By: Zach Durham and Devin Malast
Long Beach State’s athletics department will no doubt see a surge in attendance due to the men’s volleyball NCAA tournament taking place at the Walter Pyramid starting on April 30.
While overall attendance numbers for men’s volleyball at the pyramid increased since the 2021 season. For years prior, there has been a disparity between ticket sales for men’s and women’s sports with the Beach’s volleyball program being a prime example.
The men’s team averaged 1,502 spectators each home game and the women’s team only drew an average of 1,087 supporters, including students and local fans.
Over the past 10 years, LBSU’s volleyball program has ranked high in competition, with the women staying in the top six of the Big West rankings and the men’s team in the top five.
The women’s program sported a home record of 96-38 and the men’s program with 117-16, according to CSULB athletics.
Men’s volleyball remained undefeated at the Pyramid from 2017 to 2019, with a record of 42-0 and an average attendance of 1,787.
The women’s team was dominating in their 2014 to 2016 seasons, with a home game record of 43-9 and an average attendance of 1,008 per game.
In the years since 2016, both programs have seen an increase of about 54 attendees each year at home games.
Attendance began rising in 2019 for women’s volleyball, before the cancelation of the 2020 season due to COVID-19.
Once spectators were allowed back into the Pyramid in 2021, women’s attendance continued to skyrocket.
With an average of 2,083 fans per men’s game, attendance is the highest since 2019 when The Beach won their second consecutive national championship at home.
“We have fans with incredibly high volleyball IQ that know what good volleyball is; they’ve been around it for a long time,” coach Alan Knipe said.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the volleyball program’s home game attendance fluctuated according to Barbara Kingsley-Wilson’s book “Long Beach State: A Brief History,” both the men’s and women’s teams have seen an increase in the number of attendees over the past 10 years.
“The amount of support that we [see] from the people that are really close to the program…it’s really cool to see especially as a transfer,” sophomore Ben Braun said.
Games against Hawai’i and UCLA tend to draw the largest audiences and boast sold-out home games in the Walter Pyramid with over 4,000 attendees.
The women’s game against Hawai’i during the 2023 season drew a crowd of over 3,100 attendees making it the second most attended home game last year next to the season opener against Texas.
To help improve ticket sales, the athletic department holds pre-game rallies with merch giveaways on select nights.
Themed nights, including “white-out night” are also used to draw more attendees to fill up the student section.