Women's sports bars expected to quadruple across the U.S. in 2025

Before 2025, there were only six women's sports bars across the U.S. By the end of this year, the number is expected to be about two dozen, according to an NBC News analysis.

The number of bars in the United States dedicated to showing women’s sports is expected to quadruple this year, from six at the start of 2025 to about two dozen by the end of the year.

Three women’s sports bars have opened so far this year, and 14 more are expected to join them in the coming months, according to an NBC News analysis. The venues have broken ground or plan to in every region of the country, including major cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco and smaller cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Kansas City, Missouri.

Two of the venues had their grand openings this past week — Title 9 Sports Grill in Phoenix and 1972 Women’s Sports Pub in Austin, Texas — and another, Set the Bar in Omaha, Nebraska, will debut Friday night, right in time for the first round of the annual Women’s March Madness basketball tournament.

Set the Bar owner Molly Huyck, right, with her late sister, Kelsey, and Creighton University mascot Billy Bluejay at a women's basketball game in Omaha, Neb., in 2018.Courtesy Molly HuyckMolly Huyck, the owner of Set the Bar, said she was inspired to open her own space after she read about the United States’ first women’s sports bar, The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, and visited another, Seattle’s Rough & Tumble. Those bars, which both opened in 2022, seemed a world apart from the typical sports bars she was accustomed to, she said.

“The vibe that I feel when I go into other sports bars is it’s dark, it’s kind of a cement block, and you definitely have to ask to get women’s sports on and, for sure, to get the audio on women’s sports,” Huyck said, adding that she plans to dedicate the bar to her late sister Kelsey, who loved women's sports and died two years ago at 35. “I’m super excited to have a sports bar that feels good and a place where everyone’s welcome.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-life-and-style/womens-sports-bars-quadruple-us-2025-rcna196763

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