August 30th, 2023 at 9:41 PM ^
Incredibly, it's also the biggest crowd in the history of Memorial Stadium. Kinda makes sense because they added a bunch of seats essentially on the field, but still.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:03 PM ^
Definitely made for a great visual.
August 31st, 2023 at 9:27 AM ^
here's the picture of the stadium. it is pretty cool.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:10 PM ^
Very cool and congrats to Nebraska volleyball
During the broadcast they talked about who could challenge the record. Would love for Michigan volleyball to get to the point of popularity that they could.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:13 PM ^
Is the Big House large enough for a soccer match? I seriously don’t know this because I don’t watch soccer.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:36 PM ^
They have had a couple soccer games there in years past. I believe twice. Not sure who played but it was a pretty big deal (think Chelsea vs. Man United for example). I seem to recall them drawing similar crows to UM football 100k+. But the field is not big enough for regulation soccer field (the first row of seats is too close to the field).
Now can they draw this much for a woman's soccer game? I have no idea. But to answer your original question yes this has been done for soccer before.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:51 PM ^
Real Madrid & Ronaldo were in the Big House for a summer preseason silly. I think they had >115K. The field is a bit compressed.
August 30th, 2023 at 11:05 PM ^
Don't forget, they also feature freshman phenom Harper Murray from Skyline HS, Ann Arbor Mi, daughter of Vada. And she decided not to be here and play with her sister 😥, state of our VB program.
August 31st, 2023 at 6:50 AM ^
She was like #1 nationally so not surprising she went to a program like Nebraska's that could draw this crowd.
August 31st, 2023 at 9:19 AM ^
I mean, it would be like choosing between playing for Michigan football vs Indiana football. The fact that we had Jess Mruzik was amazing, but she's at PSU now so...
August 30th, 2023 at 11:57 PM ^
If the US-Mexico 2027 Women's World Cup bid wins hosting duties, I believe any stadium that can hold 92K+ could break it. That event has absolutely blown up.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:14 PM ^
I’m a casual volleyball fan but I watched the whole thing. Really well done by Nebraska and BTN put on a first rate broadcast.
August 30th, 2023 at 10:20 PM ^
It's really cool they were able to pull this off and the place looked pretty amazing. Congrats to them.
August 30th, 2023 at 11:03 PM ^
What about men's soccer?
*ducks*
August 31st, 2023 at 2:43 AM ^
They should choose a bigger conference rival than Oregon if they're going to try that at the Big House.
August 31st, 2023 at 2:53 AM ^
Now I'm curious about something:
The 1999 Women's FIFA World Cup Final in Pasadena ...... it had an official attendance of 90,185.
The 1994 Men's Final 5 years before in the same venue had an official attendance of 94,194.
They were both sold-out crowds (right?). So why did the sell-out attendance go down 4K?
August 31st, 2023 at 9:25 AM ^
Per Wikipedia, the official capacity of the stadium was reduced in 1998 and is now reported by UCLA to be about 91,136. It's possible that they had to remove or block some seats, I suppose, or that the official capacity in 1999 was lower than it is now (can't find any info on that).
August 31st, 2023 at 3:47 PM ^
Gotcha .... thanks.
I should have done more of my own research .... but the Rose Bowl itself:
- attendance was always 100K+ from 1965-1992,
- it dipped to 94.3K for some reason (?) for the 1993 game between U-M and Washington,
- back to 100K+ for the next 5 editions, and
- then permanently down to the 93K-94K range for the 1999 edition (UCLA vs Wisconsin) onward.
So yeah, definitely removed some seats in 1998. Soccer attendance of course is lower than football due to field size.
August 31st, 2023 at 5:45 PM ^
I'd guess the Americans with Disabilities Act. Stadiums had to allow more room for people, say, in wheelchairs, so that took away some of the capacity.
August 31st, 2023 at 3:25 AM ^
Nebraska has the best college fanbase.
Some say the ears of corn become alive and fill the unpurchased seats in Lincoln.
August 31st, 2023 at 7:16 AM ^
When I was in school, volunteers were out on hoover after football games begging people to go to volleyball games that night for free, good for them.
August 31st, 2023 at 8:45 AM ^
Per ESPN:
Tickets went on sale in late April -- $25 for adults, $5 for children. More than 82,000 seats sold within three days.
Impressive, must be great for their recruiting. I'd love to see Michigan host Michigan State in women's volleyball at the big house, assuming they're would be a reasonable turnout. It's a tall order to fill the stadium, even a crowd of 50k could look small.
August 31st, 2023 at 9:26 AM ^
Yeah, they were talking about introducing a big-name musical act in case tickets didn't sell well. Apparently, those 82k tickets were sold even before announcing the name of the musical act.
August 31st, 2023 at 12:46 PM ^
Not much else to do in Nebraska
August 31st, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
We caught some of this on BTN last night. It looked like a great time for everyone (except maybe Omaha.)
August 31st, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
Great fans and good people out in Lincoln.
Women's volleyball will probably be a whole lot more exciting than the football teams of the past few seasons. They haven't won the West/Legends since 2012 under Bo Pelini.
August 31st, 2023 at 7:57 PM ^
There was a non-FIFA Women's World Cup of 6 teams in Mexico in 1971. Attendance for the Denmark vs Mexico final in Azteca was 110K. [BBC]