Supporters hope the upcoming team will help develop local support for women’s basketball.
Elisabeth Long, left, Martha Soule-Fahey, second from left, and Elyse Widin, center, watch a WNBA game on televisions at The Athletic Club Oakland sports bar on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, in Oakland, Calif. OAKLAND — If you’re a Golden State Warriors diehard, finding a sports bar packed with likeminded NBA fans is as easy as asking a friend or hopping on Yelp. Not so for the Bay Area’s committed WNBA watchers.
“I’m used to it,” Widin said, adding that they had to ask bar management to turn on closed captions so they could follow the action through the din of 30 other screens dominated by the NFL. “That’s just how it goes when you’re not a majority in the population.” “People are coming out of the woodwork, but it’s unfortunate that it took so long,” Widin said. “I hope more people feel comfortable vocalizing their interest in women’s sports. I’ll try to lift up whatever I can — I’m hopefully for the Bay Area.”
A small handful of hubs dedicated specifically to women’s sports have already taken off across the country., which became the nation’s first dedicated women’s sports bar in 2022.
Elisabeth Long, a 36-year-old from Oakland, only started following women’s basketball after watching Team USA play in the Olympics during the pandemic. But despite getting involved during a recent upswell of investment in women’s sports — regionally and across the country — she said scores of different streaming apps and subscription services have created barriers that extend beyond a lack of physical space to watch games.
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