Stanford broke the college softball all-time attendance record Saturday with a crowd of 13,207 for its game against rival Cal, played at the Cardinal’s football stadium.
The previous record of 12,566 was set at last year’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
The Cardinal are playing at Stanford Stadium this season while their regular venue, Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium, undergoes a $38.5 million renovation. The school record at that venue was 1,323.
Stanford spent weeks promoting Saturday’s game as a special event called “The Big Swing,” blasting fans with marketing emails and inviting youth softball leagues across the Bay Area. Just two nights earlier, Cal and Stanford played in front of 737 spectators at the same stadium.
The program relocated to Stanford Stadium in January. The diamond is on one side of the stadium, with home plate in a corner adjacent to where an end zone normally lies. A temporary outfield wall spans roughly the middle of the football field, with canopies along the foul lines serving as the dugouts.
The 15th-ranked Cardinal are coming off back-to-back appearances in the Women’s College World Series, finishing in third place both years. When completed, their new stadium will seat 1,347 fans.
(Photo: Brett Rojo / Imagn Images)