Buffalo wings, wall-to-wall TVs, the smell of stale beer: Sports bars have lots in common, but nothing more so than dudes — so many dudes — both on screen and on the stools.
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But that's changing quickly, thanks to a dramatic rise in women's sports bars opening across the country.
With the growing popularity of women's sports, sports bars dedicated to playing women's sports were estimated to quadruple in 2025 alone.
And they say nobody watches women's sports...
The movement comes as the number of women's sports fans continues to grow:
- Fans watched 46B minutes of women's sports in 2025.
- The 2025 WNBA season was the most-watched in league history, averaging 1.3m viewers across regular-season games and 1.2m across the postseason.
- Women’s college basketball viewership grew 33% year over year in February.
- Women's sports revenues are expected to surpass $3B in 2026, a 340% increase over four years.
One of the biggest barriers to the growing fandom, however, is the lack of places to watch teams play. But many entrepreneurs see that as an opportunity.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere
There are now roughly 25 women's sports bars in the US — which may not sound like a lot, but until 2022 there were none
That's when Jenny Nguyen opened the pioneering Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon. Despite loan denials from banks, Nguyen used her savings, a Kickstarter campaign, and loans from friends and family to open the bar, which welcomes all, including nontraditional fans and the LGBTQ+ community.
The Sports Bra made nearly $1m in revenue in the first eight months.
The bar soon secured backers — including Alexis Ohanian, 776 founder, Reddit co-founder, and husband of Serena Williams — and is now expanding to five franchise locations in Boston, Indianapolis, Vegas, St. Louis, and Portland, Maine, with plans for 40 locations by 2030.
Others have followed in Nguyen's footsteps:
- Title 9 Sports Grill in Phoenix
- Untamed Spirits in LA
- Jolene Jolene in Atlanta
- The 99ers in Denver
- Whiskey Girl Tavern in Chicago
- Drawdown Brewing in Boston
- And more.
As viewership of women's sports continues to increase, we're likely to see further openings and investment — and hopefully more wings and less stale beer.
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