Two years ago, Jenny Nguyen launched a Kickstarter with modest hopes of raising just enough money to open a women’s sports bar in Portland, OR. But the first-of-its-kind establishment, the Sports Bra, has become so wildly popular that, this week, Reddit co-founder (and Angel City Football Club co-owner) Alexis Ohanian announced he’s backing a plan to expand the concept around the country—and possibly around the world.
“I had this idea,” says Nguyen, a former college basketball player and professional chef. “I felt like it could work, but you never really know.”
Work it has. A squib about The Sports Bra on Eater just days after the Kickstarter launched in February 2022 sent contributions soaring from $2,550 to $49,000 in under a week. The month-long campaign topped out at $105,000, twice what Nguyen had been hoping for. When the bar, which is in Portland’s Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood, opened in April that year, lines for the 40-seater were out the door, and revenues reached nearly $1 million in the first eight months.
Now, with an undisclosed investment from Ohanian’s 776 Foundation, Nguyen plans to franchise the concept, bringing it to other markets with strong women’s sports fans—under the guidance of owners who, like Nguyen, are invested in building community around female athletics.
“I first reached out to Jenny when the Bra went viral,” says Ohanian, who’s been on the forefront of understanding how women’s sports—and all aspects of its ecosystem—is a growing business opportunity. “The timing feels perfect.”
A BAR OF ONE’S OWN
The Bra is more than just another bar. It’s a space that simply hasn’t existed before, for a community that’s never had a place of its own. Sports bars are overwhelmingly male. TVs show almost nothing but men’s sports. Ask a bartender to put on a women’s game, and you’re as likely to get a sneer as deference. Women and LGBTQ people don’t always feel at home. “Sometimes, I’d get accosted in the bathroom because people thought I was in the wrong restroom,” Nguyen says.
The Bra has created a space where fans of women’s sports can celebrate their enthusiasm together. The concept struck such a chord that before the Bra even opened, people elsewhere were reaching out to Nguyen, asking how to set one up in their own communities. National coverage from outlets like CNBC, Vogue, and the New York Times (and in international publications from Canada to New Zealand) has fueled even more interest.
“It’s clear that this needs to happen in more cities,” Nguyen says. “People [from elsewhere] who have read every article, listened to every podcast [interview], who’ve seen all the pictures—they still come in and cry,” Nguyen says. “They feel incredible amounts of joy, representation, and belonging.”
The Bra’s launch dovetails with a larger cultural and business shift around women’s sports. Old ideas about fans not being interested in female athletes are blowing up in the face of record attendance at women’s games, growing investor interest in women’s teams, and more media coverage than ever.
The ESPN viewership numbers around this month’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament provided the latest evidence of skyrocketing demand. The matchup between rivals Iowa University and Louisiana State University (homes of celebrated players Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese) drew more eyeballs than any single NHL, MLS, or MLB game last year—including every single game in the World Series.
“The needs of women’s sports fans haven’t changed,” Nguyen says. But “they haven’t had the space to exercise their fandom in the way that so many people, mostly men, have had in the way of a sports bar.”
EXPANSION PLANS
The Bra is taking a franchise approach to expansion. Each new bar will be set up and run by a local owner. But instead of taking an inside-out approach—where the Bra would identify target markets and search for local franchisees—they’re going outside-in. The goal of spreading the model isn’t so much financial as mission-based. “It brings so much joy to people,” Nguyen says. “If we don’t create these spaces elsewhere, it feels almost selfish.”
They’ll soon start accepting applications from interested potential owners and assess them based on how well they understand their local community and how closely they align with the Bra’s values. “We’re choosing people,” Nguyen says, “community builders who are super-authentic.”
For Ohanian, this isn’t a venture play. Food and drink in the hospitality industry are notoriously challenging. There are no expectations of 100x returns.
Rather, Ohanian is backing the expansion through his foundation, which was launched in 2022 to combat inequity around the globe. The terms and dollar amount of the partnership are still under wraps, but Ohanian says any returns will be funneled into programs supporting girls’ and women’s sports.
Still, Ohanian says he could tell early on that the Bra had identified an important unmet need. A self-described “average sports fan” growing up (and certainly before his marriage to the world’s most accomplished tennis player), Ohanian pinpointed professional women’s sports back in 2019 as a massively undervalued business opportunity. The next year, he co-founded Angel City FC, the Los Angeles franchise of the National Women’s Soccer League, which is now reportedly worth $200 million.
The Bra, he says, is the “physical embodiment” of the burgeoning excitement around women’s sports. These kinds of spaces, where people can watch their favorite teams and games together, will be a key part of the ecosystem. “Do I want to make sure we have a Sports Bra franchise in Los Angeles close to the stadium for Angel City fans? Of course,” he says, adding that he’d recently evangelized the concept to other NWSL owners at a board of governors meeting.
“It’s the perfect time for these offline community spaces to spring up,” Ohanian says. “[Nguyen] is the exact right person to be doing it, with the right intentions, and the right execution.”
Indeed, Nguyen says a Sports Bra probably wouldn’t have been possible even five years ago, due to the dearth of women’s sports on TV at the time. “The Sports Bra is a lot bigger than just the four walls of a bar and restaurant,” she says. “It’s part of a movement. We’re just looking at the tip of the iceberg.”
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.