1972 Sports Pub in Austin, Texas on Friday, August 14, 2026.
Abaigail Rosenthal/Chron.com
Amid a boom in women’s sports, dedicated spaces for watching them have popped up all over the country. Unfortunately, one of two women’s sports bars in Texas won’t be around much longer.
On Friday, 1972 Women’s Sports Pub in Austin announced on social media that it would close at the end of the month. The pub said Aug. 30 would be the last day at 2530 Guadalupe St.
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“Because of you, 1972 Pub became a place where women’s sports were celebrated the way they always deserved to be,” owners Debra Hallum and Marlene du Plessis said in a statement. “Every cheer, every watch party, every person who walked through our doors helped prove that these spaces matter.”
1972 opened in early 2025 after a crowdfunding campaign that started in 2024. The bar is named for the year that Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that prohibited sex discrimination in education and helped bolster women’s athletics, was signed. Hallum told Texas Monthly shortly after its opening that she and her wife, du Plessis, believed creating a space for fans of women’s sports to gather was in the spirit of Title IX’s signing.
“In 1972, when they signed Title IX, it was removing barriers and trying to lift up and support girls and women in college playing sports and giving them that opportunity,” Hallum told Texas Monthly in 2025. “And what we’re trying to do is lift up women athletes and women’s sports and give them a space.”
The bar hosted watch parties for WNBA games,the WNBA Draft, as well as women’s soccer, softball, track and field events, and the newly founded Women’s Pro Baseball League. Chron couldn’t immediately reach 1972 for comment by phone or email, and the bar’s owners didn’t give a reason for the closure. But this past May, 1972 said the bar’s location on Austin’s Drag had been acquired through eminent domain due to Project Connect, Austin’s massive light-rail construction project. Hallum and du Plessis told KXAN that they believed they would have more time before relocation, but were forced to find a new location much sooner.
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1972 Sports Pub in Austin, Texas on Friday, August 14, 2026.
Abaigail Rosenthal/Chron.com
The pub was also transparent about financial difficulties. While the bar was apparently profitable, Hallum and du Plessis told multiple media outlets that they hoped to secure a loan from the federal Small Business Administration. But in March, the SBA announced a rule requiring businesses to be wholly owned by American citizens to qualify for loans; while Hallum is a U.S. citizen, du Plessis is a permanent resident and green card holder, per KXAN. That pushed the couple to turn to the community for more crowdfunding help.
In their statement on social media, Hallum and du Plessis said they have “no immediate plans to relocate” and that their mission to celebrate women’s sports “does not end with a lease.
Recent years have seen a surge in interest in women’s sports, fueled in part by growth in WNBA viewership due to new superstars in the league such as former Iowa and now Fever superstar Caitlin Clarke. The WNBA has shattered viewership records, as have many other collegiate and professional women’s sporting events. Other pro leagues like the Professional Women’s Hockey League and League One Volleyball have seen similar surges in interest and have expanded as a result.
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The women’s sports boom pushed fans in Portland to open The Sports Bra, the country’s first dedicated women’s sports bar, in 2022 and now plans to franchise locations in several other cities. Inspired by the Sports Bra, women’s sports bars have popped up around the country.
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With 1972’s closure, just one spot for women’s sports lovers remains in Texas. Pearl, Houston’s only lesbian bar, shows women’s sports at its side establishment, Side Peace. Pearl recently moved into a massive space off Washington Avenue that patrons lovingly call “the lesbian mansion.”
But while 1972 may be closing, its owners promised that they will try to find a way to keep the dream of women’s sports in Austin alive.
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“Thank you for showing up, believing in this vision, and making 1972 Pub what it is,” Hallum and du Plessis wrote. “This isn’t the end of the mission. It’s an opportunity to build what’s next, together.”