Fed up with bars that wouldn’t play women’s sports, she opened one that plays nothing but

At first glance, Jenny Nguyen’s sports bar in Portland, Ore., is like any other. There are rows of beer taps, signed shirts on the ceiling, signed posters on the walls and of course, big screen TVs showing the latest games or matches.

There is only one, slight difference. Sports Bra — no, that’s not a misspelling — levels the playing field by featuring female athletes. Since opening in April 2022, The Sports Bra, which bills itself as the world’s first women’s sports bar, has won fans around the world by featuring only women’s sports on television.

“What we’re changing is who’s on the poster? Who signed the ball? Whose jersey is it?” Nguyen said.

If there is no women’s game, the staff will replay old matches. Or, to protest the lack of coverage, they will leave the screen. Nguyen said that men’s sports will not be featured in Sports Bra because the space for women’s sports needs to be defended.

The sentiment has fueled public discussion about equality in women’s sports around the world, with Canada’s women’s soccer team’s labor dispute with Canada Soccer a prominent recent example.

Players wore their shirts inside out during some training sessions this month to protest budget cuts affecting the women’s team and support staff. The women want the same support and preparation ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand that the men’s team did before Qatar.

To keep the pressure on the governing body, the team and some of their opponents wore purple shirts and armbands, color associated with gender equalityfor the game during the SheBelieves Cup.

In the 2018 budget, the Canadian government set a target to achieve gender equality in sports by 2035. But research shows that in terms of current salaries and broadcasting opportunities, there is still work to be done.

Between television, online and print media, women’s sports get less coverage than men’s sports, according to a study by Canadian Women & Sport. In print and online stories alone, more than 90 percent of sports coverage in Canada is about male athletes, according to a preliminary study of 2022 by the Sports Information Resource Center.

In the US, that number is 95 percent, with a 30-year study showing “little change” in the proportion of coverage over that time, according to research by the University of Southern California and Purdue University.

Change make

Nguyen said the continued inequality became unacceptable in April 2018 when he and his friends went into a Portland bar to watch sports. They called for TV to be switched from the men’s game to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. But the bar refused to put the women’s game on the main screen, so they had to watch it on a small TV in the corner.

Nguyen recalled that it was one of the best games he had ever seen. “We were just screaming, high fiving. I remember I took my hat and I threw it across the bar because I was so excited.”

When the game ended, Nguyen and his friends realized that they had watched the whole thing without sound.

Nguyen said it became clear that the only way she could watch women exercise “with dignity,” was if she had her own sports bar.

But the idea did not come to fruition until 2020. At that time Nguyen, moved by the protests in the US after the death of George Floyd, wondered if he could use his love of sports and training as a chef to create a space for more equality.

Sports Bra is the answer.

A conversation about sports culture

It’s supposed to be just a bar for female sports fans, but Nguyen says creating The Sports Bra sparked a conversation about the male-dominated sports culture.

There were a lot of tears when it was first opened, he said. It’s still there. Especially for older female athletes in their 60s or 70s, some of whom have visited the bar and told Nguyen about how laws on equal opportunities in sports are late to have a positive impact.

“People come in and they’re crying and they’re embarrassed,” Nugyen said. “And I was like, no, literally, everything happened.”

Regulars told CBC News that the venue, often referred to simply as “the bra”, is an inclusive space where sports fans of all genders and sexualities can feel welcome.

Sabrina Domingo said she likes her friends watching women’s sports with other fans in an environment where she can “feel relaxed.”

“It’s important here because there are people who appreciate sports and want to feel included.”

Challenge the system

Challenging a system that caters to a predominantly male audience is important to Nguyen, who is also a queer person of color.

Over the years, she says she has experienced, because of her looks and sexuality, not feeling comfortable or safe watching sports in bars that often feel like man caves.

“If you think about a traditional sports bar, there’s a sense that it’s made for men,” he said.

Despite the very limited amount of women’s sports Nguyen can find on display at The Sports Bra, she says she still receives backlash online from people who label the bar sexist for choosing to show only female athletes. The criticism was not expected, as many sports bars show men’s sports, but soon, other fans defended their choice.

I realized that there was a whole community behind me and a mission that would speak.– Jenny Nguyen, owner of The Sports Bra

“I know there’s a whole community behind me and the mission I’m talking about,” Nguyen said, noting that behind the scenes, he’s still struggling to find broadcasters and streaming platforms that can help fill his bar niche.

“We got sports packages on cable, but still, 95 percent of people’s sports,” she said. “So we’ll highlight five percent.”

Demand is increasing

Demand for women’s sports coverage is growing and sports channels are slowly taking notice of changing audience interests, according to Ashley O’Connor, senior director of programming and acquisitions at ESPN.

He said that from 2021 to 2022 ESPN will increase its coverage of women’s sports by 60 percent, noting that the channel is “always on the lookout” for how to present a variety of sports to new audiences, but is also limited by space on the broadcast and has a very full schedule of men’s sports which is round the year.

There was a time when women’s sports spread to a mainstream audience.

A TV audience 4.4 million set for Canada’s women’s gold medal soccer final against Sweden at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The last professional match played by Serena Williams this summer was the most-watched tennis broadcast in ESPN’s 43-year history.

Women’s World Cup organizers in Australia and New Zealand are expecting a record two billion people to watch the soccer tournament this summer.

The number of sports bars in the US dedicated to showing women’s sports is also increasing after Jen Barnes opened Rough & Tumble in Seattle in December 2022.

Like Nguyen, Barnes said she was driven by an urge to bring female sports fans out of the shadows. Unlike Sports Bra, Rough & Tumble doesn’t only feature female athletes, but tries to keep its coverage of men’s and women’s sports at 50-50 to convey its message.

“My goal is to show equality on screen,” Barnes said. And with limited access to games on TV or streaming platforms, he says there’s still a “long way to go” when it comes to equality in coverage.

Still, Nguyen said she sees progress and is moved by moments like when dads bring their kids to The Sports Bra for a meal and cry while watching a women’s game.

At the table with friends, Sports Bra patron Julia Paolo muses about where she could have taken her love of basketball if she had been more exposed to women’s sports at a young age.

She hasn’t stopped working out, but says it’s great to be in a place that celebrates women who do.

“It’s just cool to see women succeed,” Paolo said. “When one of us wins we all win.”