Grim attendance picture for second-year PVF
All Volleyball! uncovers alarming trend: Six of the seven holdover franchises have drawn significantly smaller crowds in 2025
The Pro Volleyball Federation not only has failed to grow its ticket-buying audience in its second season, six of the seven returning franchises have gone backwards in fan investment.
Only the Omaha Supernovas have averaged bigger crowds in 2025 than they did in 2024. And the Novas have announced they will leave the PVF after this season to become the flagship franchise of new Major League Volleyball.
It’s the inconvenient truth the PVF doesn't want its fans to know.
PVF CEO Jen Spicher recently went on record during the Volleyball MasterCoaches podcast as saying, “We are super-stoked about our attendance. Attendance is very strong, again.”
An eye-opening survey of all but one PVF match to date (a single attendance was not reported) by All Volleyball! revealed a far different reality than Spicher’s sugar-coating. Even though the PVF has had another year to market its product and despite a far greater media “reach” than it had during the inaugural 2024 season, volleyball-crazy Omaha is the lone market in which fans have come out in greater numbers.
The chart below — compiled off research by All Volleyball! — details the grim numbers for the teams in Grand Rapids, Columbus, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Orlando and San Diego.
The greatest declines of nearly half their paying fan bases have been seen in Orlando and San Diego. The Mojo are under .500, but the Valkyries have failed to maintain its audience even through the team has been much more competitive and enjoyed a PVF-record nine-match winning streak.
Here is a club-by-club breakdown of PVF attendances in Year 2:
Omaha Supernovas
Continuing to tide a tsunami of inherited volleyball mania built over decades by the perennially powerful Nebraska Cornhuskers collegiate program, the Novas have drawn nine of the 10 biggest crowds of the 2025 season through nine dates at massive CHI Health Center and have boosted their attendance by 15.7%.
They drew a pro-volleyball-record 13,486 for their opener on Jan. 10 against the Atlanta Vibe. Since then, the Novas have three more throngs that were larger than their biggest house in 2024 (12,0790). Their smallest crowd is 8,010, which has been exceeded in only one other league contest this season, the 8,706 drawn by the Grand Rapids Rise in their opener on Jan. 12 against the Supernovas in a rematch of the 2024 PVF championship match.
But should the Fed even point to the Omaha team in its attendance figures when it is such an outlier and its maverick ownership group intends to ditch the PVF in 2026?
Whether the MVL ever gets off the ground is problematic, given a total public stagnancy since its ballyhooed and shocking announcement in mid-January. The PVF has taken the stance that the Novas would not be welcomed back, but pragmatically, wouldn’t the Fed be a lot strong with the Omaha franchise than without it?
Indy Ignite
The expansion team ranks second in average attendance at 3,967 drawn to the suburban Fishers Event Center. That number got a hefty boost from the 6,913 fans who welcomed the franchise in its opener. Three of the Ignite’s last five houses have checked in at fewer than 3,000, with a low of 2,856.
Looking at the bigger picture, the Fury and the Rise each averaged around 4,500 during the inaugural season. The Ignite haven’t generated those numbers However, the Ignite are solidly in the postseason picture and business figures to pick up even more as the battle to remain above the playoff cut line.
Grand Rapids Rise
The Rise have the largest crowd of the second season not drawn in Omaha, the aforementioned 8,706 against the Novas. However, that enthusiasm quickly waned, and the second-biggest gathering at Van Andel Arena has been 4,482 in the team’s third home date. Overall their attendance is down 21.9%.
With the club struggling at 8-12 with eight matches to play, pretty much out of the playoff hunt, seeing an increase of the Rise’s average attendance of 3,507 appears unlikely, since they haven’t reached that figure in the last seven.
Columbus Fury
That the Columbus market has continued to support a last-place team with even these numbers, 3,411 on average for 11 dates at gigantic Nationwide Arena, should not go unnoticed. Neither should the Fury’s in-season signing of elite setter Nootsara Tomkom, which showed they cared enough about their ticket-buying customers to improve the roster even though the postseason is pretty much out of the team’s grasp.
The Fury have a top crowd of 6,290 for their opener, then drew 5,043 for their second match, but haven’t been higher than 3,600 since. Their smallest house is 2,141 and overall their houses have dropped by 24.4%.
Atlanta Vibe
The Vibe’s tiny crowds at suburban Gas South Arena in Duluth have to be a major cause for concern to the PVF. The club has two of the league’s most recognizable and decorated superstars, outside hitter Leah Edmond and libero Morgan Hentz, and yet crickets could be heard at Gas South during most matches.
The largest Gas South gathering has been 2,035, the smallest 1,220 and half of the 10 dates there had fewer than 2,000. The Vibe got a one-match boost last weekend when it played the Mojo downtown at the Georgia State Convocation Center and put 5,539 in the 7,000-seat building. However, two days later, it was back to normalcy with 2,562 in the new (for the club) venue on the Georgia State campus.
The Vibe’s remaining two home dates are back at Gas South. Overall, the franchise has seen a 31.3% decline in attendance for a star-laden team that is in second place in the standings, casting considerable doubt as to whether the Atlanta market wants to support women’s pro volleyball.
Vegas Thrill
The Thrill opened the season hot, which likely helped draw better crowds to its home, Lee’s Family Forum in suburban Henderson, the smallest arena in the PVF at 5,567 seats.
The were at the bottom of the average-attendance chart in 2024 (the only club under 3,000) and they have shown an erosion of only 17.6% to 2,225 through nine dates. Given the state of the rest of the Fed other than the Novas, that might be considered not bad. Except that 2,225 fans, in the big picture, still is a tiny number.
The Thrill’s biggest house was 4,179 for their opener against the Rise on Jan. 10 and they have bottomed out at 986, one of three PVF crowds in three digits during its sophomore campaign.
Earlier this week, the league announced that the 2025 playoffs will be held at Lee’s Family Forum, the semifinals played on May 9 and the “Match for a Million” final on May 11.
“Las Vegas is a destination city,” read Spicher’s “hoopla” quote in the league’s release. “We are thrilled to give our fans and followers a great reason to travel there.”
Will the locals show up if the Thrill don’t make the postseason?
Orlando Valkyries
The Valkyries have been the PVF’s most improved team on the court and, nonetheless, its biggest loser in terms decline in percentage of attendance.
Through 10 reported home dates at Addition Financial Arena on the campus of UCF (the attendance of one match was not included in the league’s official online stats summary), the Valks’ crowds have seen a 47.9% free-fall.
Their high in 2024 was 5,284 but their top house this season has been only 2,587 for the opener on July 9. The Valks’ smallest during the inaugural campaign was 3,077. Not one of its crowds in '25 has reached that number. Their nadir has been 868 and seven have been fewer than 2,000.
A legitimate question moving forward: Does Central Florida have enough fans who care about pro volleyball to support a PVF team? The numbers suggest it doesn’t.
San Diego Mojo
If any team has given viewers watching its matches on TV or a live stream more backdrops of empty seats, it’s the poor Mojo. Not only are they at the bottom of the average-attendance list at 1,644, their “one big bowl” Viejas Arena showcases large sections with no fans on every camera angle.
The Mojo’s top gathering at Viejas was 3,963 for their home debut on Jan. 16 against the Valks. Their next-biggest was 1,848. The 865 they drew on Jan. 30 against the Vibe is the smallest crowd in PVF history. Second-to-last on the attendance chart in 2024, the Mojo’s houses have sunk 47.5%.
As with Atlanta and Orlando, does the San Diego market want a PVF franchise?
A little help …
Larry Hamel’s All Volleyball! is just getting started so I ask for your assistance in building its readership base. Please forward this email to your volleyball friends who might find the page of interest and/or share this post to your social-media platforms. Also, your financial aid would be greatly appreciated. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. All Volleyball! is independent third-party journalism bringing you stories you can read. Thanks for your support!
If you enjoyed reading this story, check out what else is on the All Volleyball! site by hitting the button below:
The difference between a startup TV show on network TV and a league such as the PVF is that the new show organically receives public awareness through the promos for it that run on established shows.
That dynamic doesn't exist in the PVF. Any promotion it receives has to be self-initiated.
My story presented no hand-wringing. It's a straightforward recap of attendance numbers that show 6 of the 7 holdover franchises have not built their fan bases in the second year. Getting more fans, not fewer, is a logical progression since teams had a year to market an established product to their fans rather than the more concept of women's pro volleyball.
The only conclusions drawn were the suggestions that Orlando, Atlanta and San Diego might not be markets that care to support their PVF teams.
The PVF also has greatly expanded its opportunities to reach mainstream casuals through more matches on cable and the All-Star Match on CBS. Plus, more of the individual franchises have local TV exposure. Yet only the Omaha Supernovas have drawn larger crowds in 2025 than was seen in 2024.
The overlapping markets are Omaha and Atlanta. As the story notes, the Supernovas have expanded their ticket-buying base in the second season despite having a LOVB team as direct competition.
Neither Atlanta pro franchise has done much at the box office, other than the one heavily promoted match downtown by the Vibe. LOVB doesn't disclose its attendance figures (other than maybe three matches all season) but from what I saw on the live feed from the Atlanta matches at the suburban arena near the airport, that team played to most empty seats despite being highly successful from the start.
So my view is that the volleyball fans in the large Atlanta market haven't cared enough about either team to buy tickets. The Vibe also typically do below-average "views" on the PVF YouTube channel for their away matches. That's another signal that what fans the Vibe have aren't highly invested in the team.