A Sports Bar Not Just For Women, But A Bar For Women’s Sports

Hi, I’m Rick Barron, your host, and welcome to That’s Life, I Swear

This is the story of Jenny Nguyen, who decided one day that it was time for women to have a bar. This wasn’t just any bar which we’ll soon find out.  What makes this story even more interesting was that part of her marketing plan for naming her bar, required only the switching of two letters in one word. She founded a watering hole in Portland, Oregon., and the first one in America that exclusively shows women's sports on all its TV’s.

Let’s jump into this 

So, here’s something to toss around in your head as I share this story with you. Were you aware that with all of the sports coverage that happens on the media, only 4% is dedicated to women’s sports?

This data point came to light one evening for Jenny Nguyen and her girl friends when they went to a bar to watch the 2018 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship.  The two teams playing for the title were Norte Dame and Mississippi State. 

Upon entering the bar, Jenny saw dozens of flat panel TV’s encircling the bar, covering various sports, from baseball, pro basketball, international soccer, golf; albeit men’s sports. The NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship wasn’t anywhere to be found on the TV’s.

Jenny took a deep breath and with the help of her girlfriends, they pulled together some chairs and tables. They flagged down one of the waitresses to ask if they could change the channel on the smaller tv facing their table in the corner, to see the basketball game. She replied that it was no problem and turned on the game for Jenny and her girlfriends.

The basketball game turned out to be the most exciting game in NCAA Women’s Basketball. The game was tied at 58-58 with just a few seconds left in the game. Norte Dame had to make a spectacular play as everything was riding on the final basket. 

Fortunately, it was Norte Dames ball. The ball gets throw in; Norte Dame player lets the ball fly for what was going to be a three-pointer. Swish! Nothing but net! The buzzer goes off, game over. Norte Dame wins the Women’s NCAA Basketball Championship!

When seeing the final basket, Jenny and her girlfriends erupted into cheering and yelling. During the celebration of the game's final outcome, Jenny noticed patrons looking at them as if they were zombies. One person asked what happened? 

What happened was right. I forgot to mention that even though the waitress changed the channel to the basketball game, she didn’t turn up the volume, least it interfered with the other TV’s playing men’s sporting events.

As Jenny drove him, she reflected on the evening. The game was great, but it struck her as a moment that said to her, ‘wait a minute’. 

She thought had we really gotten used to the norm of not experiencing women’s sports in its full glory, and then missing something as important as having the sound on be overlooked? In, Jenny’s mind she wondered what does it take to watch women’s sports on tv in a sport bar? I mean do we have to have our own place?

The porch light turned on.

What happen to Jenny and her girlfriends that evening, was the impetus to take her idea and turn it into reality. That reality was to establish a sports bar not just for women, but a bar for women’s sports.

As simple as the idea was, the name of the bar was also very simple. Jenny looked at the name ‘sports bar’ and it came to her. Keep the name ‘sports’, but just switch two letters in ‘bar’. That said she had the name of the new establishment, the ‘Sports Bra’. To sweeten the bar’s name was her tagline, ‘we support women’. 

What made Jenny’s idea even more daunting was she was planning to lunch the bar during COVID-19! During this crazy time, many people were reprioritizing what was important to them. 

Looking at pictures of Jenny Nguyen, her small frame comes off as soft spoken and timid. Hardly, beneath that veneer is a woman with iron determination and the phrase. For her, ‘you can’t do this’ is not part of her thinking process. 

It didn’t take long for Jenny to kick her plan into gear. For starters she implemented a plan to raise money for her new venture.

After doing the math, she calculated she would need about $48,000 to get her venture off the ground. Looking at the dollar figure made Jenny nervous asking people for that amount of money. That said, she thought of bringing down what she needed to $30,000. One of her girlfriends questioned where she thought she could get the other $18,000. Jenny thought perhaps her family or other friends. 

Her friend finally convinced to go for it and ask for what she really needed, as she had nothing to lose. Additionally, Kickstarter calls out either you make your goal or don’t. That said, it’s all or nothing.  

Jenny took a leap of faith, and much to her to her surprise, her plan to raise money for this unique establishment went viral. How much did she end up raising?  She raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter and captured international attention at the same time. 

It didn’t take long for word of mouth to get around. Jenny’s idea became a media sensation 

With everything going full swing, Jenny’s mom, whom Jenny had been working for at their family real estate company, had concerns, like every parent would have for their children. Her mom expressed her misgivings and felt this was not a great idea. She was concerned with COVID-19 and labor shortage such as it was, and felt it was a fool’s errand. 

Jenny had a different mindset. She told her mom that while she appreciated the concern, she would not be stopped and proceeded to go forward with her dream. 

There was one hurdle, a major one by the way; and that was keeping all of the tv’s inside the Sports Bra busy with women’s sports.

As stated at he beginning of this podcast, all of the sports coverage that happens on the media, only 4% is dedicated to women’s sports. 

Changing that percentage would be part of Jenny’s plan, albeit not an easy one. 

Over the past 50 years since the landmark Title IX legislation, millions of girls gained access to athletics. So, it's not that women aren't playing sports; it's that the networks tend not to broadcast them.

Strong will as she is, Jenny marched forward. She connected with many networks, as well as all the key streaming services, and asking why not. She’s threw questions at them they’ve never encountered.  Her tackling the media giants wasn’t an easy path, but for Jenny, it made the journey even more rewarding. 

For Jenny, opening day was somewhat surreal. She had dreamed of this idea, not to mention the work to get there. She thought back to the evening she came up with the ideal. It was four years to the date of her opening, April 1, 2018.

She had cheer leaders, news coverage, and to make it feel like she just won a basketball championship, she cut down a basketball net that was staged in front of her bar.

When you enter the bar you, the walls are covered with framed women’s sporting jerseys and artwork celebrating athletes including Brandi Chastain, Serena Williams, to name a few.

It was a perfect night for the grand opening. On this night, there was no shortage of content. It was the semi-finals of the NCAA Women’s' Final Four, along with six National Women’s Soccer League games to follow over the weekend. Jenny's dream had become a reality.

She confesses to being an introvert, but you wouldn’t know it by her actions to what brought her to this moment. To be out of her comfort zone, as she puts it, during the grand opening, the media coverage, not to mention a crew filming her bartenders mixing drinks for the CBS Sunday Morning News, was a lot to digest.

So, what can we learn from Jenny’s story? What’s the take away.

Perhaps, Jenny was in the right place at the right time. She saw a need that was not being provided. What made the idea even sweeter, it was staring right in her face.

She mentioned that she was an introvert, somewhat timid in asking for help in drumming up donations on Kickstarter, and launching a bar with little experience. Additionally, she found herself learning on the fly, such things as accounting and balancing the books, hiring staff, setting the right décor for the bar, everything. 

Yes, Jenny was doing it all and realized, like many of us do, there are no barriers but the ones you create for yourself.

Truman Capote had a great quote: Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor”. End quote. I’m sure Jenny will have her ups and downs with her bar, but it should remind us that like Jenny, one only needs to persevere, remain courageous in your convictions, and remember to turn up the volume in your life.

Did I mention that the Sports Bra bar is encircled with tv’s showing various women’s sports, and here’s the sweet spot, the volume is cranked up on all the tv’s.

Try this. The next time you go into a sports bar, see if there’s a women’s sporting event being broadcasted. If there is, and the sound is not on, ask the establishment if they would be so kind to turn up the volume, and see what reaction you get.

Well, there you go. That’s life, I swear.

For further information regarding the material covered in this episode, I invite you to visit my website that you can find on either Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, for show notes calling out key pieces of content mentioned, and the episode transcript.

As always, I thank you for listening. 

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