Pioneering women s sports bar draws crowds eyes path to equality

PORTLAND – A rare sports bar dedicated to showing women’s sports has built a loyal following in north-western United States, with the founder and many patrons hoping progress towards equality for female athletes will come with the growing popularity of such establishments.

The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, opened its doors in 2022 to great community reception.

“The line was four blocks long the entire weekend when we first opened. It was mayhem,” said Jenny Nguyen, the founder of what is believed to be the country’s first women’s sports bar.

Of the gender-based wordplay in the name, created by inverting two letters, Nguyen, 45, called it “a tiny change that makes a dramatic difference”.

She said the bar is a place where she imagined women’s sports would not only be shown in a corner on the smallest TV, as at other venues, but instead on every screen and with the whole crowd invested in the games.

But what really convinced Nguyen to open the business is what she thought it could mean for young girls just beginning to take an interest in sports.

“If we opened the door for six months and only one girl came in, looked at the TV, and felt like she belonged in sports, that moment would be worth it,” she said.

On a day in April, as patrons watched the semi-final games of the US women’s college basketball tournament, their cheers could be heard from the line outside as people waited to get a seat in the packed bar.

Christi Smith-Ryan, 48, a regular of the bar, praised it for making women’s sports “accessible for everyone”.

Her 44-year-old wife Nicole said: “You can go to another sports bar to see a women’s sporting event, but nine times out of 10, all the guys in the