Happy International Women's Day!In 2021, Anna Remiger went to a sports bar in Milwaukee, hoping to catch the women’s marathon during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Molly Seidel, a Brookfield, Wis. native, was running her third career marathon ever and much of the state was cheering her on.

“I had to beg a bartender to put it on one of the TVs in the far corner because a regular season, men’s baseball game was on,” says Remiger. “A local legend was making history and people didn’t even know it was happening.”

After a similar incident in Portland, Ore., Jenny Nguyen conceived the idea to open the first women’s sports bar in the country. Nguyen was inspired after forced to watch the 2018 NCAA women’s basketball tournament in a crowded sports bar on mute. In 2021, she opened The Sports Bra, and today, the bar is consistently packed with patrons and has 65,000 followers on Instagram.

Since then, other similar women’s sports bars opened, including A Bar Of Their Own in Minneapolis, Minn.; Rough and Tumble Pub in Seattle, Wash.; Watch Me! in Long Beach, Calif.; Parlor Sports in Somerville, Mass.; and Whiskey Girl Tavern in Chicago.

Although there is often crossover, women’s sports bars are not the same as lesbian bars. Nguyen once stated, “(The Sports Bra) is a bar for women’s sports, not a sports bar for women.” 

Milwaukee is home to Walker’s Pint, a lesbian/women’s bar opened by Bet-z Boenning in 2001. The Pint is an inclusive community gathering place that hosts live music, karaoke, music bingo, fundraisers, group outings, shuttle services and more. Spectator sports are a large aspect of Pint’s culture, but most of the patrons historically root for MLB and NFL teams.

But this is changing. Boenning says interest in women’s sports has increased with her customers. Plus, the games are more likely to garner popular timeslots.

“Over the years, we’ve opened early for some of the bigger games and matches, but there were never really big crowds,” says Boenning. “Now, with the ‘Caitlin Clark effect,’ women’s sports are more elevated, much more available and people have more interest in viewing the games.”

This is happening everywhere.

According to ESPN, the WNBA experienced record-breaking viewership in 2024 across all platforms and the WNBA Finals were the most-watched in 25 years, averaging 1.6 million viewers and an increase of 115 percent over 2023. The Professional Women’s Hockey League is experiencing similar boosts in both viewership and game attendance, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup became the most-attended Women's World Cup ever, selling over 2 million tickets. 

Most recently, Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 – which takes place between England and the United States in August – has already shattered records as the fastest-selling tournament of all time.

Locally, we’ve seen this again and again. In 2017, The Wisconsin Badgers women's hockey team set the NCAA record for attendance at a women's ice hockey game with 15,359 fans at a game against St. Cloud State. For the 2024-2025 season, the team ranked first in the country for attendance. The Marquette Golden Eagles women's basketball also experienced a rise in attendance, with almost 30,000 fans in the stands last season.

Plus, Milwaukee has a strong history of women’s sports, including as the former home to a professional women's basketball team, the Milwaukee Does, from 1978 to 1980. Semi-pro women's basketball team, The Milwaukee Aces, played from 2014 until 2020.

Considering our strong history and current appreciation for women's sports, Milwaukee is ripe for more women’s sports viewing venues.

“I would love to see a woman’s sports bar in Milwaukee. It’s time for women to stop feeling marginalized and have a place to go to celebrate the sportsmanship and accomplishments of female athletes,” says Remiger. “It would also give many a sense of community.”