Philadelphia’s First Women’s Sports Bar Needs Your Support
Ora’s Watch Bar is asking for donations, as it gears up to open in summer 2026.
Calling all women’s sports fans! Watch Party Philly, a women’s sports watch-party community group that has been bringing together sports fans in Philadelphia since March of 2024, is moving into a space of its own. Come summer of 2026, Watch Party Philly will be opening Philadelphia’s first women’s sports bar!
The exciting news was announced in an Instagram post on Wednesday, March 19. Jen Leary, founder of Watch Party Philly, spoke to her supporters in a video. “This has come after a year of being so incredibly supported by you guys, and overwhelmed with the amount of requests we’ve had for watch parties.” Leary continued, “I was worried last year when I started watch parties that we weren’t gonna be busy enough to keep it going after the WNBA season, and boy was I wrong. The natural progression of our watch parties has led us to this announcement. Watch Party PHL will be opening a brick-and-mortar women’s sports watch bar starting in the summer of 2026.”
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Ora’s Watch Bar has launched its first phase of fundraising on GoFundMe, which Leary explained will go towards initial start-up costs like getting a lawyer, consultants, and all the essentials needed to start a small business in a city.
The bar is named in honor of Ora Mae Washington, a pioneering Black female athlete who dominated tennis and basketball in the 1930s. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Washington went on to win her first national tennis championship and earn a spot on the Philadelphia Tribunes, an all-Black women’s basketball team. She helped the team win 11 consecutive Women’s Colored Basketball World Championships. In 1976, Washington was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame, then Temple University’s Hall of Fame in 1986, and later was elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.
While women’s sports is finally having its well-deserved moment, it’s empowering to see women athletes like Washington who paved the way for this movement to be remembered. Beyond the bar, Watch Party Philly has shown itself to be a liberating group for women’s sports fans, and we cannot wait for this community group to have the space it rightfully deserves.
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Don’t forget to follow Watch Party Philly on Instagram, donate to the bar’s GoFundMe if you can, and spread the word to help Ora’s Watch Bar get the support they need!
