A sports bar in Minnesota is attempting to break into an untapped market by featuring women’s sports on their premises.
Women’s college basketball, Pro Volleyball Federation matches, and other popular female sporting events littered the establishment’s walls. 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.
“We were expecting it to be busy, no question. This is exceeding any expectations I may have had,” said owner Jillian Hiscock, via KMSP Fox 9. Patrons who knew what to expect coming into the bar were blown away at the bar’s commitment to women’s sports. One customer was quoted, “When I walked in, I was super overwhelmed. I’ve wanted a space like this for so long, and to finally see it come to fruition, it’s exciting.”
College basketball news:Caitlin Clark wins 3rd straight Big Ten Player of the Year award to cap off regular season
Where did the idea for a female-sports bar come from?
Jillian Hiscock has been called a sports nut, beer nerd, and tireless advocate for women’s rights by those close to her. She is also a season ticket holder for both the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx as well as the Minnesota Gophers softball team.
Hiscock claims she got the idea for a dedicated women’s sports bar after attending a sports bar a year ago that did anything but cater to women. Despite breaking new ground with her idea for her sports bar, Hiscock seemed very confident that her bar would succeed.
I think people have been ready for this and waiting for this for a really long time and so to have it here and to have folks inside means so much,” Hiscock said. She referred to the demand for her bar during opening weekend as “Absolute madness but in the best way possible.”
Women’s sports dominate NIL
In the day and age of NIL, women’s basketball stars have seemingly overtaken male college basketball players as the biggest stars of the sport.
Outside of LeBron James’ children — USC’s Bronny James and Bryce James — three of the top-four college basketball NIL valuations belong to 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).
That alone is proof of interest in women’s college basketball, and it’s arguably proof that there is more interest in women’s college basketball than men’s at the moment.
Basketball is a superstar-driven sport. Several NBA fans follow their favorite players more than their favorite teams. Wherever players like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving go, their fans follow. Oftentimes, matchups and debates in the sport are based in player-versus-player rather than team-versus-team, and that sentiment has translated to the women’s college basketball scene as well. Last year’s scuffle between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese was the talk of the town for weeks even after LSU’s championship run was completed.
How have ratings shifted in women’s sports?
On January 4, 2024, ESPN signed an eight-year deal worth over $900 million for the broadcasting rights to several women’s collegiate sports including the women’s March Madness tournament.
Among the sports included in the deal are women’s basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics. The deal also included the second-tier of Division 1 football. Even with football being part of the deal, which is still far and away the largest collegiate sport in America, it is estimated that 57% of the deal is wrapped around the women’s March Madness tournament.
Fortune’s Ralph D. Russo writes, “The popularity of the women’s tournament has steadily increased during its time as an exclusive ESPN property, setting viewership records last year. The title game between LSU with Angel Reese and Iowa with Caitlin Clark drew nearly 10 millions viewers.”
Russo is right in his assessment but is downplaying how large a jump the tournament took just last year. In 2021, the most-watched Final Four game of the women’s tournament drew 4.077 million viewers, a huge step up from where the tournament was in 2009, drawing just 2.668 million fans to their television sets, but nothing close to the 9.92 million average that Iowa-LSU drew last year. That large a jump in such a short time span is evident of a larger scale shift in viewership trends as a whole.
With organizations like the Pro Volleyball Federation opening to record attendance, it makes sense that fans are excited to see women’s sports finally getting some of the recognition they deserve. Hiscock is capitalizing on that growing interest, and while she is not the first person to open a women-centric sports bar (that would be ‘The Sports Bra’ which opened in Portland, OR in 2022), these types of bars are still in short supply, with less than five open nationwide. There is at least one other bar in development, Watch Me! Sports Bar, but the official opening date and location have not been announced yet. Seeing as how the bar’s founder are three Long Beach women though, it’s probably safe to assume it will open somewhere in Southern California.
Jillian Hiscock is capitalizing on the growing interest in women’s sports. A Bar of Their Own is part of the beginning of a new trend of creating spaces for women to enjoy women’s sports.
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