Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso wants to be at the top of everything in college softball, including attendance records.
This season, the Sooners and Oklahoma State Cowgirls drew a crowd of 9,259 to the only Bedlam game of the season at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, home of the Women's College World Series. It was the most fans to ever attend a regular-season college softball game, at least for a week and a half.
Only 10 days later, 13,207 people watched Cal beat Stanford to break OU's new attendance record. It also bested the 12,566 fans that watched Session 2 of the Women's College World Series last year, which was the biggest crowd ever for any college softball game. The Sooners also played that day.
However, the hosting Stanford had an advantage that Gasso wants in order to reclaim the record.
Patty Gasso floats idea of Sooners playing softball game at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
With its softball venue undergoing renovations, Stanford this season has played its softball games at its football stadium, which has a capacity of 50,424. That's small for a football stadium, but still dwarfs all softball venues.
Just last year, OU built a glorious new 4,200-seat softball stadium, Love's Field. The Sooners also frequently play at Devon Park, host of the 2028 Olympics, which has a capacity of 13,000. Both are incredible softball venues, but neither compare to the 83,489-seat Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium down the road.
Gasso said the possibility of a softball game being played at OU's football stadium was mentioned after Nebraska hosted a volleyball match at its football stadium in 2023 and broke an attendance record. At the time, Memorial Stadium was undergoing some renovations, so changes could have been made to make it possible to house a softball field.
"That was a long time ago, so I probably need to revisit that, especially now," Gasso said. "We like to take claim for big moments, so when I saw that, I was like, 'Ohh,' and then I'm like, 'But, yeah!' Because that's pretty cool. It really would be interesting to see like a full stadium -- what it would look like. How many people would really show up? ...
"Even if you put grandstands out at (Devon Park), we might be able to do something to beat (the attendance record). I think it would be amazing to see a full football stadium. So, yeah, thank you for reminding me. I'll make that phone call."
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