Sports bar is dedicated solely to women’s sports as the popularity for female sports soars:-An empty market is being tried to be broken into by a sports bar in Minnesota that shows women’s sports.
The walls were covered with posters for women’s college basketball games, Pro Volleyball Federation matches, and other famous female sports events. The bar, appropriately called A Bar of Their Own in reference to the 1992 Tom Hanks and Geena Davis film about an all-women’s baseball league, opened its doors for the first time on Friday, March 1 to immense crowds and overwhelming support.
Sports bar is dedicated solely to women’s sports as the popularity for female sports soars
“There was no doubt that we thought it would be busy. “This is even better than I thought it would be,” owner Jillian Hiscock told KMSP Fox 9. People who knew what to expect from the bar were shocked by how much it cared about women’s sports. “When I walked in, I was super overwhelmed,” said one customer. This kind of place has been on my wish list for a long time, and it’s great to finally see it come together.
Where did the idea for a female-sports bar come from?
People who know Jillian Hiscock well have called her a sports fanatic, a beer nerd, and a tireless fighter for women’s rights. She also has season tickets for both the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA and the Minnesota Gophers baseball team.
Hiscock says she got the idea for a sports bar just for women after going to a sports bar a year ago that wasn’t focused on women. Hiscock seemed very sure that her sports bar would do well, even though her idea was very different from what had been done before.
Someone said, “I think people have been ready for this and waiting for this for a really long time. So having it here and having people inside means so much.” “Absolute madness but in the best way possible,” she said about how busy her bar was on its first weekend.
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Women’s sports dominate NIL
Girls’ college basketball stars seem to have passed men’s college basketball stars as the sport’s biggest stars these days.
Three of the top four college basketball NIL values are women’s basketball stars: Iowa’s Caitlin Clark ($3.1 million), LSU’s Angel Reese ($1.7 million), and LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson ($1.1 million). The other two are LeBron James’ children, Bronny James and Bryce James, played for USC.
That alone shows that people are interested in women’s college basketball, and it might even show that women’s college basketball is more interesting than men’s right now.
Basketball is a sport based on superstars. Some NBA fans care more about their favorite players than their teams. Fans follow stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving everywhere they go. A lot of the time, arguments and matches in the sport are between players instead of teams. This attitude has made its way to the women’s college basketball scene as well. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s fight last year was the talk of the town for weeks, even after LSU won the title.
How have ratings shifted in women’s sports?
ESPN bought the rights to show a number of women’s college sports, including the women’s March Madness competition, for eight years and over $900 million on January 4, 2024.
Women’s basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics are some of the games that are part of the deal. The second level of Division 1 football was also part of the deal. 57% of the deal is thought to be around the women’s March Madness event, even though football is part of it. Football is still by far the most popular college sport in the United States.
Ralph D. Russo of Fortune says, “The women’s tournament has steadily become more popular since it became an ESPN-only event. Last year, it set a record for the most viewers ever.” Almost 10 million people watched the title game between LSU with Angel Reese and Iowa with Caitlin Clark.
Russo is right about what he thinks, but he doesn’t stress how much the event changed in just one year. The most-watched Final Four game of the women’s tournament in 2021 had 4.077 million viewers. This is a big increase from 2009, when only 2.668 million fans tuned in, but still not nearly as many as the 9.92 million average viewers that watched Iowa-LSU last year. Big changes in viewing patterns over time can be seen in that big jump in such a short amount of time.
Fans are glad that women’s sports are finally getting some of the attention they deserve, since groups like the Pro Volleyball Federation are seeing record numbers of people at their openings. Hiscock is taking advantage of this rising interest. She is not the first person to open a sports bar for women; “The Sports Bra” opened in Portland, OR in 2022. However, there are still not many of these kinds of bars in the country—less than five are currently open. At least one more bar is being built. It’s called Watch Me! Sports Bar, but the opening date and site have not been announced yet. But since the bar was started by three women from Long Beach, it’s likely that it will open somewhere in Southern California.
Jillian Hiscock is taking advantage of the growing interest in sports for women. A Bar of Their Own is the start of a new trend of making places where women can watch women’s sports.