Cassidy Lichtman: We’re not there yet … the biggest volleyball push is yet to come
Former Stanford All-American and USA national-team player Cassidy Lichtman has an extensive volleyball resume. She played professionally for five years in Poland, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, France and China, and is on the USA Volleyball board of directors, Lichtman was also an assistant coach at Stanford when the Cardinal won the 2016 NCAA championship. She played in the first two Athletes Unlimited volleyball seasons and is now the AU director of volleyball. We asked her to write about the incredible upward trajectory that our sport is on and what she thinks the future holds:
By Cassidy Lichtman for VolleyballMag.com
I have spent my whole life in the volleyball world and there is no doubt that the momentum behind the sport is at an all time high. We are about to go into the biggest postseason ever in college volleyball, multiple professional leagues have developed and the youth side continues to grow at impressive rates.
And even with all of that activity, we’re not there yet.
The gap between volleyball’s popularity and its visibility is wider than any other sport. We aren’t trending like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese or showing up on SportsCenter regularly. We have built a giant silo but have yet to break out of it into the mainstream sports conversation.
So let’s take a look at where we’ve been and where we can go next.
Anyone who has stepped into a convention center for a club volleyball tournament should not be surprised by the surging popularity of the sport. At a time when youth sports participation is dropping, volleyball’s numbers continue to rise. After passing soccer and basketball years ago as the biggest team sport for girls in high school, volleyball is the only sport in the top ten at the high school level that has continued to grow in recent years. USA Volleyball saw a growth in membership of almost 10 percent in the 2022-2023 season, which was the largest percentage growth in 25 years.
Cassidy Lichtman
Maybe the biggest development for volleyball over the last decade has been the emergence of the conference networks. For the first time audiences have had access to volleyball on TV, which is likely the most significant factor in how we are able to grow the game.
It is really hard to be a fan of something you can’t see.
The audience growth on the Big Ten Network and on the ESPN family of conference networks has brought objective evidence that people want to watch volleyball. Regular-season matches this NCAA season airing regularly on ESPN’s main channel and for the first time ever on Fox tells us that the networks are paying attention.
The in-venue audiences are also multiplying year after year. Where it used to be only Nebraska and Hawaii who could fill a stadium, we now have packed houses and record turnouts around the country.
There are a few likely reasons why we’re seeing this now. It may be due in part to that growth in youth participation which has surged well beyond the regional mainstays like California and Texas. It also probably takes at least a generation to build a fanbase and Title IX only passed 51 years ago. We haven’t had the benefit of the men’s side of the sport building up its popularity and cultural resonance like we’ve seen in sports like basketball and soccer. Our audience had to grow organically and as we get to the second and third generations of volleyball players, more children are growing up with it as a normal part of their lives.
Finally, professional volleyball has arrived.
Three years ago Athletes Unlimited brought pro volleyball back to the United States for the first time in over 30 years and brought it back in a big way. AU had multiple national television partners from the start and broadcast every match on either TV or streaming platforms, making pro volleyball accessible to fans. The roster included world-class talent like Jordan Larson, Bethania De La Cruz and Sheilla Castro.
And big partners like Nike and Gatorade jumped in right away.
Now, three seasons later, some of the top talent coming out of the NCAA pipeline has the option to stay home. The same players who you have watched dominate in the final four and rack up All-American awards — Kentucky’s Leah Edmond and Alli Stumler Linnehan, Wisconsin’s Sydney Hilley and Danielle Hart, Louisville’s Claire Chaussee, Stanford’s Morgan Hentz — you can now watch continue their volleyball careers as pros. With the development of new leagues Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) and League One Volleyball (LOVB) we are beginning to build a robust professional presence in the USA for the first time.
So with all of that said, what do we need in order to continue this growth and really break out as a mainstream sport?
We need further visibility and investment by new partners.
Our media presence must continue to grow.
ESPN, Fox and the conference networks need to keep elevating the sport. It’s not only about what channels we are on, but the time slots, the shows leading in and how they market us. NCAA matches are getting increased opportunities and Athletes Unlimited’s third season marked the first time pro volleyball was shown on ESPN’s platforms, but there is still work to be done. There is a giant media ecosystem that serves men’s sports. If volleyball is outperforming given a fraction of that attention and opportunity, imagine what we could do with true exposure.
Cassidy Lichtman/JadeHewitt, Athletes Unlimited
The next step beyond that is partners and sponsors recognizing the value and putting dollars behind it. We have a contingent of consistent partners who are endemic to the sport, like ball, equipment or flooring companies, but seeing partners come from outside of volleyball to support at all levels is critical as well.
That means all kinds of companies, from banks and department stores to airlines and auto manufacturers. There are a lot of people talking about women’s sports right now but not a lot of people putting their money where their mouth is.
Simply put, the forward-thinking companies need to recognize that volleyball is the next big sport and get in on the ground floor.
We also need the current volleyball audience to embrace professional volleyball. Watching Athletes Unlimited this fall, there is no doubt in my mind that the same fans who are enthralled by the NCAA tournament will fall in love with the pro version. These are the all-stars of the all-stars and they are competing with playoff intensity every night. I have played at the highest level around the world and this league is as entertaining as any pro league out there. As we build the talent pipeline and see college stars transition to the pros, hopefully those fanbases continue to support and follow them so more fans can get exposure to the pro level. We can have a huge audience for college volleyball but there are no mainstream sports that do not have a robust professional presence.
Finally, we need to be collaborative.
The growth of volleyball helps us all and should be celebrated. Last spring Athletes Unlimited took a group of pros on a tour to play exhibitions at nine top college programs and it was incredible to see the college programs embrace the partnership enthusiastically. This season at AU we had visits from coaches and leaders from both PVF and LOVB. At the upcoming AVCA convention next month in Tampa we’ll have representation from USA Volleyball and all three pro leagues. We need all of our organizations, programs and the people who have come through our sport and gone on to work outside of it. We all have our own agendas and root for our own teams but we need to partner and build together as well. When it comes to the growth of the game we should all look to build each other up.
Momentum and big moments are to be celebrated, but the biggest push is yet to come. I cannot wait until volleyball is cemented into mainstream culture and conversations and it’s going to take all of our collective efforts to get there.
A year ago, Cassidy Lichtman was named by Adweek as one of the most powerful women in sports.
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