In April 2022, Jenny Nguyen of Portland, Oregon, opened the LGBTQ-friendly Sports Bra, the world’s first sports bar dedicated to showing only women’s sports, in her hometown. The truth is, women make up 40% of all athletes, yet men’s sports account for 96% of broadcasts. By the age of 14, young women will drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys. It takes 350 WNBA salaries to match the amount Steph Curry makes.
Despite the depressing stats, women move forward. The Sports Bra inspired Seattle’s first women’s sports bar, Rough & Tumble, which opened in December. Nguyen is unofficially consulting with business owners who are interested in opening more women’s sports bars. In 2030, Portland is slated to host the women’s NCAA Final Four. Recently, Ally Financial and Disney announced a partnership to invest in women’s sports. In this edition of Voices In Food, Nguyen told Garin Pirnia about the need for queer spaces, the positive effects of supporting trans athletes, the push for equity and parity in sports, and how she believes women’s sports will “blow up.”
Originally when I had opened the Sports Bra, I thought that I was kind of fitting a small niche of folks, hardcore women’s sports fans. But what ended up happening, almost even before we opened our doors, was this gigantic outpouring of support from all over the place — not just here in Portland, but globally. All of my expectations, my hopes, dreams and desires that I’ve ever wanted for the Sports Bra, were surpassed by the first month of being open. It has been so much larger and more impactful than I could have ever wanted or thought that it would be. It’s been shocking to me. I’d love to see how the Sports Bra evolves in the next several years, because I feel like ever since we opened the doors, every single day has been a surprise to me.
The biggest thing that I was not prepared for was how much a space [like] the Sports Bra resonated with so many people on so many different…
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