The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, isn’t just a bar. It’s a community. Said owner Jenny Nguyen: “When we built this place, it opened up people’s eyes to what fandom, spectatorship and the love of women’s sports really is about.”
— An hour-and-a-half before the USA opens its 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign against Vietnam, a staff member at a sports bar in Portland places an “at capacity” sign in front of the door. Dozens of people continue to peek into the bar anyway, hoping beyond reason that a spot will open up.
Inside, it feels in many ways like a typical sports bar. Throughout the night, fans who arrived early enough to snag coveted seats chow down on burgers and fries and drink pints of beer as they cheer and yell at the bar’s five TVs. Many wear scarves or jerseys with the names of their favorite athletes plastered on the back. Some are regulars who have come from down the street to be in a place they now consider a second home. Others, however, have traveled from far-flung places across the United States to be at this bar, on this day.
They’re here because of one key difference: At the Sports Bra, the only thing playing is women’s sports.
“The idea that there’s a sports bar out here dedicated to supporting women, you just don’t see that in other places,” said Paule Voevodsky, 29, who traveled from Chicago specifically to watch the USA’s 3-0 win over Vietnam at the Sports Bra with another friend who traveled from Houston. “And there’s clearly a market for it. People got here way early because they want to be in a space like this. There should be more spaces like this.”
– Women’s World Cup: Landing page | Schedule | Rosters | News
It’s a simple, yet seemingly unprecedented idea. Owner Jenny Nguyen believes the bar might have been the first of its kind when it opened in 2022. Now, there are at least two other Pacific Northwest bars dedicated to women’s sports — Rough & Tumble in Seattle and Icarus in Salem, Oregon — and Nguyen has fielded calls from entrepreneurs in places like Chicago, Minneapolis and Tampa, Florida, who are looking to open women’s sports bars of their own.
“When we built this place, it opened up people’s eyes to the possibilities of what fandom, spectatorship and the love of women’s sports really is about. It took it out of hiding,” said Nguyen, 43. “There’s a common refrain that people aren’t fans of women’s sports. It’s really just a fallacy, but it’s not helped when you don’t have spaces to see people enjoying it.”
Ali Krieger explains why Sophia Smith is the player of the match after her performance against Vietnam at the Women’s World Cup.
The idea for The Sports Bra was born in the back of another Portland sports bar during the 2018 NCAA women’s basketball championship. The bar had maybe 30 TVs, but not one was showing what would turn out to be an iconic NCAA title game between Notre Dame and Mississippi State.
Nguyen and her friends convinced the bartender to switch on the game on one small TV. Congregated in a corner of the bar, the group went wild as Arike Ogunbowale hit the buzzer-beating shot to give the Fighting Irish the title. Nguyen was still reveling in the excitement of the win when a friend turned to her and said, “That would have been better with the sound on.” She realized she had become so accustomed to watching women’s games without sound in the back of sports bars that she had barely noticed.
“I thought ‘the only way we’re going to watch a women’s game in its full glory is if we had our own place,'” Nguyen said. “The way I thought of it was that it would just be a regular sports bar, everything would be the same, except that we would change the channel.”
She envisioned a welcoming spot for people of all backgrounds, a haven for her group of queer and diverse friends who had always felt a bit like outsiders in traditional sports bars. Once the name — The Sports Bra — popped into her head, Nguyen said there was no turning back.
