(We made a list. We checked it twice. From now until New Year’s Eve, we are counting down the top ten headlines of 2019. Today, we look at #10 on our list.)
10. WCWS sets attendance record; sees new and returning faces
The 2019 Women’s College World Series took place in the midst of a two-year renovation project that was projected to not only give Hall of Fame Stadium a face-lift, but also add seating and expand capacity for the game’s biggest stage.
A new two-story press box highlighted the completed improvements to the stadium for this year’s Series, while an upper deck for seating is expected to be completed by 2020. The construction and other happenings, though, didn’t deter softball fans, who turned out in droves en route to setting a new all-time attendance record for a full WCWS tournament.
Attendance for the 2019 edition of the championship totaled out to 78,361, nearly three hundred more than the previous record. Notably, that record – set in 2015 – included a 3-game championship series, one more game than was played this year, when UCLA took home the title with back-to-back victories in the championship series.
In 2019, attendance averaged out to more than 8,700 fans per game; Hall of Fame Stadium officially records a “sell-out” at 8,400 fans. Hall of Fame Stadium sells tickets to “sessions” – pairs of back-to-back games – in lieu of individual games, and three individual sessions of games set their respective all-time attendance records, while the single-session attendance record was also recorded in a pair of games that included Arizona-UCLA and Oklahoma-Oklahoma State and brought in more than 9,800 people.
Not only did this year’s WCWS bring out a hearty group of softball lovers to fill the stands, it also saw a team make it to Oklahoma City for the first time ever, as well as the return of some teams that had not made the trip in several years.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers – led by ace Amber Fiser – earned a top-8 seed in the NCAA tournament, blazed through tough competition in the regional round, then by SEC-foe LSU in the Super Regional round, to punch their tickets to Oklahoma City for the first time in program history.
Oklahoma State and Arizona, who had not reached the World Series since 2011 and 2010, respectively, made their returns to Oklahoma City. The 13th-ranked Cowgirls pulled off an upset over #4 Florida State in the Super Regionals to earn their berth, while Arizona continued their streak of thirty-three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and marked the program’s 23rd trip to OKC.
Continuing their own streaks of consecutive appearances in the WCWS were Washington (3rd straight year); Oklahoma (4th straight year); Florida (3rd straight year); and eventual National Champion UCLA (5th straight year), while Alabama returned to Oklahoma City for the first time since 2016.
