Oregon's Sports Bra, a pub for women's sports fans, plans national expansion as interest booms

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — On a recent weeknight at this bar in northeast Portland, fans downed pints and burgers as college women's lacrosse and beach volleyball matches played on big-screen TVs. Memorabilia autographed by female athletes covered the walls, with a painting of U.S. soccer legend Abby Wambach mounted above the chalkboard beer menu.

The Sports Bra is a pub where women's sports are celebrated — and the only thing on TV.

Packed and buzzing with activity, the bar has successfully tapped into a meteoric rise of interest in women's sports, embodied most recently by the frenzy over University of Iowa basketball phenomenon Caitlin Clark's records-smashing feats.

Just two years after opening, the bar announced plans this week to go nationwide through a franchise model.

“Things have happened at light speed compared to what my forecast was,” founder and CEO Jenny Nguyen told The Associated Press. “This tiny spot that I built for my friends and I to watch games and give female athletes their flowers means so much more. And not just to me, but to a lot of people.”

Under the plan, bars and entrepreneurs elsewhere will be able to apply to use The Sports Bra brand for their franchises. Nguyen is open to working with people who already have a physical space, as well as those who may only have a business plan. What matters, she said, is that the potential future partners share The Sports Bra’s values.

One aspiring partner is Jackie Reau, who hopes to open a franchise in Cincinnati, where she works as the CEO of a media and marketing agency. During an interview at The Sports Bra, where she happily watched her college women's lacrosse team on one of the TV sets, she said such establishments “celebrate women’s sports and the champions and the athletes behind the story.”

“It’s exciting to see it grow and gain such popularity,” Reau said of the bar. “It’s just such a moment right now for women’s sports.”

The expansion will be boosted by funding from a foundation created by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who is married to tennis legend Serena Williams. Nguyen said she already has received hundreds of inquiries.

Interest in women's sports is at an all-time high, helped by Clark's exploits this year, when she shattered all-time NCAA scoring records for women and men. The championship game between Iowa and South Carolina on April 7 drew 18.9 million viewers on average, surpassing the audience for the men’s title match for the first time.

A week later a record 2.45 million viewers on average tuned in to the WNBA draft to watch as Clark went to the Indiana Fever as the No. 1 pick. This week it was reported that she was set to sign a $28 million deal with Nike that would be the richest sponsorship contract for a women’s basketball player.

The rise in interest is not just for women's basketball, but other sports as well. The 2023 Women’s World Cup reported record attendance with nearly 2 million fans. A University of Nebraska volleyball game played in a football stadium drew more than 92,000 people last August, a world record for largest attendance at a women’s sporting event.

“It’s sort of in this pinnacle moment where eyeballs are plentiful,” said Lauren Anderson, director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon. “It’s just been an alignment of many things that has created this incredible moment for women’s sports that seems to be more than just a flash in the pan.”

As the fan base and engagement grow, so too does the appetite for changing a sports bar culture that has traditionally catered to men's athletics. Other establishments like The Sports Bra have recently opened elsewhere: A Bar of Their Own began operating in Minneapolis earlier this year, and Seattle's Rough & Tumble launched in late 2022.

Sports bars have not always been welcome spaces for women, Nguyen said. A fan since childhood, she would gather groups of friends to go because she didn't feel safe going by herself. She recalled encountering macho environments that made her uncomfortable, and bartenders who refused to change the channel to a women's game.

“That was just what we settled with,” she said. “When I wanted to push back and kind of flip the status quo, that's when I really started to dig in on how The Sports Bra could matter and change the narrative on sports bars.”

One memory in particular stands out for Nguyen from her time as proprietor: Serena Williams' last match, in 2022. A massive crowd showed up to watch, spilling over onto the the sidewalk. People outside cupped their eyes with their hands as they peered through the windows to see the screens.

“When Serena would score a point, I swear to God, I thought the glass was going to shatter. My eyeballs were rattling inside my head,” Nguyen said. “And then when they were volleying, I feel like you could hear a burger flip in the kitchen.”

Toward the end, she felt tears welling up. She passed two tissue boxes around for similarly weepy customers as everyone reveled in Williams' last minutes on the court.

“I remember taking a deep breath and thinking, ‘I don’t know if there’s a single place on the face of the planet that is having this exact moment,’” Nguyen said. “It was amazing.”

Fans can still find it challenging to watch women's sports games, because many are not broadcast on TV and require different streaming subscriptions, said Tarlan Chahardovali, an assistant professor in the University of South Carolina’s Department of Sport and Entertainment Management.

Women's sports bars can be a reliable go-to for many events by having those subscriptions. But more broadly, Chahardovali said, much work remains to be done to ensure the media market doesn’t undervalue women’s sports.

“Today’s numbers are hard to ignore, and I think it’s a very exciting time,” she said. “But it’s a moment that needs to be maintained and sustained, and it needs continuous investment.”

The Sports Bra founder and CEO Jenny Nguyen looks towards the door as a customer enters at the sports bar on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A customer looks at sports memorabilia at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A piece of tape displays a thank you message above a pass-through window at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Bartender M.J. Jones looks to the drinks menu while serving a customer at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

As a Caitlin Clark jersey is displayed in the background, customers eat and watch college women's lacrosse and beach volleyball matches at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. Interest in women's sports is at an all-time high, helped by Clark's exploits this year, when she shattered all-time NCAA scoring records for both women and men. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

The Sports Bra founder and CEO Jenny Nguyen laughs during an interview with the Associated Press at the sports bar on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A roller derby match is played on a TV next to a decorated basketball hoop at The Sports Bra sports bar on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Allison Clarke, center, places menus down for customers as a patron at right takes a photo of a decorated basketball hoop at The Sports Bra sports bar on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Chef Alex Preciado walks down the steps to the basement to get something for the sports bar while working at The Sports Bra on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. The steps are under a counter in the kitchen. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A college women's lacrosse match is shown on a big-screen TV above a chalkboard drink menu lit with multi-colored lights at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A customer leaves The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. The sports bar, which focuses on and shows only women's athletics, has plans to expand across the country through a franchise model. The Sports Bra opened two years ago in Portland, the state's largest city. Its founder and CEO says she has already fielded hundreds of inquiries from potential partners. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

With a rainbow mustache drawn on a porthole door connecting the kitchen and bar, patrons watch a beach volleyball match on big-screen TV at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Jackie Reau speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. The sports bar plans to expand across the country through a franchise model. Reau, an aspiring partner, hopes to open a franchise in Cincinnati, where she works as the CEO of a media and marketing agency. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Employee Allison Clarke works at The Sports Bra sports bar on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

An image depicting tennis legend Billie Jean King is displayed at The Sports Bra sports bar on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Bartender M.J. Jones, left, and fellow employee Allison Clarke, right, react as an interview with The Sports Bra founder and CEO Jenny Nguyen, center, airs on a screen during their shift at the sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. A painting of U.S. soccer legend Abby Wambach is mounted above the chalkboard beer menu. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Autographs from WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and professional basketball player Nneka Ogwumike are seen on the wall at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. Ogwumike now plays for the Seattle Storm. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

The Sports Bra founder and CEO Jenny Nguyen poses for a photo at the sports bar on Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Customers eat and watch college women's lacrosse and beach volleyball matches on big-screen TVs at The Sports Bra sports bar on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has challenged Donald Trump to a head-to-head debate for when both address a Libertarian convention later this month, a move that comes as the presumptive GOP nominee has ramped up both criticism of Kennedy's independent bid and demands that President Joe Biden meet him on a debate stage.

Arguing that he is “drawing a lot of voters from your former supporters,” Kennedy said to Trump in an open letter posted Tuesday to X that the Libertarian convention provides “perfect neutral territory for you and me to have a debate where you can defend your record for your wavering supporters.”

Trump has been bullish in calling on Biden to debate him ahead of the November general election but has shied away from other rivals’ previous debate entreaties. Trump skipped the 2024 GOP primary debates, saying it was unnecessary because voters know him and his record.

Kennedy, who last year challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination before launching an independent bid, has argued that his relatively strong showing in a few national polls gives his candidacy heft. Polls during the 2016 presidential campaign regularly put libertarian Gary Johnson’s support in the high single or low double digits, but he ultimately received only about 3% of the vote nationwide.

In the open letter to Trump, Kennedy said their debate could “show the American public that at least two of the major candidates aren’t afraid to debate each other." Kennedy wrote that convention organizers "are game for us to use our time there to bring the American people the debate they deserve!”

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign and the Libertarian Party did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Kennedy's debate challenge.

Kennedy and Trump are scheduled to appear on separate days before attendees at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C. later this month. Both candidates have been courting support from libertarian-leaning voters, although Kennedy — who is working to appear on all 50 ballots, a state-by-state petition process — has ruled out officially running as a Libertarian candidate.

In recent weeks, Trump's campaign has ramped up its attacks against Kennedy, who has appealed to disaffected Democrats and Republicans looking for an alternative to the pending rematch of the 2020 election.

Last month, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “RFK Jr. is a Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden." MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump's candidacy, has also issued its own critical posts and created an anti-Kennedy website.

Leaving court one day last week after his hush money trial, Trump told reporters that he didn’t feel threatened by Kennedy's bid.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

Michelle L. Price and Ruth Brown in New York and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump, followed by his attorney Todd Blanche, walks to speak to reporters following the day's proceedings in his trial, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in New York. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenges Donald Trump to debate at Libertarian Convention

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. challenges Donald Trump to debate at Libertarian Convention