92,003.
Thats how many people attended the volleyball match played between Nebraska and Omaha on August 30th, 2023.
The Nebraska volleyball team broke the record for the highest attendance at a women’s sporting event ever. The game was held at Memorial stadium located in Lincoln Nebraska where Nebraska football hosts their games. Popular athletes like Lexi Rodriguez, Andi Jackson, Merritt Beason, and Harper Murray played in the match.
Recently attention around women’s sports has increased due to social media and sponsorships. According to ESPN name, image and likeness (NIL) is an athlete’s legal right to control how their image is used publicly. For example, if an athlete posted a photo wearing a Nike shirt and Nike then used that photo to promote their company without asking for the athletes permission, the brand is violating the right of publicity.
For decades, athletes were not allowed to profit off of their fame if they signed with a college team. In 2022 state laws and rule changes brought back NIL rights and athletes are now allowed to make sponsorship deals providing them with an income. Michigan State Women’s Basketball player Isa Alexander believes that NIL has helped women’s sports gain more attention.
“NIL has also played a huge part in getting names out there earlier so people can follow them through their collegiate career and continue to after,” Alexander said.
Former Stockbridge student athlete and current University of Michigan cross country runner, Rylee Tolson, agrees that NIL creates more opportunities for women’s equal participation in sports, however she faces the negative impacts as well. She argues that you still have a good image (be pretty) and have likeness (be popular) in order to benefit and make a living from NIL.
“It decouples success in the sport from how good one actually is at said sport. It pushes some of the best athletes away from the professional sphere because they just aren’t making a living, overall hurting the competitive atmosphere,” Tolson said, “It also pushes athletes away from other professional careers because of the increased time needed to maintain their NIL resumes,”
NIL isn’t the only reason women’s sports are seeing more success. Female athletes social media presence has helped the industry grow as well. According to The Social Intelligence Lab, the use of social media through female athletes provides them with the opportunity to grow their audience, share their experiences, and amplify their voices. If fact, the most followed college athlete on social media is a female gymnast. Olivia Dunne Louisiana State University gymnast has 5.3 million followers on Instagram. The most followed male college athlete is Shedeur Sanders with 2.1 million followers on TikTok.
“It’s amazing how far media attention has come and how many more fans there are now,” Alexander said.
The social media presence of popular female athletes like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, and Paige Bueckers have caused students to watch more women’s sports. Sophomore Bralynn Philipp is one of these students.
“Paige Bueckers is my favorite player,” Philipp said, “I watch more basketball because of her.”
Overall, Tolson believes that women’s sports have come a long way, but there is still a large amount of room for growth.
“Women’s sports are powerful and we deserve an equitable opportunity to create impacts on this world, just like men have been given,” Tolson said.
Alexander agrees that women’s sports have grown a lot, but they aren’t anywhere close to where it could be in the future.
“I know it’s going to continue to grow as more amazing players emerge, Alexander said, “I can’t wait to see and be a part of it.”
