As women's sports take off, Minnesota's first women's sports bar is doing its thing

In 1935, the first female athlete graced the Breakfast of Champions box. Pictured on a box of General Mills Wheaties, Olympian Babe Didrikson Zaharias smiles and holds a basketball ready to shoot.

He would go on to even greater fame as multi-sport athlete and co-founder of the Ladies Professional Golf Association. However, the business of sports remained heavily skewed towards men.

Nearly 90 years later, however, the economic landscape has changed significantly. Women's sport is on the rise, gaining more exposure, fans and money from television. That growing demand takes an interesting new step Friday, when the Midwest's first all-women's sports bar — and only the fourth in the country — opens in Minneapolis.

ONE The Bar of Their Own has set its opening for next week's Big Ten women's basketball tournament in Minneapolis, which — thanks to University of Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark — will breaking attendance records. The convention says it expects a five-day total of more than 109,000 at the Target Center, more than double the previous record, which was set last year.

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Clark's presence filled Williams Arena Wednesday night at the University of Minnesota when the Hawkeyes took on the Gophers.

Observers see the launch of the bar as a natural response to the growing economic power of women's sports. The bar owner — who spent years walking into Twin Cities bars and begging the bartender to change the TV to women's sports — hopes that by building on that momentum, she'll keep it going.

“I jokingly say that every sports bar you walk into in the Twin Cities area is probably a men's sports bar. We just don't call it that,” owner Jillian Hiscock told MPR News.

Inside, photos of local and national sports icons line the bar's walls, along with 12 televisions. There's a signed poster from the Rockford Peaches — the Illinois women's baseball team that inspired the movie “A League of Their Own” along with the bar's name — signed jerseys and an LGBTQ+ pride flag.

“As a young kid, I didn't even know it was missing because I didn't know what was available,” Hiscock said of the lack of visibility surrounding women's sports. “We need to make it easier for kids, and especially young women, to be able to see themselves on TV.”

While starting a business is never easy, and there are many sports in the Twin Cities, Hiscock believes there is enough momentum for women's sports now to sustain A Bar of Their Own.

We see you. we recognize you”

Women's sports are at a tipping point in a good way, says Cheryl Cooky, a Purdue University professor and sports sociologist who has co-authored two books on society and women's sports.

“The changes in the women's sports landscape that we have seen in a very short period of time are exponential,” she said. “There are more opportunities for people to show their adoration and act on their interest in ways they haven't before.”

When spaces are created to focus on women, she added, it can challenge the ways we think about gender in gaming and how we see women in society.

This was seen in St. Paul in January when more than 13,000 people came to watch The new Minnesota Professional Women's Hockey League team. It was a record for most ever to watch professional women's hockey.

Last year, the Minnesota Aurora football team quickly built a large fan base, averaging 5,000 fans per game and breaking attendance records at its home stadium, the Vikings' TCO Stadium in Eagan. ONE a crowd of around 6,500 fans watched the final match. The success accelerated the team's timeline to join a professional league and find investors.

The Minnesota Lynx have won multiple championships and maintain one of the strongest fan bases in the WNBA, a league that last year broke her previous records for viewership, attendance and digital engagement.

However, the financial question still lingers around women's sports in a way that is mostly not the case with men's sports. Cooky said she often gets questions about the long-term financial health of women's sports, but the money is there and growing.

For 2024, women's sports are projected to generate $1.28 billion in revenue according to Deloitte Sports Business Group300 percent higher than the last three years.

She'd say she's optimistic, but she doesn't think A Bar of Their Own needs it. She is sure they will succeed.

“As a woman, it's so rare to be in a social space and see yourself openly put together in a way that's not misogynistic,” Cooky said. “That's what these bars do. They say we see you. We recognize you. We appreciate you and this will be a safe space.”

“If you put us on TV, we'll appear”

Hiscock's friends say if anyone can build a women's sports bar in the Twin Cities, it's her. From announcing her plan on social media on September 15th to opening the doors.

“When he said he was going to do this, my first reaction was, 'Oh, he's going to knock it out of the park.' It was never an idea I thought would fall by the wayside. I knew she was going to see it from the beginning,” Jade Denson said.

Friday's grand opening will be assisted by 30 staff members. Hiscock says she had the app live for about 36 hours when she had to shut it down because she received nearly 200 applications.

“If you put us on TV, we'll show up and consume,” said Kate Voss, a friend of Hiscock and a loyal Lynx fan.

“I haven't seen anything a woman has in mind that she's not going to accomplish,” he added. “If you're not investing in women, what are you doing? Turn the channel on women. We've been dominating for years.”

Minnesota Aurora head coach and athletic director Nicole Lukic feels the same way. Over the past three years she has learned how to maintain interest in women's sports. And according to her, this is just the beginning.

“When I was an athlete, the opportunities to play beyond college were limited,” Lukic said. “Watching women on TV was very sparse – it was terribly taken off. I think it's only going to keep getting better for all women's sports.”