Is Madison becoming a volleyball city?
Photo: Claire Zimmerman
The United States is amidst a volleyball explosion, and Madison is making sure to join in on the fun by welcoming a new professional women’s volleyball team to the city in the fall of 2024.
Volleyball is undoubtedly having its shining moment across the country, with youth participation soaring and collegiate viewership skyrocketing. Girls volleyball participation has risen 15% since 2002, solidifying its place as the second most popular girls sport in the U.S. Meanwhile, collegiate volleyball teams are breaking record after record in both TV viewership as well as attendance numbers.
Wisconsin is not new to this trend. In 2021, the Wisconsin Badgers national title game drew in 1.2 million viewers on TV, the highest viewed volleyball game on an ESPN network. In 2022, the collegiate volleyball attendance record was set at the Kohl Center in a match between Wisconsin and Florida. Although that record was broken this past August by “Volleyball Day in Nebraska,” Wisconsin set yet another indoor attendance record in a match in the Fiserv Forum in September against Marquette.
The interest in the sport is clearly there. The fans are showing up and the players are improving each year. Yet, there are currently no professional options for women to play indoor volleyball in the United States. Not yet, at least.
A new professional women’s volleyball league, League One Volleyball, is in its development stages with plans to kickoff its inaugural season in January of 2025. Madison, WI was one of the six locations nationwide selected as a city to host a professional LOVB (pronounced “love”) team.
“As a strong supporter of women’s sports at any level, I am especially proud to welcome a professional women’s volleyball team to the Madison area,” Mayor, Satya Rhodes-Conway, wrote in a statement about the team.
The other locations include Omaha, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Houston, and one more city yet to be announced. The LOVB preseason is expected to begin in November of 2024, with the official season running from January 2025 to April 2025.
“Volleyball is so big which is surprising we haven’t had this sooner around here,” said Megan Elvekrog, a junior at UW-Madison and Dane County native. As a former volleyball player herself, she feels as though “watching people that are insanely good at volleyball would have made [her] drive even bigger.”
LOVB is characterized by their female-led management as well as their “ground-up” approach to league development. The league has taken a unique method by connecting their professional teams with youth clubs across the country in order to build the foundations needed to sustain longevity. Madtown Juniors, a local youth club in Sun Prairie, is one of 43 youth clubs started by League One Volleyball.
The plan is similar to the MLS NEXT youth soccer programs that directly tie to professional teams. They shape the players and the fan bases from a young age with the intent to directly feed into the professional league.
Since the announcement of the new league in 2019, LOVB has been gathering investors, over half of whom are women. The league is already backed by big names in all sports, including Billie Jean King, Lindsey Vonn, Candace Parker, Jordyn Poulter, Kevin Durant and Joe Burrow. The total funding recently reached $60 million.
There are other U.S. professional volleyball leagues forming in the next few years, including Athletes Unlimited and Pro Volleyball Federation, which will create competition for television deals and fan bases. Only time may tell which league will prevail.
League One Volleyball is working with Madison Area Sports Commission (MASC) to facilitate the process of successfully bringing the new professional team to Madison. MASC has aided in initial site visits, building out the schedule, and helping to engage with the surrounding community.
Jamie Patrick, Vice President of Convention Sales, Sports, and Services at MASC, stated that “[everyone] is thrilled for multiple reasons…it’s just really exciting to be known as such a huge volleyball town.”
It’s no question that the success of the Wisconsin Badgers volleyball program has played a role in the decision to place a professional team in the city. The 2021 National Champions have been monumental in the growth of the sport not just in Wisconsin, but the greater Midwest area and nationwide.
“Our college team has already gotten so much more energy and excitement since winning the national title,” said Elvekrog.
All of the stars are aligning in favor of Madison, with a successful collegiate team and extremely dedicated fans, making it seemingly the perfect location for the new professional team.
“Not only is [Madison] a home place where players can go after their collegiate career, but we’re number two in the country in attendance. They know that we’re a knowledgeable fan base,” said Jamie Patrick. “[People] want to see women play sports, especially here in Madison.”
Women’s sports are flourishing and the opportunity to play professional volleyball in the United States is finally becoming available. The future of volleyball is bright in Madison.
As Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway wrote, “This new League One team will show young girls in Madison and Dane County that there is a pathway to professional sports, with, of course, a large, enthusiastic fan base.”
