What fills up the stands at 100,000 capacity football stadiums, in the outdoors?
A rock band will do that, a national day parade with compulsory attendance maybe, a football World Cup final is a sure-fire shoo-in.
To that question, cue a volleyball game, but only in the good ‘ol USA. Nowhere in the world can – and has – and a women’s collegiate game at that!
For anyone who just wants the gist, this was a volleyball game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Omaha Mavericks held at the Memorial Stadium on Aug 30 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Rather confusingly for the uninitiated, both are academic colleges belonging to the University of Nebraska).
Three more tickets were sold by match day Aug 30 (remember that date), bringing a grand total of 92,003 spectators to watch a full programme of volleyball played outdoors in a stadium more accustomed to the more wildly popular sport of American gridiron football!
Given the official title of Memorial Stadium in commemoration of the men of Nebraska who served and fell in the nation’s wars, its 83,406-capacity opened up to just over 10,000 more seats carved out at ‘field level’.
A top-drawer volleyball game normally attracts around 10,000 to 20,000-strong paying spectators and played in indoor stadiums suitable for sports like basketball and badminton. But so great was the interest in this game that the NCAA pulled out all the stops to make the record attendance quest a possibility.
That they did is no surprise – the US is the one country in the world where the college sports system is just as revered as its hallowed education track performance.
College basketballers filter off to play for NBA teams, footballers (the American gridiron variety) join the NFL – the same path awaits talented college golfers and baseball players. By the way, as popular basketball and gridiron football are, arguably, the most popular sport in the US remains baseball!
Back to the volleyball action. The Cornhuskers beat University of Nebraska Omaha or UNO in three straight sets, 25-14, 25-14, 25-13.
This was not a happenstance – it was planned well ahead, as the event became known as ‘Volleyball Day’ specifically to break the attendance record, given the popularity and hallowed position of the University of Nebraska’s volleyball pedigree.
The huge crowd was treated to a full programme that included an exhibition match, prior to the showpiece spectacle. Then, there was also supposedly an offer for ticket holders to qualify to attend a University of Nebraska football game – ala “3-for-the price-of-one” offer!
So, while the fair dames of Nebraska dived, dug, set, and spiked their way into the history books, disgraced Spanish Football Association president Luis Rubiales is still sweating and stewing in the aftermath of ‘Kissgate’.
Those with no interest in women’s football nor libidinous licence, Rubiales was the man who kissed Spain’s women’s World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso lustily lip-to-lip during the medal ceremony.
Rubiales has resisted all calls to resign, maintaining that his actions did not bring the game into disrepute, nor were they degrading and condescending to women.
Football – or soccer in the US, has a thing or two to learn from this wonderful game of volleyball!
