The Sports Bra: Women’s sports will dominate screens at Oregon’s new LGBTQ-owned bar
A Portland bar set to open this spring is looking to change the game when it comes to viewing sports — by flipping the switch and featuring women’s sports.
The Sports Bra, a restaurant and all-ages bar, is the brainchild of chef Jenny Nguyen, who would often run into road blocks when attempting to find a bar that would change the channel from men’s sports that consume the airwaves, Eater reported.
“I said, ‘The only way we’re going to watch a women’s game is if we open our own place,’” Nguyen told Eater.
Think about it: It’s rare to go into a sports bar at any point in the U.S. and see a majority of the TVs showing a WNBA game or an NWSL match. Instead, the faces of LeBron James, Derek Carr or Shohei Ohtani take up space on screens.
“40% of athletes are women,” Nguyen, a former basketball player, told Oregon Live. “96% of all athletes on TV are men.”
Nguyen put her thoughts into action with a little inspiration from her girlfriend along with the flourishing of the #MeToo movement.
“There were these social movements that really had me thinking about what I can do,” she said to Eater. “It was my partner who said, ‘Hey, you know how you’ve been joking about the Sports Bra for years? You should do it.’”
Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that has reached over $95,000 at the time of this article’s publication, Nguyen’s dream is now about to become a reality, and hopefully change the way women watch and enjoy sports in their own space.
“We will change the channel. Our goal is to play as much women’s sports as there is to offer and when there are no games to air, we will try to fill that space with women’s sports content like podcasts, interviews, documentaries and more,” The Sports Bra website says.
“Our mission is to support, empower and promote women and girls in the community through sports. By giving folks a place to celebrate women’s sports together with food and drink, we want to build a movement, a culture around women’s sports spectatorship and fandom that hasn’t been done before.”
Nguyen even teamed up with female-owned breweries in the Portland area, SB Nation reported.
The bar is set to open in early April.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 4:26 PM with the headline "The Sports Bra: Women’s sports will dominate screens at Oregon’s new LGBTQ-owned bar."