First ever bar showing only women's sports opens in Portland

A sports bar in Portland, Oregon believed to be the only one in the world dedicated to women's sport is opening on Friday.

The woman behind The Sports Bra said that the bar is "not a sports bar for women; it's a bar for women's sports."

Jenny Nguyen came up with the idea of a sports bar celebrating female athletes after watching an NCAA basketball game in the corner of a sports bar on a small TV with no sound with a group of friends.

“40% of athletes are women, 96% of all athletes on TV are men," Ms Nguyen told Oregon Live.

On opening day, the Sports Bra will be showing two Final Four basketball games and on Saturday, there will be a football match featuring the Portland Thorns. Whether the American bar will be showing the women's cricket World Cup final on Sunday between England and Australia is unknown.

Ms Nguygen said while the bar was a simply a place to hang out, drink, eat and watch women's sport, she also had a bigger mission to change how female sport is seen.

"Investment and representation for women’s sports has been severely lacking for decades. The Sports Bra seeks to tackle both issues through a familiar, yet groundbreaking venture - the traditional sports bar," the bar's mission statement says.

Ms Nguyen said she has not found another sports bar that shows only women’s sports, but she hopes it will not be the last.

In the UK, a similar initiative is underway. The Vs. Bar campaign started in 2019 to address the need for inclusive spaces to watch women's sports matches with the ultimate goal of opening London's first bar dedicated to celebrating women's sports.