Volleyball continues to gain ground in the US, especially after the historic House vs. NCAA settlement. The monumental verdict has pumped $20.5 million yearly revenue-sharing cap, Interestingly, universities like Nebraska and Illinois have already hinted at volleyball joining top sports like football in terms of popularity and viewership. However, the push to gather momentum on USA Volleyball’s popularity has been hit-and-miss.

Fans welcomed big moves like VolleyballWorld’s deal with CBS Sports Network and the Big Ten Network to broadcast international matches. Yet, things haven’t looked promising when it comes to spectators attending live games. Despite the TV broadcast announcement, the attendance numbers have not inspired confidence.

Avid Volleyball compared the current numbers against those from Nebraska nearly a decade ago, and the results only highlighted Nebraska’s importance as the USA’s volleyball capital. The average attendance in Arlington this year, at 2732, was only marginally better than 2237 in 2024. While it was much better than Shreveport 2022, at 911, it all paled in comparison to Lincoln, Nebraska.

During the 2018 and 2019 VNL Group Stage matches, Lincoln pulled 6500 and 5067 people on average. The story remained the same across VNL/WGP Finals/IOQT. Only 4925 in Arlington (2024), vs. 7679 in Lincoln (2016) and 7081 in Omaha (2015). “I think it’s pretty clear Arlington/Shreveport are failures,” added Avid Volleyball.

While that might sound like an exaggeration, the numbers hold the solid ground when compared to volleyball’s NCAA boom. While USA Volleyball has struggled to pull a crowd in Arlington, Nebraska has set a new benchmark for the sport. In August 2023, 92,003 fans packed Memorial Stadium to watch the Huskers beat Omaha, setting the women’s sports attendance world record. Yet, that was only the beginning.

The momentum has continued building both in terms of live attendance and broadcast numbers. Last year, ESPN posted a record-breaking NCAA volleyball season with viewership reaching 3.7 million. Yes! Nebraska was once again in the mix with the Huskers vs. Penn State semifinal drawing 1.1 million viewers. Meanwhile, another VNL stat for USA volleyball painted an even bleaker picture.

Expectation vs. reality for USA Volleyball at Arlington

As the Team USA finally made to week three of the VNL prelims, the players were super excited to perform in front of the home crowd. “Coming to Arlington is so fun because we get to play in front of our crowd,” said Olympic gold medalist Avery Skinner. However, the reality was disappointing when they finally stepped on the court at UT Arlington College Park Center.

How bad was it? Avid Volleyball put things into perspective on the night USA Volleyball took on Thailand. “Tonight’s VNL match in Arlington had a reported attendance of 1753 (most of which were Thai fans),” the page posted on X. They added, “*38* NCAA teams have a higher average than that. *Every* PVF team averaged more than that,” just to drive the point home.

If that’s not enough of a contrast, here’s another number. The Professional Volleyball Federation is only America’s second-ever pro volleyball league that’s seen only two seasons’ worth of growth. Naturally, the dismal attendance numbers showed that USAV and VBW have faltered in their choice of location for the VNL matches. So what’s the solution?

Well, Avid Volleyball and the fans believe that Nebraska would be the perfect place for USA Volleyball to gain some serious momentum. “If VolleyballWorld wants to make real ground in the USA market, I think they have to be in an upper Midwest city,” added Avid. Now the question is, will Volleyball World and USAV realize this before the next tournament?