PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — On a recent weeknight at this northeast Portland bar, fans sipped pints and burgers as big-screen TVs broadcast the women's college lacrosse and beach volleyball games. I was eating. Autographed memorabilia from female athletes covered the walls, and a picture of U.S. soccer legend Abby Wambach hung above the chalkboard beer menu.
The Sports Bra is a pub that celebrates women's sport and is the only one to be shown on TV.
This lively bar capitalizes on the rapidly growing interest in women's sports. More recently, that's been exemplified by the excitement surrounding Clark's record-breaking feat, which is being exemplified by University of Iowa basketball phenomenon Caitlin Clark's record-breaking feat.
Just two years after opening, the bar announced plans this week to expand nationwide through a franchise model.
Under the plan, bars and entrepreneurs in other locations will be able to apply to use The Sports Bra brand for franchises. Nguyen is willing to work with those who already have a physical space, as well as those who only have a business plan. What's important, she said, is that potential future partners share sports bra values.
One ambitious partner is Jackie Lo. She wants to open a franchise in Cincinnati, where she is the CEO of a media and marketing agency. In an interview with Sportsbra Magazine, where she was happily watching her college's women's lacrosse team on TV, she said such facilities “celebrate women's sports and the champions and athletes behind their stories.” Told.
“It's been a lot of fun to see this bar grow and become so popular,” Roe said of the bar. “This is a perfect time for women's sports.”
The expansion will be fueled by funding from a foundation founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, wife of tennis legend Serena Williams. Nguyen said she has already received hundreds of inquiries.
Interest in women's sports is at an all-time high, thanks in part to Clark's success this year, when she broke the NCAA's all-time scoring records for both men and women. The championship game between Iowa and South Carolina on April 7th drew an average of 18.9 million viewers, surpassing the attendance for the men's title game for the first time.
A week later, a record-setting average of 2.45 million viewers tuned into the WNBA Draft to watch Clark head to the Indiana Fever with the No. 1 pick. This week, it was reported that she is set to sign a $28 million deal with Nike, making it the richest sponsorship deal for a women's basketball player.
The growing interest is not just in women's basketball, but in other sports as well. The 2023 Women's World Cup saw a record attendance of nearly 2 million fans. More than 92,000 people attended a University of Nebraska volleyball game at the football stadium last August, setting a world record for the most attendance for a women's sporting event.
“Right now is the height of attention,” said Lauren Anderson, director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon. “A lot of things came together to create a moment that was more than just a flash in the pan for women’s sports.”
As the fan base and engagement grows, so does the desire to change the culture of sports bars, which have traditionally catered to male athletic competition. Other establishments like The Sports Bra have recently opened elsewhere, with A Bar of Their Own opening in Minneapolis earlier this year and Seattle's Rough & Tumble opening in late 2022.
Sports bars weren't always welcoming places for women, Nguyen said. She had been a fan since she was little, but she didn't feel comfortable going alone, so she often gathered her friends and went there often. She recalled encountering an uncomfortable macho environment and a bartender who refused to change the channel to a game aimed at women.
“That’s what we agreed on,” she said. “When I wanted to rebel and upend the status quo, I started really digging into how sports bras are important and how they can change the narrative of sports bars.”
For Nguyen, one of the most memorable memories from her time as a manager was Serena Williams' final match in 2022. A large number of spectators gathered to watch the match, even spilling onto the sidewalks. People outside were looking through windows at screens, covering their eyes with their hands.
“When Serena scored, I swear to God I thought the glass was going to break. My eyeballs were rolling in my head,” Nguyen said. “And when they were firing the salvo, I think I heard them flipping burgers in the kitchen.”
As she neared the end, she felt tears well up in her eyes. As everyone was enjoying Williams' final moments on the court, she passed out two boxes of tissues to customers who were also in tears.
“I remember taking a deep breath and thinking, 'I don't know if there's a single place on Earth that is having this exact moment,'” Nguyen said. “It was amazing.”
Taran Chahardbari, an assistant professor in the University of South Carolina's Department of Sports and Entertainment Management, said fans still find it difficult to watch women's sports games because many of them are not broadcast on television and require a separate streaming subscription. He said it could be difficult.
With subscriptions, Women's Sports Bar can be your reliable go-to for many events. But more broadly, Chahardvari said there is still much work to do to ensure the media market does not undervalue women's sport.
“Today's numbers cannot be ignored. I think these are very exciting times,” she said. “But it is a moment that needs to be maintained and sustained, and it requires continued investment.”
