The ESPN Events team debuted two owned-and-operated volleyball invitationals this fall, seeing great success in their first year. From viewership highs to attendance wins to great competition on the floor, the Events team continues to highlight ESPN’s commitment to women’s sports.
ESPN Events Director of Operations, Stephanie Grant, gave her thoughts on how these two events came to fruition.
This year, the ESPN Events team debuted two new volleyball showcases – when did the ideas for each of these come about & how was the process in seeing them come to light?
We have been talking about creating a volleyball event for a couple of years as we continue to focus on elevating women’s sports. We were presented with an opportunity to collaborate with the Nashville Sports Council to create an event. Nashville is a great location; we worked together on the teams and programming and began developing the Broadway Block Party. The Showdown at the Net was created via a collaboration with both the ACC and SEC conferences as a part of the ACC/SEC Volleyball Challenge. We all agreed it was a great opportunity to create a neutral site event featuring two teams from each conference.
It was a fun process with lots of learning for our team on the ins and outs of a new sport category. Volleyball viewership has steadily increased in recent years and we saw that in both the Broadway Block Party and the Showdown at the Net. In Nashville, the Nebraska/Kentucky match on ABC delivered 1.2 million viewers, the highest regular season match ever on our air. The Texas/Louisville match of Showdown at The Net on ESPN was the fourth-highest regular season match ever on ESPN networks.
As we see the continued growth of women’s sports, how does ESPN Events approach invitationals such as the Sprouts Farmers Market Broadway Block Party and the Shriners Children’s Showdown at the Net?
In thinking about our women’s sports portfolio, we have demonstrated our commitment to future growth of women’s sports. We continue to focus on opportunities that fill valuable programming windows while serving the needs of our sponsors, conference partners and teams. It is no different than how we have approached and continue to grow the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational and the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad, which are in their seventh and third year, respectively.
What was your favorite part of each volleyball event this fall?
My favorite part of each event was being a part of a start-up event and adding a new women’s sport for our Events team. It is fulfilling to see a concept that we have discussed in meetings come to fruition.
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