"Nora McConnell-Johnson can recall the exact day when she came up with the idea to open a Chicago women's sports bar. It was October 17, 2021, and she was watching game four of the WNBA finals - the Chicago Sky versus the Phoenix Mercury - huddled with other fans on the back patio of a Wicker Park bar. Not ideal, but after calling around town, it was the only place she could find to watch the game with the sound on."
"Babe's is part of a growing movement driven by women's sports fans like McConnell-Johnson, who've been treated as afterthoughts by traditional sports bar culture, which tends to focus on men's sports (the lion's share of what's televised by major networks). Since 2022, bars such as Rough and Tumble, Pitch the Baby, and Untamed Spirits, have sprung up across the United States. In Chicago, Edgewater welcomed Whiskey Girl Tavern, an LGBTQ-friendly sports bar and lounge."
""Back then, it was not only hard to find a place to watch games, but it also felt really disrespectful," says McConnell-Johnson, a lifelong athlete and collegiate rugby player. "That was a catalyzing moment for me." (For the record: The Sky won that game and the championship.) Not too long after, McConnell-Johnson heard from her rugby-playing friends in Portland, Oregon, about a new place dedicated to women's sports - the Sports Bra."
Nora McConnell-Johnson created Babe's Sports Bar after struggling to find a Chicago venue showing a WNBA finals game with sound. The Logan Square bar will open at 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 27, and will play only women's sports across eight flatscreens, aside from occasional exceptions like the Puppy Bowl. The concept was inspired by other women-focused sports venues and responds to traditional sports-bar culture that prioritizes men's sports. Babe's joins a wave of similar bars launched since 2022 and reflects rising mainstream interest in women's athletics.
Read at Eater Chicago
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]