Sport-loving gays rise up! A new all-women’s sports bar is coming to Long Beach, California.
Not only will it be a fun spot to grab a beer and watch a game, the bar is also a win for representation. Watch Me is set to become the only women’s sports bar in Long Beach and Greater L.A., according the LAist. A small number of similar bars having been popping up nationwide, as more Americans become women sports fans.
A recent study out of Ohio State University shows over half of U.S. adults have watched or followed a women’s sports team in the past year. The National Women’s Soccer League set a new attendance record by surpassing one million fans in the 2023 season. 55,000 fans attended a University of Iowa women’s basketball game last year, setting a new NCAA record.
Watch Me owners Jax Diener and Emme Eddy have decided to make a space for this much-welcomed interest. They took inspiration from The Sports Bra, one of few such bars, in Portland. The owners tell LAist they originally sought to open a franchised Sports Bra location in Long Beach, but ultimately decided on opening their own bar.
The bar will join a growing list of others. Rough & Tumble opened in Seattle in 2022. Icarus Wings and Things followed last year in Salem, Oregon, but closed last month. A Bar of Their Own opened earlier this year in Minneapolis.
At Watch Me, owners are prioritizing a safe and inclusive space for women and LGBTQ+ customers.
“The access to those places has really, really gone away, so there’s a real need for that, I think, in the community here now,” Eddy told LAist.
Diener and Eddy say the bar will be open to all kinds of fans, from die-hards to casual watchers. It will be a gathering space for people of all ages.
Watch Me is set to open later this year, hopefully in time for the Olympics. They’ve started a crowdfunding campaign to help kick things off.
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