When Jenny Nguyen invested all her savings to open a bar that exclusively shows women’s sports on television, she wanted to prove that the idea was more than just a novelty.
Two years later, her bar, The Sports Bra, in Portland, Oregon, averages more than $1 million in annual sales, according to documents obtained by CNBC Make It. She has become a vocal advocate for female athletes as her bar is packed, and she has reinvested most of The Sports Bra’s revenue back into the business, she says.
Some of that revenue will likely go toward expansion. In April, Nguyen and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian — the husband of tennis legend Serena Williams — announced an investment partnership to develop a franchise plan and open locations in new cities, she says. Their goal: to prove there’s enough enthusiasm for women’s sports to support the concept almost anywhere.
“Oh man. It’s been busy,” says Nguyen, 44, who adds that she is working with Ohanian and a team of consultants on a vision for The Sports Bra’s growth. She is cautious not to rush into anything and risk “losing the spirit, the soul, the quality or all the things we value about The Bra,” she says.
Given the nationwide interest in women’s sports, Nguyen says she wants to have franchisees for The Sports Bra in “three or four cities” ready to announce their opening by the end of 2024. Her plan is to open those locations before the end of 2025, while considering the next three to four cities where franchises could open in 2026, and so on.
“It’s crazy to me that Bra opened in 2022 and we were able to witness this radical change in sports culture right before our eyes,” says Nguyen.
Building a potential “multi-billion dollar industry”
Nguyen isn’t the only one who believes there’s a need for more bars like hers. The Sports Bra has started a movement and inspired other Washington bars that focus exclusively on women’s sports. to Massachusetts.
According to Deloitte, women’s sports are expected to generate over $1 billion in revenue in 2024, a 300% increase from three years ago. Female athletes are fighting for equal pay, young stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are joining the WNBA, and women like Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky are gaining global recognition at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Nguyen, who once struggled to find enough women’s sports coverage to fill her bar’s TVs, no longer has to spend her time “trawling” TV schedules, she says. According to a 2023 study by sports and entertainment agency Wasserman, women’s sports now make up about 15% of all sports coverage on TV, triple the coverage found in another study just two years earlier.
Jenny Nguyen (center), founder and owner of The Sports Bra, reacts while watching the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship semifinal game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the UConn Huskies at The Sports Bra on April 5, 2024 in Portland, Oregon.
Amanda Loman | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
Women-only sports bars could bring “several billions of dollars in revenue” to the U.S. restaurant industry over the next five years, says Aaron Allen, founder of restaurant consultancy Aaron Allen & Associates.
“(This) could be a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States that could take off globally… Women’s sports are growing and they need a community, they need fans, and those fans need places to connect and build a community,” he says.
Ohanian is adamant: He and Williams are financially supporting several projects in women’s sports. He did not disclose the size of his investment partnership with The Sports Bra, but he has promised to donate all of his 776 Foundation’s proceeds from the investment to causes that “support future generations of female athletes.”
“It doesn’t feel like a competition”
Ohanian first contacted Nguyen last year via Twitter. “It was shocking. I couldn’t believe it,” Nguyen says. “My first reaction was, ‘This is fake.'”
After she convinced herself that Ohanian was eligible, the two emailed each other regularly, she says. He connected her with resources and advisors and was also patient enough to wait until she was ready to seriously consider expansion, she notes.
Opening a bar was a big, uncharacteristic move for Nguyen, who describes herself as “extremely risk-averse.” Even now, she insists on sticking to her “fairly conservative” expansion plans, she says.
“I would rather open more slowly and deliberately than just rush everything out because so many people want it and then it somehow gets watered down,” says Nguyen. Growing too quickly carries the risk of “not giving the franchisees the full attention and support they need.”
With the growing importance of women’s sport, fans need places where they can connect and build community.
Aaron Allen
Consultant for the catering industry
This is probably their biggest challenge right now, says Allen: To succeed in new locations, companies like The Sports Bra must effectively define and codify the mission, aesthetics and infrastructure that helped them break through in the first place.
“That can make the difference between one-off, short-lived success stories and something that really takes off,” Allen says. “Going from one unit to two is a whole different business.”
Another issue is time. The rapid proliferation of similar bars across the country puts pressure on Nguyen to make The Sports Bra a “national brand” before it’s overtaken by a competitor, Allen says. The support Nguyen is getting from the women’s sports industry – including professional teams, athletes and even competitors who own similar bars – keeps her from panicking, she says.
“It doesn’t feel like a competition. It feels like camaraderie,” says Nguyen, adding, “It’s incredible that people have shown up from all over to help build and shape and participate in this wild adventure we’re on.”
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