Many Nebraska volleyball fans will be watching this season from a new seat — or their living rooms

On the court, Nebraska volleyball fans should feel good about their Huskers this year.

Returning four key seniors, Nebraska was voted as the nearly unanimous No. 1 team in the coaches poll. The action starts Thursday against Florida for an exhibition tournament in Arlington, Texas, with a $1 million prize on the line.

But next to the teraflex court at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln, Nebraska’s rabid fanbase is conflicted. A reseating process caused at least one fan to not renew season tickets, a group to pay more money for worse seats and another fan to become ticket holders for the first time.

Reseating will put fans in new seats when NU returns to the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Sept. 10. That’s the first home match since the reseating process was announced last year and completed last month. With the reseat and renovation that accompanied it, Bob Devaney Sports Center upped its capacity to more than 10,000 people.

The noisy Big Red faithful didn’t shy away from speaking out, sharing their thoughts with Nebraska Public Media News.

Some Nebraska loyalists said reseating was upsetting and misleading, while others called it understandable and exciting, with a lot of other feelings in between. And with the reseating saga over for this year, multiple fans worry whether the environment inside the Devaney Center will change. On the other hand, the athletic department contends that it reached out to fans on several occasions to discuss the changes.

Not renewing tickets, accepting new reality

Though he grew up in Ralston, Defense attorney Webb Bancroft has lived in Lincoln since graduating from law school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

He went to his first Nebraska volleyball match in the early 1980s. Bancroft was roommates with someone on the team, so he went to see her compete. By the 1990s, an attorney in Lincoln started giving him his seats on occasion. Then, at some point prior to the program’s first national title in 1995, Bancroft said, the colleague gave him the entire season ticket package.

That harkens back to the days of the NU Coliseum — with no air conditioning at the time.

“I think it was an intimidating place to play. The fans were right on top of the court,” Bancroft said. “My tickets at the Coliseum were similar to what they were at Devaney.”

There were some special memories in that place, sitting “second row up on the end line.”

“I can remember when Wendy Cook, John Cook's wife, would come near the end of the season and, kind of, sit up by us,” Bancroft said. “And she'd bring her homemade chocolate chip cookies.”

He and his daughter celebrated national championship parades at the Coliseum. The move from the old venue to Devaney was scary back in 2013 but ended well, the longtime fan said. His community of volleyball fans stuck together.

Bancroft said this year’s reseating process should have started after the 2025 postseason. The pecking order for choosing seats during the NCAA Tournament was based on whether fans were current season ticket holders and their donation level. He understands that the university needs more money, with NIL and player compensation taking up a large chunk of the budget, but didn’t like the timing.

“I accepted that as a new reality for college sports,” Bancroft said, “but I thought it was a huge mistake to start it at the end of a season.”

The dynamics of the arena changed during the tournament, the attorney said. He sat next to the same people for 30 years until then, including those muggy days in the Coliseum. People weren’t sitting by longtime friends or in familiar seats.

“I was 25 rows away from where I had sat before, in a place sitting next to people I didn't know,” Bancroft said. “I don't mean to color everyone with the same brush, but in the area where I was sitting, a lot of people [were] on their cell phones.”

Basically, it wasn’t as loud and the atmosphere was “shook up.” If the seating arrangements remained untouched, the results could have been different in the Elite Eight loss to Texas A&M, he said.

“I think the fans at the Devaney could have pulled the Huskers through that regional, even with the injuries, even with the illnesses,” Bancroft said.

This season, the Huskers Athletic Fund and athletic department ranked people based on donor points, boiling down to how much money a fan gives each year and whether they already had tickets. Like he said previously, Bancroft understands players need to and should be paid for their efforts.

“I'm really not angry,” Bancroft said. But that’s partially because he’s holding onto his money. Bancroft said there’s a combination of factors. He doesn’t have the money to move up the rankings for the seats he wants, he won’t sit by his longtime friends and believes the atmosphere has changed. That means he’ll be watching the Big Red from home this year.

“I'll miss not being there a bunch,” Bancroft said, ”but I understand the reality of the financial decisions. They've got to try to keep quality athletes here.”

He acknowledged “the women that have come through that program have always been the highest-quality individuals, on and off the court,” knowing that comes with a higher price tag.

Overall, Bancroft worries some of the issues that plagued the in-stadium volume during the postseason could bleed over into this year. One big question in his mind is whether companies and other big donors may replace some ordinary, “rabid” fans.

“I think that I want the rabid fans there supporting the team,” Bancroft said, “and I worry that's not going to be there.”

Of course, there are exceptions to this notion, he said. A repeated point from the athletic department during the reseating process was that new fans could break into the hard-to-get season ticket market. Yet, Bancroft believes Husker Athletics could have been more “forthright” about why this reseat is happening. Anything else is “disingenuous.”

“I think for people who pay attention, of course it's about money,” Bancroft said. “[It] can't be about ‘We want new fans or we want to give other people an opportunity.’”

Communication and business strategy

A school saying it needs more money isn’t an easy message to send.

“It's hard to communicate that stuff, and there's not a good answer,” said Tony Altimore, a strategy consultant for higher education and sports organizations. He made waves on social media a few years back, with his analysis of schools' marketability during major conference realignment.

The Husker Athletic Fund page dedicated to the reseating process hinted that money was a consideration. The webpage had an overview saying, “to ensure Nebraska Volleyball remains a leader both on and off the court, we are taking proactive steps to strengthen our foundation.”

It continued, “the expansion of John Cook Arena in the Bob Devaney Sports Center to over 10,000 seats will allow us to continue to grow the game and give more fans the opportunity to experience Nebraska Volleyball. We must embrace the evolution of intercollegiate athletics and find ways to preserve our financial model.”

In an interview with Nebraska Public Media News earlier this summer, Nebraska's deputy athletic director of revenue at the time Tyler Kai made similar allusions.

“We cannot fail to look at the demand of our season tickets and price those appropriately,” Kai said.

That bet may be paying off. The athletic department announced last week that it received a record $71.6 million in annual cash giving.

Just days before the announcement, a spokesperson for the athletic department said the promise that all existing fans would have the opportunity to purchase tickets held up. But there was a caveat.

The informational page on reseating said “Blackshirt” level donors could get up to four tickets, regardless of last season’s allotment. In July, NU said higher-than-expected demand meant it would have to dial back ticket maximums. People with less than four tickets in 2025 wouldn’t be able to upgrade to four this fall. Fans voiced their displeasure on social media.

The unique challenge at Nebraska

Reseating isn’t new across the country, but not many schools have this level of ticketing demand in volleyball.

Altimore compared reseating in athletics to airline pricing. No matter where customers sit, they essentially get the same thing. That is a ticket from one place to the next, or in the college sports example, a seat for the same game.

“I mean, think about all the different things that airlines do, which is really the same thing sports teams do, to make that experience just a little bit better, so you'll pay just a little bit more,” Altimore said.

In sports ticketing, that could be all-inclusive food and drinks or better seats and parking, he said. The biggest difference is that the increasingly common practice of reseating is tolerated more by sports fans, because there are no substitutes, the University of Southern California grad said.

“If United Airlines makes me mad, I'm going to go to Delta,” Altimore said. “But if USC makes me mad, I'm not going to Cal.”

Plus, more revenue for a team could mean better players on the court next season —- or in Nebraska volleyball’s case, ensuring it continues to find great players.

Still, fans like Bancroft have a line. His breaking point was the increasing cost and loss of community. Whether it’s financial or emotional, once that line is crossed, it’s really hard to get people to come back.

“If they do poke you too much, and you get really angry and you're done — you're done done,” the college sports fan said.

Specific to Nebraska, it faces unique challenges, due to the unrelenting fanbase. But it’s a good problem to have.

“This is a huge issue for Nebraska, is that you guys have an embarrassment of luck in wonderful fans, who want to go to what everyone else calls non-revenue sports,” Altimore said.

Volleyball ticket revenue for almost any other school “rounds to zero.”

“You [had] [92],000 people at a women's volleyball game. That's amazing,” Altimore said. “Not like to be an apologist, but cut your school a little bit of slack. You're the only school that really has that problem, so they're kind of learning a little bit with you.”

Array of emotions: mad, hopeful and excited

Jennifer Snyder went to UNL and worked in the sports information department as a student worker during the 1988-89 seasons. Still in Lincoln, she works for Southeast Community College.

Snyder, her sister and a couple friends went to games, about two years after Snyder graduated. Those were general admission seats in the Coliseum.

“It was very hot,” Snyder said. “It just had a great vibe. And I think the other thing about it was that the fans that were there loved volleyball.” She remembers an NCAA regional match with Penn State as “the best match ever.”

“We were in line, I think, three hours beforehand to get seats,” Snyder said.

After that magical game, she and her friends decided to get season tickets starting around the 1998 season. Also scoring a great deal like Bancroft, Snyder was working for the university at the time, meaning she didn’t have to make a donation for the seats.

“We sat two rows from the top in the Coliseum,” she said, “and the people we were sitting by were Terry and Ann from Grand Island, and they've become very good friends.”

She echoed much of what Bancroft said. Snyder’s community stayed together for the move to Devaney in 2013. This year, she understood the athletic department needed more money, but wished loyalty was factored in more heavily.

“They have a different beast that they are operating within, to get the best athletes here,” Snyder said. “But when they are taking away the loyalty — they're not even factoring that in, to who gets tickets when and where, that was the part that I think was really disheartening.”

Terry and Ann combined donations with Snyder, in hopes of getting better seats. A ticketing office representative agreed that would be a good idea, she said. It took a while to get an appointment. But once they did, they understood the process better.

“When you actually talked to them, it made sense,” Snyder said. “But their letters and emails just got you mad.”

She upped her donation from $200 last season to $1,250, plus “a little extra” this year. As for Terry and Ann, they chipped in enough to get their combined contributions to $7,000. After the money was in and the crew got its appointment to pick seats online, the rest was up to Snyder.

“I was in charge of doing all this, which was very stressful,” Snyder said.

She found seats that made everyone happy. Volleyball fans can be particular about which part of the arena provides the best view. Days before their appointment, someone else got there first.

“We ended up seven rows higher,” Snyder said. “We paid more money for seats that were seven rows higher.”

Despite the frustrations, she doesn’t want to miss her favorite sport and team: Nebraska volleyball.

“I mean, I'm glad I still have tickets, because I really love volleyball,” Snyder said. “Now, in five years, will I have tickets? I don't know.”

While Snyder and Bancroft are getting worn down by the changes, the approximately 1,300 extra seats in the venue means some new fans are moving in.

Dan Klein has lived in Lincoln for most of his life. He’s watched Nebraska volleyball since the 1980s. The reseating process presented an opportunity — jumping at the chance to buy his first year of volleyball season tickets, Klein said.

“Because of the expansion — I think I've been in line and making donations for 10 years — so the expansion gave me an opportunity to get season tickets,” Klein said.

He said “there's really not a bad seat in the house,” adding that he found a spot in the second deck, where extra seats were added.

Not every prospective season ticket holder was as lucky.

“I've been on the season ticket waiting list for probably like a decade,” Joanna Uden of Valparaiso said. “But I just haven't accumulated enough donor points … to actually get tickets, I guess, for volleyball yet.”

With two daughters, she would love to have them experience Nebraska volleyball.

“It just is a bummer, to not be able to get on that list for season tickets, yet,” Uden said. “I have a feeling it's going to take me a while, because our volleyball team is amazing, and people want to be here.”

But there’s at least hope of getting season tickets at some point, she said, when the previous system largely kept new fans out. Uden tried to sum up the array of views on reseating.

“I think the season ticket holders, the prior season ticket holders, probably see the bad,” Uden said. “And I think the rest of us are like, ‘Okay, well, maybe this will open a door eventually.” She added “I like to believe the best, especially our university system. I'm an alumni, so I like to think they're telling us the truth and being honest with us.”

Hope it remains intimidating

An athletic department spokesperson said the school will look for ways to improve reseating in the future. A similar process is scheduled for football season after this upcoming season. Men’s basketball reseating has been pushed back to 2029, Husker Athletics said. Meanwhile, volleyball ticketing will reportedly be adjusted every couple seasons.

There’s no one to blame, fans said. The defense attorney not renewing his season tickets, Bancroft, isn’t pointing the finger. Despite what he considers a loss, he’s not upset at anyone in the athletic department.

“I don't know that it's any loss that I can say ‘It's somebody's fault, and they should have done something different,’ because Nebraska wants to stay competitive,” Bancroft said.

He could see himself buying single-game tickets for a few different matches, even though he wouldn’t sit by his friends, or the attorney could head west for away games near the Pacific Ocean. Bancroft knows he was fortunate to be given the tickets in the first place, when college athletes weren’t paid and demand for seats wasn't nearly as high.

“And I benefited from it,” Bancroft said. “I benefited from getting to see 30-plus years of quality women, coaches laying it all out on the court and playing fantastic matches. And I was lucky to be there.”

For this year’s season ticket holders, he hopes they focus in on the action and don’t become a more distractible group.

“You move on, so I hope that it remains an intimidating place to play,” Bancroft said. “I hope that we have interested, high volleyball-IQ people going to matches. … that it remains a loyal, supportive fan base, who understands the history of it and appreciates the fact that they're there.”

Snyder echoed many of Bancroft’s thoughts. She agreed that communication could have been more straightforward on the “why,” and she’s worried the intensity won’t be as high this fall. But Snyder said people were also scared about the move to the Devaney Center about 13 years ago.

“A lot of people were nervous, I think, when we moved to Devaney, but the university did a really good job of making Devaney similar to the Coliseum, as much as you could,” Snyder said. “It's also become a beast to play in.”

She hopes “in tune” fans stick around, and Nebraska retains its home-court advantage.

“I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that things are going to stay the same or get better,” Snyder said.

That hope will be tested when the Huskers finally return home to play in the newly renovated Devaney Center against New Mexico on Sept. 10. Three other schools will compete in the renovated arena for the first time. Nebraska hosts a tournament that weekend with three games in three days, including matches against Baylor and Georgia Tech.