<\/p>\n
Jenny Nguyen founded The Sports Bra in 2022.<\/p>\n
It started as an inside joke among friends. When The Sports Bra was just an idea, Jenny Nguyen would say something like, \u201cAt The Sports Bra, we would do this instead of this,\u201d comparing the concept to any traditional sports bar that didn\u2019t meet the mark.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the rest of a bar was watching a football game, Nguyen and her friends would be in a corner watching a women\u2019s basketball game, which they\u2019d request to have turned on, with the sound off. After a women\u2019s NCAA match Nguyen called \u201cone of the most epic games in basketball history\u201d in 2018, she realized her frustration of not having a place solely dedicated to women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew frustrated, and I blurted out loud to this group of friends that the only way we\u2019re going to watch women\u2019s sports, the way it deserves, is if we had our own place,\u201d said Nguyen, a former basketball player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it stayed as a mere joke with friends for four years until Nguyen made The Sports Bra, a sports bar centered around women\u2019s athletics, a reality in 2022. Before opening the first and only location in Portland, Oregon, the bar had a ton of hype from local media organizations and the Kickstarter campaign it used to fundraise.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no point in my mind was it ever going to be a reality\u2014not for me, at least,\u201d said Nguyen, who spent 15 years working in kitchens before making the jump to business ownership. The success and popularity of the bar\u2019s Kickstarter in February 2022 was the turning point. \u201cI realized, oh my gosh, maybe this is something that people do want and maybe this is an idea that can work. \u2026 We hadn\u2019t even opened the doors yet, and people were talking about what it meant to have a space dedicated like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s easy to find a sports bar in any city\u2014even ones specifically dedicated to certain teams. Some notable, well-known options are Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters<\/a> and Twin Peaks<\/a>. Smaller examples are\u00a0Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mugshots Grill & Bar<\/a>.<\/p>\n Renee Montgomery is a two-time WNBA champion with the Minnesota Lynx in 2015 and 2017. She invested in The Sports Bra.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n