Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Writer Alexia García visits The Sports Bra, Portland’s pioneering bar dedicated entirely to women’s sport, and traces the wider rise of venues built around watching female athletes without compromise. Founded by Jenny Nguyen after she struggled to find anywhere willing to screen a women’s college basketball final, the bar has since attracted backing from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian for a national franchise expansion. García, who grew up idolising Portland Thorns fan culture and once high-fived Mia Hamm as a child, weaves personal memory through a report on the venue’s inclusive ethos and community impact. The piece broadens out to similar spaces springing up worldwide, from London’s Set Piece Social and ’71 pop-ups to Glasgow’s Rose Reilly pub, Seattle’s Rough & Tumble and Sydney’s Ladies League, charting a growing global movement of dedicated women’s sports bars built on the same frustration that started it all in Oregon.