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Women’s sports are having a historic moment in the United States. According to The Bank of America, U.S. women’s sports revenues are forecasted to grow over 250% by 2030 compared to 2024 levels, climbing toward a $2.5 billion U.S. market value. Few entrepreneurs saw that wave coming as early as Jenny Nguyen.
In 2022 Nguyen, 46, launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to open her dream business. With that goal in mind, she put up her life savings, about $27.000, to set up The Sports Bra, a Portland, Oregon-based sports bar that only plays women’s sports.
Despite its niche premise, the bar promptly brought in nearly $1 million in revenue and achieved profitability in its first eight months. It has brought in more than $1 million annually since then, Nguyen says in an interview with CNBC.
“Folks were doubtful of the concept”
The idea came from a frustration many fans share: Nguyen couldn’t find a bar willing to put the 2018 NCAA women’s basketball championship on its televisions. When she finally opened her own, not everyone believed in it.
“When we came onto the market in 2022, folks were doubtful of the concept,” Nguyen told The Athletic. “Trolls saying nobody cared about women’s sports, that we’d last two months because we weren’t showing men’s sports.”
She admits she had her own doubts. “Me, personally, I thought the idea was brilliant and that [it was] what the world needs. But I had no idea that the world would want it. I just wanted to give it a shot,” she said.
Its audience has also grown beyond its original crowd: “Honestly, cis men are sometimes the most vocal about why they love women’s sports,”.
The crowdfunding of fans that raised more than 1.2 million dollars
On May 18, The Sports Bra launched a crowdfunding campaign called “Own a Piece of the Bra”, allowing anyone to buy equity in the company for as little as $250. The goal was $1.2 million. In roughly two months, it raised nearly $1.24 million from more than 1,400 people.
Nguyen, who worked as a chef before becoming an entrepreneur, knows restaurants and bars remain difficult businesses to scale up. But the fundraising push and planned expansion are her bet to continue the growth of women’s sports.
Competition is growing too: the number of women’s sports bars in the U.S. has risen to 27, according to Front Office Sports. Nguyen knows the first openings will be decisive. “Everybody’s watching, and if [the first five] don’t launch well, then we can kind of kiss the 40 [locations] in four years goodbye,” she said.
Still, the bar that skeptics gave two months to survive is now betting on a nationwide future, this time backed by the community that made it possible.