It's not an uncommon problem. Sports fans wanting to see top female athletes compete have nowhere to watch. Enter the Sports Bra, a bar opened in Portland, Oregon, in April by sports fan and former basketball player Jenny Nguyen.
Her idea was to empower and elevate female athletes by establishing a bar that only shows women's sports. As Nguyen said to LX News, she wants people "to walk in and just feel like it's a very familiar, traditional sports bar, but that when they look around or pay attention, it's women's sports on TV."
The idea for the Sports Bra came about in 2018 when Nguyen and a group of friends wanted to go out to watch the NCAA Women's championship for basketball. They walked into a "regular" sports bar that had over 30 TVs but none had the game on.
Nguyen recalled thinking the only way they would be able to watch women's sports games in public was if they had their own bar. And while she said the idea was more a comment made out of frustration, she decided to pursue it.
Since then the support from the community has been unbelievable, Nguyen said.
"Portland is my hometown. I was born and raised here in Portland. So being able to open a place like the Sports Bra here in my hometown has been one of the most impactful things for me, personally," she said.
Nguyen said she hoped to expand nationwide.
"It's really become apparent to me that this concept and this mission resonates with so many people because it's so much more than just sports," she said, adding that there were "so many things" about sports bars that don't seem inclusive of everybody.
"When you talk to people, it's such a common experience going into a sports bar and the least of the issues really is getting the channel changed," she continued. "I mean, there's other things like feeling safe or feeling seen or feeling represented, and so I think that the Sports Bra kind of sees that and is reaching to fill everything that we want a sports bar to be."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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