No matter what team you're rooting for, NCAA women's basketball has a definite winner this year. According to the Sporting News, 6.9 million people watched Iowa, led by phenom Caitlin Clarke, and Colorado. That set a new record for the women's tournament before the final four showdown.
And now there's another slam dunk for people who love women's sports — sports bars that feature female competition. LAist reports on a new venue in Long Beach, California, called Watch Me, scheduled to open in 2024.
Watch Me is part of a growing movement of sports bars that exclusively (or at least primarily) show women's sports. The Sports Bra in Portland and Rough & Tumble in Seattle served their first drinks in 2022. Icarus Wings and Things opened last year in Salem, Oregon, and A Bar of Their Own opened in Minneapolis earlier this month — and even more bars are in the works.
The owners of Watch Me, Jax Diener and her wife Emme Eddy, want their bar to be a gathering place for female athletes and their supporters, but all are welcome.
"We're very big NFL fans over here," Diener said. "But we are flipping it — probably 95% of the time you would catch us with women's sports in our space."
The owners are hoping to be open in time for the Olympics. Downing a frosty cold one while watching the U.S. National Women's Soccer Team take the sun-baked field in Paris sounds like a win for everyone.
Previously: Women take a place at the pinball table
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