Designated spaces to watch women’s sports are a rarity across the country. The Sports Bra in Portland, Ore., purported to be the country’s first full-time women’s sports bar, routinely has lines out the door to get in for big events like the women’s NCAA basketball tournament.
The Bay Area hasn’t seen anything close. Watch parties have popped up for the World Cup, but predictably, communal women’s sports watching hasn’t become common.
The demand has increased, though. The San Jose Earthquakes and Bay FC have hosted free watch parties at PayPal Park for every USWNT match during the World Cup and consistently drew nearly 500, and more than 330 for a midnight kickoff.
They plan on hosting another for Sunday’s 2:30 a.m. kickoff for the USWNT match with Sweden due to the demand. Few local bars stayed open for the midnight start time for the Portugal match, and even fewer for the 2:30 a.m. start, leaving the Quakes’ home as one of the only gathering possibilities.
Unlike the Earthquakes, who have large email lists and social media platforms, Women’s Sports Takeover has primarily used word-of-mouth to attract people. Its Instagram account has about 370 followers and many of the attendees said they learned of the watch parties from friends.
“This is my favorite way to watch sports,” said Bernard, who attended with her partner. “It’s great finding more people who are like-minded and want to watch women’s sports.”
The Sports Bra is lesbian-owned, one of the few designated queer women’s bars left in the U.S., and has capitalized on its audience interested in women’s sports. One lesbian bar in San Francisco, Mother, has shown World Cup matches, but uses a projection screen and doesn’t have televisions on other occasions. Wild Side West does have TVs with sports on, but just two and has limited hours from 3-10 p.m.
The lack of queer women’s spaces nationally, and especially as traditional sports bars, has left a gap. The growth of women’s sports in the past half-decade, though, has opened the door for more mainstream spaces to participate.
“Now that women’s sports are getting more exposure, and it’s more mainstream, people are discovering the opportunity to gather for them,” Andrews said. “As much as there is crossover between sports and the queer community, it’s also getting bigger.”
So far, Andrews — who is hoping to launch in other cities across the country — hasn’t had to pay any fees in order to host events. The Athletic Club made just over $2,500 from the party during the first USWNT match.
“There are 250 people in here, all to watch women’s sports,” Andrews said. “That’s the power of women’s sports, and that’s what we want to demonstrate. People want to watch together and be a community together. We want to give people that space.”
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