket sales. The latest report that Sportico compiled from university documents, named UConn, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Iowa as the top five teams. However, only UConn basketball and Nebraska volleyball broke the $2 million ticket sales margin during the 2022-23 fiscal year.

Uconn earned $2.79 million, the Huskers came in second with $2.22 million. However, Big Red wasn’t the only volleyball team in the top 5 as their rivals Wisconsin also posted a respectable $1.54 million in ticket sales. While Sportico’s latest report tracks the 2022-23 earnings, Huskers Illustrated recently posted the numbers for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The Huskers Illustrated also claimed to have sourced their numbers from official documents Nebraska volleyball submitted to the NCAA. So what changed in a year? Well, despite still not matching UConn’s $2.79 million benchmark, the Huskers closed the gap by $300,000. The news outlet reported that Big Red generated $2.56 million from ticket sales. But, there’s a lot more to the ticket sales numbers for both universities, and a closer look provides some surprising revelations.

What’s your perspective on:

Can Nebraska Volleyball's sellout streak finally dethrone UConn's ticket sales dominance?

Have an interesting take?

Could Nebraska Volleyball have beaten UConn?

Although there’s little doubt that UConn has a lead over the Huskers in ticket sales, there are some key differences that contribute to NU falling behind the University of Connecticut. The key difference contributing to the Huskers only seeing marginal growth despite breaking live viewership records is the capacity of their home stadium, or the lack thereof.

While the UConn basketball team can host 16,294 people for basketball games at the XL Center, The Bob can, unfortunately, manage only half that number. Last season, the Bob Devaney Center offered a maximum per-game capacity of only 8,309. While that’s a far cry from XL Center’s numbers, Nebraska Volleyball is looking to add more seats to its home venue.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

“The goal is to get to about 10,000 in Devaney,” NU’s Athletic Director Troy Dannen told Huskers Extra. The increased capacity would certainly boost Nebraska Volleyball’s ticket revenue even further because the Huskers are in the midst of an ongoing sellout streak of 337 consecutive regular-season matches at the Bob Devaney Center. Another boost to ticket sales revenue would be holding names that Pinnacle Bank Arena.

With a seating capacity of 15,500, the Pinnacle Bank Arena can host almost as many fans as the XL Center. Considering Nebraska’s record sellout streak is difficult to imagine they’ll have trouble filling out those seats. Former coach John Cook even hinted the team would play more games at the arena this year. Yet, do you think Nebraska Volleyball can overtake UConn’s ticket sales revenue in an apples-to-apples scenario? Let us know in the comments.

Have something to say?

Let the world know your perspective.

ADVERTISEMENT

0
  Debate

Debate

Can Nebraska Volleyball's sellout streak finally dethrone UConn's ticket sales dominance?

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT