How a women’s pro volleyball league has gained support from Olympians to Joe Burrow

OMAHA, Neb. — Sydney Hilley faced an uncomfortable reality when her college volleyball career ended in December 2021. A four-time All-American, she directed Wisconsin to its first national championship, winning a marathon match against rival Nebraska.

At the collegiate pinnacle of her sport, Hilley desired to keep playing, even while she juggled work in medical diagnostics as a manufacturing scientist  — the product of an undergraduate degree in genetics and genomics and a master’s in biotechnology.

An opportunity arose in Turkey with one of the top teams in the world. Hilley tried it. She played last year in Puerto Rico but longed to live near her family and friends with access to her work.

Her story is common among top American volleyball players.

“A lot of us have experienced the overseas professional game,” Hilley said. “And a lot of us have decided that’s not the life we want to live.”

Wednesday night in Omaha brought the long-awaited launch of the Pro Volleyball Federation, a seven-team league with plans to compete against the WNBA and NWSL for viewership and the fandom of an American public that’s increasingly in tune with women’s sports.

It fulfills a dream to play professionally in the United States for many of the 130-plus players under contract.

Hilley, a 25-year-old setter, led the Omaha Supernovas onto the court Wednesday and delivered the opening serve. A crowd of 11,624, the largest in American professional volleyball history, gathered to watch at the CHI Health Center as the Atlanta Vibe defeated the Supernovas in the inaugural match, a five-set thriller.

History in the making! 🔥🔥🔥 @atlantavibe with the first point in league history#RallyWithUs #RealProVolleyball#ProVolleyball pic.twitter.com/5DgWAG83nl

— Pro Volleyball Federation (@RealProVB) January 25, 2024

“History was made tonight,” Atlanta outside hitter Alli Linnehan said.

The Pro Volleyball Federation, backed financially by the likes of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and chart-topping singer-songwriter Jason Derulo, is banking on this moment.

“The same plan, the same concept, everything done the same way 10 years ago,” league co-founder Stephen Evans said, “it probably wouldn’t have worked just because the environment for women’s sports wasn’t where it is today.”

Volleyball is surging in popularity in the United States. It is the No. 1 female participatory sport among the high school and college age group in this country, according to USA Volleyball.

Last August, the University of Nebraska attracted a crowd of 92,003, the largest in the world for a women’s sporting event, at its football stadium. A group of Pro Volleyball Federation officials, investors and players attended that match, some 60 miles from the site of the league unveiling Wednesday.

“It was the most impressive thing I’ve witnessed in sports history,” said Tori Dixon, a 10-year member of the U.S. national team who plays middle blocker for the Supernovas.

Record attendance at college programs across the country followed the early-season event in Lincoln, Neb., while television viewership jumped. The NCAA championship in December, a Texas victory against Nebraska, averaged 1.7 million viewers, a 115 percent rise from 2022, and it peaked at 2.1 million on ABC.

Leaders of this new league are convinced that demand for professional volleyball in the United States has existed. The supply has not. Until now.

The Pro Volleyball Federation has seven teams across the country in its league. (Mitch Sherman / The Athletic)

Jimmy Burrow, Joe’s father, played football at Nebraska in the 1970s and coached at Iowa State from 1987 to 1994. Soon after, through his involvement in arena football, he met Dave Whinham, the eventual co-founder with Evans of the Pro Volleyball Federation.

More than two decades ago, Whinham and Evans founded a sports management company, and they turned their attention to a pro volleyball league less than five years ago.

Whinham reconnected with Jimmy Burrow to gauge his interest in working on the project. Retired from football coaching as of 2019 at Ohio University, Burrow was intrigued. He became a founding partner and aided the Pro Volleyball Federation in brand advancement and strategy.

Burrow helped recruit the Omaha ownership group, led by Danny White and Chris Erickson. White, in turn, brought Derulo on board.

Later, Jimmy Burrow approached Joe about an opportunity to invest in the Columbus, Ohio, franchise. Joe said yes, strengthening an informal bond between the NFL and the Pro Volleyball Federation.

“He’s all football,” Jimmy said of Joe Burrow, “but he does have different interests.”

The endeavor appealed to Joe in part because it allowed him to provide an opportunity for women in pro sports unavailable to Jimmy’s mother, Dot (Ford) Burrow. As a Mississippi high school basketball player, Joe’s grandmother scored 82 points in a game and averaged close to 50 in a full season, according to Jimmy.

The impact of Joe’s involvement in the volleyball league rates as immense in building awareness and credibility.

“He’s told us that he really believes in this,” Whinham said. “It’s meant so much. We don’t have a meeting where somebody doesn’t ask us about Joe.”

Last year, more than 300 American women played pro volleyball abroad. No comparable alternative to the overseas leagues has ever existed in the United States.

“This moment is well overdue,” Pro Volleyball Federation CEO Jen Spicher said. “Volleyball has always been a phenomenal team sport.”

Others are attempting to capitalize on the moment.

Athletes Unlimited, in the fourth year of a partnership with the U.S. national team program, plays a short fall season. League One Volleyball, an American pro league built through connections with junior volleyball clubs, plans to debut late in 2024.

The Pro Volleyball Federation includes teams in Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego and Grand Rapids, Mich., in addition to Columbus, Omaha and Atlanta. The league plans to expand to Dallas, Indianapolis and Kansas City in 2025.

Unique to the Pro Volleyball Federation, all franchises are independently owned. U.S. Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings bought into the San Diego organization. Dan DeVos, whose family owns the Orlando Magic, heads ownership in Grand Rapids. Foley Entertainment Group, stakeholders in the Las Vegas Golden Knights, owns the volleyball franchise in Vegas.

The league features 17 players who’ve played with the U.S. national team, including 10 who are currently in the Team USA gym ahead of roster selection for the 2024 Summer Olympics as the United States aims to defend its gold medal. Thirty of 35 players drafted in December signed with the league before its first serve.

Teams will play a 24-game regular season, with the semifinals and championship set for May.

Players are paid a base salary of $60,000 over the 4 1/2-month season. Two franchise players on each roster earn $100,000. All contracts include a structure that pays $5,000 for first-team all-league honors, $15,000 for MVP of the league and $10,000 for MVP of the playoffs, among other bonuses.

The league champion will split a $1 million bonus. The teams have agreed to a revenue-sharing plan with players.

Gina Mancuso-Prososki, an outside hitter for the Supernovas, played at Nebraska from 2009 to 2012 and grew up in Omaha.

“I always just tell people to keep pinching me,” she said.

The atmosphere Wednesday in Omaha grew more festive as the night progressed. As the players shook hands under the net before the match began, they couldn’t hide their smiles.

“We’re playing pro volleyball in the states,” Atlanta outside hitter Leah Edmond said, as if she needed to convince herself of this truth.

Atlanta won the first two sets. Omaha won the third and fourth as the atmosphere turned electric. In the decisive fifth, the Supernovas led 13-10 before Atlanta scored the final five points. The aftermath remained celebratory as the crowd offered an ovation for both teams.

Going five sets in the inaugural match for the Pro Volleyball Federation between Atlanta and host Omaha in front of nearly 12,000.

Another great night for women’s sports. pic.twitter.com/R2NpFWN1lr

— Mitch Sherman (@mitchsherman) January 25, 2024

“It was a spectacle,” Omaha coach Shelton Collier said. “It was an event. We were proud to be a part of it.”

Omaha has hosted the NCAA volleyball semifinals and championship five times since 2006. If any questions existed about the league’s choice of the city as its first host, the environment Wednesday provided an answer.

“Nebraska — Omaha and Lincoln in particular — are to volleyball as Cooperstown is to baseball or Canton is to football,” Whinham said. “It’s a cradle. So it’s certainly appropriate that (the first) event would occur in Nebraska.”

Wednesday in Omaha did not mark the culmination of the league’s work. It was only the beginning.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity,” Hilley said, “because it’s something that none of us ever thought we’d be able to do.”

For athletes like Hilley, two years out of college, and Dixon, who played in the Middle East, China and Europe for a decade, the chance to compete professionally in the United States amounts to a career highlight.

“This is the moment,” Dixon said. “And I’m really happy that people are taking advantage. The sport deserves this.”

(Top photo: Rebecca S. Gratz / Associated Press)