Debany Davila remembers the night in 2023 that the New York Liberty game never made it onto the sports bar screen. A practicing lawyer, she had moved to New York City from Texas not long before, and had called the sports bar twice that day to ensure it was showing the game.
When Davila walked in wearing her jersey, ready to cheer on her team, every television glowed with Mets blue and Yankees pinstripes. The disappointment felt familiar.
“I was petty”, she said, laughing. “I told them, ‘This is the team that’s going to win something for New York.’”
It came out half-joke, half-plea, but that moment, small as it seemed, made her wonder: Why wasn’t there a space in New York City where women’s sports were the main event, not an afterthought?
Fast-forward to 2025, and Davila no longer has to depend on finding the right sports bar — because she started her own.
Blazers is more than a sports bar; it is a love letter to women’s sports, born from chance meetings on the dating app Hinge. Today marks the bar’s opening weekend at 308 Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.
Murals of trailblazing women grace the walls, jerseys are worn with pride, and the soundtrack is the roar of fans cheering game-winning shots of women’s sports across the world.
The women designed Blazers with the intention of welcoming all comers.
“We wanted brighter colors,” co-founder Chandler Robertson said. “Not the dark, sticky sports bars we grew up with. We want this to be welcoming for everyone.”
Robertson met Los Angeles-based muralist Corie Mattie by chance while visiting Long Beach, Calif. Mattie, who painted murals of Billie Jean King and Megan Rapinoe in the state’s first women’s sports bar, Watch Me!, brought her magic to Blazers’ ‘Trailblazer Room.’ The room features hand-painted portraits of Chloe Kim, Serena Williams, Kristi Yamaguchi, Amanda Nunes and more that fill the space, alongside a mirror that reads, ‘You’re a trailblazer too.’
The “Trailblazer Room” at Blazers Sports Bar is meant to inspire customers to believe in themselves. (Kaylen Jackson / The Athletic)
Their bar celebrates the athletes who inspired them, creating a space where every fan can see themselves.
The menu features cocktails like “Put Me In Coach” (mezcal, ginger, pineapple and lime), the merch racks are lined with “Watch Women’s Sports” gear and bathroom walls are covered with photos from ESPN Magazine’s “Body Issue,” exclusively featuring women athletes.
Every inch of Blazers was thoughtfully crafted by the founders, who stayed up late painting, designing bathrooms, creating menus and raising money for the renovation.
“We’re putting our own blood, sweat and tears into this,” Davila said.
Davila met Robertson, a talent agency booker, and fellow attorney Caroline Kane through Hinge in 2023. Both Davila and Robertson matched with and became friends with Kane, who invited them to a New York Liberty game. There, the three bonded through a shared obsession with women’s sports. Most Hinge matches end in ghosting or one painfully awkward drink. This one ended in friendships and a business plan.
“Liberty games made me realize we need this space. When they’re away, where is that community? It’s exciting to provide a centralized place where fans can come together,” Davila said. “Sure, we’d love to be successful, but really, it’s about women’s sports taking center stage. Younger versions of myself, whether that be tourists or locals, should be able to feel this space exists for them.”
In late 2023, during lunch, Kane shared her dream to open a women’s sports bar. She had been inspired by Portland’s The Sports Bra, the first U.S. bar entirely dedicated to women’s sports, which had opened just a year earlier. Davila was intrigued, but it was Robertson who hit the gas. When Robertson started bartending to learn about the bar world while juggling her corporate work, Davila said she and Kane realized, “Oh, s—, she’s serious.” It was then that the trio went all in to create the place they’d dreamed of.
For a year, they immersed themselves in learning the hospitality industry. They assigned chapters to one another from the book “Running a Bar for Dummies,” attended workshops and shadowed local bars.
In March 2025, they found the perfect spot: Old Man Hustle, a former comedy club in Williamsburg. What they had expected to take over a year to materialize came together in a couple of months.
“It’s a thing many women do: We wait until we’re overqualified to do something,” Davila said. “But we decided to learn as we go. We came in knowing what we don’t know and built a support system around us. Almost anything we’ve encountered, someone has already faced before. And that support, whether online or in Brooklyn, has been invaluable.”
The trio joins the owners of Wilka’s in Manhattan and Athena Keke’s, which is set to open in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood.
Blazers used watch parties at different venues to test customer interest, sharing on Instagram and TikTok to grow a social media presence and draw in fans. Those fans responded. One Blazers watch party at Bushwick’s Star Bar for the WNBA All-Star Game drew more than 100 people, underscoring the community’s enthusiasm for a dedicated women’s sports bar.
Two weeks before opening weekend, Blazers hosted nearly 80 guests at their new, permanent location to watch Gotham FC and Washington Spirit in the NWSL Championship. Guests wrapped around the front and back rooms of the bar.
Kalani Byrd, 31, first heard about Blazers on TikTok and decided to attend the NWSL watch party.
“I always wondered why there wasn’t a women’s sports bar,” she said. “It means everything to me that women’s sports are finally being centered.”
Eric Barnosky, 34, echoed her sentiment: “I don’t know why it’s taken so long. Both women and men would love to come to this space,” he said. “The U.S. women’s national team has been fighting for equal pay for years; they’re winning World Cups and drawing more TV viewers than men’s teams. You can’t argue economics.”
Blazers co-owners Caroline Kane (far left) and Chandler Robertson (far right) are thankful for their community’s support, but want to see more bars like theirs open. (Kaylen Jackson / The Athletic)
Robertson, co-founder and bar manager, sees the fans’ appetite.
“At almost every watch party, we’ve had people walk in and not be able to get a seat,” she said. “If we’re past capacity, we need more women’s sports bars.
“Barclays sells out 19,000 seats for Liberty games, and the audience in the market is nowhere near what three women’s sports bars can provide. I want to see a women’s sports bar in every neighborhood in New York City; everybody should have this. It’s not about competition. We all want more spaces for fans.”
The Blazers’ owners are also part of a nationwide group chat of women’s sports bar owners, started by Jenny Nguyen, founder of The Sports Bra. Their conversations range widely.
“Some of it’s general bar problems,” Robertson said. “Some of it’s women’s sports–related, but someone is always willing to chime in and answer a question. It’s so intentional, and we have received so much encouragement from people. They were just like: ‘You can do it, keep going. Come on, if we can do it, you can too.’ Hearing that constantly really helps push us.”
Blazers is opening at a pivotal moment for women’s sports. McKinsey & Company reports that women’s sports grew 4.5 times faster than men’s between 2022 and 2024, yet they still receive only 15 percent of total sports media coverage. The NWSL says the 2025 season averaged 228,000 viewers per game, up 61 percent from last year; the NWSL’s 2025 Championship Game topped an average of 1 million viewers for the first time.
WNBA Finals viewership was at a 25-year high, according to Front Office Sports. The 2024 NCAA women’s basketball championship drew 18.9 million viewers, surpassing the men’s game for the first time, according to Nielsen. The success of The Sports Bra in Portland — now expanding into Boston, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Las Vegas — proved that dedicated women’s sports spaces can thrive.
Playing women’s sports in the bar is not as simple as flipping on ESPN. It’s navigating a maze of streaming rights.
“Cable? Easy. But Peacock, Paramount+, YouTube TV — you need express permission for everything,” Robertson said. “We have ten streaming subscriptions, and it’s still not enough.”
For Blazers, navigating the programming maze is part of the mission. The team works to secure commercial licenses so fans can actually watch live games that would otherwise be buried on obscure platforms or unavailable altogether.
Blazers’ founders view this as part of the larger fight for fairness. Women’s sports will have reached equity when a game from the WNBA, NWSL, or PWHL is as visible and accessible as any NFL or MLB matchup.
Heading into the bar’s opening weekend, Robertson envisions moments of pure joy: a goal scored, the bar erupting with cheer, strangers bonding over shared fandom. Kane hopes for a collective sense of accomplishment.
“I rarely let myself reflect and be like, you did it,” she said. “I hope we all get the feeling of, ‘We did it.’ Now the community has this space.”