A women’s sports bucket list
From Nebraska volleyball to Wimbledon tennis, so many events pique the imagination
Ah, bucket lists.
They can either motivate you or depress you. They can help you plan a vacation or make you wonder how in the world you can possibly make something happen. Maybe they’re even a little morbid. But for a chronic list-maker like myself they’re totally on brand, so to speak.
One bucket list of mine was all of the above. My music bucket list had Sinead O’Connor at the top and I planned two trips around seeing her during her small-venue tour in 2020. It was my third attempt at seeing her; once she got sick and didn’t reschedule that tour stop and another time I got stuck in a blizzard and didn’t get there. But as I sat in a Chicago restaurant having dinner before the concert, I got a text from the venue saying the show was canceled.
It was Saturday, March 14, 2020, the day all hell broke loose with the pandemic. Sinead never toured again and died in 2023.
I might never recover emotionally from that but for some fool reason I’ve given another bucket list a shot: a Women’s Sports Bucket List. Though to ward off any additional heartbreak, I won’t put them in any particular order.
And I’d also be curious to know yours.
A few caveats:
There might be things that seem to be obviously missing from a Women’s Sports Bucket List. But I’ve been fortunate to have had a career that sent me to things like the Women’s Final Four, multiple regionals, NCAA games and even the Women’s College World Series. I also have a sister who loves women’s sports as much as I do and we’ve timed trips together to incorporate some cool stuff.
And as far as topping the music list now, well, I’m not sure how a brain goes from Sinead O’Connor to Yo-Yo Ma but not only had the world-renowned cellist moved to the top of my list, he is scheduled to perform in Des Moines on Nov. 1.
Keeping my fingers crossed on that. And figuring out how to get the rest of this done.
Nebraska volleyball
This has been on the list for a long time and I still can’t figure out why I made absolutely no effort to see the match that was played at Memorial Stadium in front of 92,003 fans in 2023. Though it’s not like Nebraska volleyball in general is an easy ticket to get; the Huskers have sold out 337 consecutive home matches, a streak that dates to 2001.
Nebraska is adding 1,000 seats to the Devaney Center for the coming season. No doubt that will help … somebody, but probably not me. That’s OK, if Iowa women’s basketball has proved anything in recent years, it’s that where there’s a will there’s a way.
College gymnastics at LSU or Utah
Gymnastics ceased being a must-see Olympic event for me about the time Mary Lou Retton stopped grinning, and at the international level the sport alternates between amazing me and creeping me out thanks to its rather unpleasant recent history.
But my high school (Mount Horeb, Wis.) has been a high school gymnastics power since Title IX passed and I love how the sport is gaining momentum at the college level (and how in the new era can even include post-Olympic Olympians).
Forget women’s hoops, at LSU gymnastics is IT. The Tigers led the nation in attendance last season with 13,157 fans per meet. Utah, among the nation’s attendance leader for decades, was second with 12,877.
It’s a season that coincides with an already-busy basketball calendar but could also provide a nice getaway. The mountains of Salt Lake City or the warmth of Baton Rouge? Tough call.
Wimbledon women’s final or semifinals
I came of age in the era when tennis was bigger than big and biggest of all was the Chris Evert-Martina Navratilova rivalry. I’ve never lost my childhood reverence of the green courts of the All-England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (and did see the courts on a tour, but there was no tennis happening).
That’s part of why I’d want to see a big women’s match – with no player preference right now because there are so many I’d happily watch. Not that I’m not a fan of men’s tennis, too, but those matches are so LONG. Yes, I watched the already legendary 5-plus hour Carlos Alcarez-Jannik Sinner French Open championship match last weekend, but I did switch away a few times and watched three episodes of a new favorite cooking show. I just don’t have the patience.
UEFA Women’s Euro Cup
Oh sure, there’s the World Cup. But you can see most of the best women’s teams in the world just by hitting this tournament instead and get a potentially spectacular vacation out of the deal. The 2025 event is July 2-27 at stadiums throughout Switzerland.
What’s more, the venues are much smaller. Stadium capacities range from 9,570 to 35,689 and one in Thun, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been in my life, holds just 10,157.
The 2029 location has not been announced yet. But I suppose I could start saving my money nonetheless.
The Sports Bra, the original women’s sports bar
While sports bars that cater to fans of women’s sports are popping up across the country, I want to hit the original – the Sports Bra in Portland, Ore. Jenny Nguyen’s game-changing launch in 2022 helped spark a bit of a movement that hasn’t just given people a place to watch their favorite sports but also an environment that builds community.
Last year, the Sports Bra announced franchise opportunities. It’s an idea that met a moment and I want to pay homage to the first one. Maybe someone can come up with a punch card to go to all of them, though. That would be cool.
UCLA-USC women’s basketball
I’ve long had a visit to UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on a general bucket list because of all that glorious UCLA basketball history. Good thing I put that off because now women’s basketball has a fantastic crosstown rivalry between these two now-Big Ten schools.
Maybe I’ll wait until JuJu Watkins is 100% back from her knee injury but in any case, a trip to California in the middle of the winter sounds like an excellent idea.
Ivy Madness
More basketball, but this is a little different than your average madness. The Ivy League – the non-scholarship, NCAA Division I athletic conference full of true student-athletes – pairs its men’s and women’s conference tournaments in what just generally looks like a big gym. There’s probably not even that long of a line for the women’s room.
And yet the quality, particularly in recent years, has been fantastic. Two of the past three Ivy League players of the year – Harmoni Turner of Harvard last season and Kaitlyn Chen of Princeton in 2023 – were drafted by the WNBA in May. (Chen had transferred to UConn for her fifth season of eligibility for 2024-25.) That is quality basketball, no matter the size of the gym.
Meet Billie Jean King
To say thank you.
What’s on your Women’s Sports Bucket List? Leave it in the comments or email me at crossover.iowa@gmail.com. If I get enough responses, I can make follow-up post out of them.
Jane Burns is a former sports and features writer for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications and websites. She’s a past winner of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s Mel Greenberg Award for her coverage of women’s basketball. Over the course of her career she’s covered pretty much everything, which is why her as-yet-to-be-written memoir will be called “Cheese and Basketball: Stories From a Reporter Who Has Covered Everything.”