October 8, 2024

How Serena Williams’ husband is helping to turn a women’s sport bar into a chain

How Serena Williams’ husband is helping to turn a women’s sport bar into a chain

What happens if you bring together a basketball-loving chef, Serena Williams’s husband and women’s sport? Well, the result should be a successful chain of sports bars, with a difference.

Before getting to the future, though, let us rewind a few years.

It was in 2018 that Jenny Nguyen, the aforementioned chef, hit upon the idea of a bar showing only women’s sport. She and some friends had crowded around a small television (with no sound) in the corner of a bar in Portland, Oregon, to watch a college basketball final, having had to ask one of the staff to change the channel to the women’s game.

The experience was far from optimal, hence the discussion around a new type of sports bar.

It took four years for Nguyen to get the concept off the ground, what with the pandemic and the need to raise funds. Banks were not forthcoming with loans; they were enthusiastic about the idea but as it had “never been done before” it was considered high risk. Instead, she drew on her own savings, support from family and friends, and a Kickstarter campaign, and, in April 2022, The Sports Bra opened its doors.

Of the name, Nguyen says: “One simple change makes all the difference, like changing a channel or flipping two letters in ‘sports bar’. It was the first thing I thought of and it really stuck.”

Nguyen was unsure whether the bar would be successful but need not have worried. For the first couple of months, there was a queue outside when it opened; the first-come, first-served policy meant people were happy to wait in line to get one of the 40 seats inside, enjoy the live action on one of five televisions and appreciate the plethora of memorabilia adorning the walls. Nguyen is strict about no reservations, too: various teams and athletes have tried to book areas and been turned down. Some well-known names have even joined the queue in order to get inside, with Portland Thorns fixtures in the National Women’s Soccer League the most popular among patrons.

It is that level of demand that has seen the bar bring in $1 million (£788,000) in revenue each year.

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