Nebraska women’s volleyball prepared to play on Aug. 30.

Business as usual; the players put on their shoes and knee braces, listened to their coach give a pregame speech and assessed the game plan.

To the unknowing eye, it appeared like any other game day.

But, it wasn’t just any other game day.

Galavanting out of the tunnel, the Huskers entered their football stadium – Memorial Stadium – packed with 92,003 cheering fans, over 7,000 more than its listed football capacity.

Nebraska won the game, but the program won a larger victory that day. A victory in a battle that has been waged for far longer than it should have been.

The sporting event’s attendance not only broke the NCAA record for attendance at a women’s sporting event, but also set the world record. The event showed that women’s sports deserve to be heavily supported, not just emotionally, but financially as well. Women’s athletic programs are worth investing in, and it’s time for UCLA Athletics to subscribe to this philosophy.

Nebraska invested heavily in its women’s volleyball program with its time and resources. The administration even canceled school Aug. 30 and declared a statewide holiday – “Volleyball Day in Nebraska” – giving no one any excuse to miss the game.

And the decision paid off.

After the idea was pitched, Nebraska women’s volleyball coach John Cook noted that he would agree to play the contest in Memorial Stadium as long as a musical artist was brought in to help encourage attendance. Within three days of ticket sales going live, prior to any musical act being announced, 82,000 tickets were sold.

Nebraska’s show out, while exceptionally noteworthy, is not the first time in the past year that records have been broken by women’s sporting events. Take the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball national championship, for example. The contest between LSU and Iowa broke not only the record for viewership of a women’s basketball game, but also attendance for the women’s tournament.

With an average of 9.9 million viewers, the national championship’s viewership was up 104% from the previous year.

The demand for women’s sports is there; teams have the fanbases and the talent to draw in numbers.

So why hasn’t this been done at UCLA?

UCLA women’s basketball is a prime example. The squad is ranked at No. 4 in the nation in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25. As for men’s basketball, the group is nowhere to be found on their equivalent list. Last season, when the Bruins hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Monday night contest where UCLA hosted Oklahoma, only brought in 3,872 fans into the stadium that seats over 13,000. A men’s basketball regular season game two weeks prior brought in a sold-out crowd.

Look at the Bruins’ women’s soccer program for another example. Last season, despite holding the No. 1 ranking for three months, only four of UCLA’s 13 home games were sold out. And at that, the Bruins played host to the first four rounds of the NCAA tournament and only their final home quarterfinal match was competed in front of a sell out.

This season’s attendance is not much better thus far.

The formerly No. 1 ranked squad and reigning national champions should be playing in front of sold-out crowds, but instead, their first home contest of the new season was competed in front of a 32% filled stadium, albeit considering that not all students have arrived on campus.

But this outcome isn’t just the result of the fans not showing up. The school could even employ tactics to draw in larger crowds, like a T-shirt giveaway as it does regularly for basketball. But still, one of the best college women’s soccer teams in the nation is forced to settle for the meager attention UCLA Athletics has left after advertising its breadwinning programs.

The university is no stranger to high attendance at women’s events. UCLA gymnastics regularly draws in large crowds, pulling in over 4,000 attendees in all four of the Bruins’ home meets. And the team’s matchups with Oregon State and Stanford ushered in over 7,500 fans.

So where does the discrepancy lie? Is it a problem within UCLA Athletics, not promoting these programs as much as they should be? Is it a fan problem, only supporting the programs that have historically brought in the most acclaim?

It’s likely a combination of both.

Either way, something must be done.

These successful teams should be competing in front of sold-out stadiums much like that of Nebraska, not empty arenas.