California’s first sports bar celebrating women’s sports and diversity opens in Long Beach (2024)

A circular bar centered around plenty of tables, ice-cold drinks and food specials, dozens of sports fans with their eyes glued to TV screens — this may be a familiar scene at sports bars. But this isn’t your average establishment.

Hundreds packed “Watch Me!,” Long Beach’s newest sports bar, at its grand opening and ribbon-cutting event on Friday.

“We watch women’s sports with the sound on!” an Instagram post said.

The Watch Me! Sports Bar — located at the Marketplace Long Beach along Pacific Coast Highway, and across from the 2ND & PCH shopping center — celebrates the determination and spirit of female athletes and their fans, its co-owners said. The new establishment is California’s first bar to broadcast primarily women’s sports, and one of just a handful in the country like it.

Wives and co-owners Jackie Diener and Megan Eddy — who go by “Jax” and “Emme” — said that their bar’s mission is to “celebrate achievements by women who continuously break barriers in the sports world and beyond.” Their goal of creating an inclusive, welcoming community for all sports fans, women included, was a “priority.”

“Around 95%” of what the bar’s 26 flat-screen TVs will be playing will be women’s sports games, Diener said. The couple also confessed to being big L.A. Dodgers and football fans, so men’s sports will be broadcast, too.

While the space aims to celebrate women, support fellow athletes, and generally be a place for “all things women’s sports,” all are welcome. The co-owners were inspired after seeing the success and inclusive communities within similar women-focused sports bars in Portland,Seattle and Minneapolis.

“It was important to me to hurry up and be the first in California, because it felt so monumental,” Diener, 57, said. “I think that was really part of my driving force… some might think this would be a competitive thing, and it’s not. Women do support women, and that’s been amazing to see.”

A lifelong sports fan and an athlete herself, Diener said she experienced misogyny and hom*ophobia typically among men’s sports bar settings. She shared experiences of feeling unwelcome at Sunday football games with friends, and even recent “toxic” comments she read online about the business and its patrons.

Still, Diener and Eddy said, they aim for their bar to surpass the hate, celebrate diversity and female empowerment — with an “I’ll show you” attitude.

Following a booming interest in women’s sports, a subculture of women’s sports bars across the country is also starting to boom — and the “Watch Me!” owners are hopping on.

In mid-July, the WNBAobtained a $2.2 billion media-rights deal with ESPN, NBC and Amazon that is set to last 11 years. The league has seen increasing popularity not seen before, especially with the rise of athletes like Caitlin Clark.

Also, this year’s Summer Olympic Games in Paris includes the same number of male and female athletes — the first time spectators will see equal representation in Olympic history, according to the International Olympic Committee.

“Women athletes are just now starting to get their dues, and starting to get the recognition that they deserve with all these media rights deals increasing and selling out stadiums and arenas,” Diener said.

Opening “Watch Me!” is “just the beginning” for the co-owners, who say they have connected with other entrepreneurs around the U.S. who are also trying to open their own female-focused sports bar.

Though open just one day, its popularity and inclusive reputation has also spread. Over $30,000 was raised to help with opening costs, and the business’s Instagram now has over 10,000 followers.

Friday’s grand opening coincided with the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Hundreds of patrons filled the space, cheering, wearing sports merchandise, watching the opening ceremonies, enjoying the themed food and drink specials. Several athletes — including Pan Am Games rower Madeleine Focht, and WNBA trailblazer Penny Toler — also showed their support.

“There’s no way that I was gonna miss the opening of the first women’s sports bar (in California),” said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson during Friday’s ribbon-cutting. “I just wanted to be here because it’s so important and it’s important to me personally as a dad of two athletes, two girl athletes.”

“I think it’s so important that people can identify and go to a place where they can see themselves in the future is now more important than ever, because Long Beach is going to be on the world stage, folks,” Richardson added. “In just four years, we’ll be the largest venue city outside of Los Angeles for the LA 2028 (Olympic and Paralympic Games).”

24-year-old Taylor Wilkins came to the opening to show support for women’s athletics, even though Wilkins herself is not a big fan of sports.

“The aspect of being a queer woman and having another space for us, especially something as unique as this, is pretty monumental,” Wilkins said.

Annie Howard, who lives in El Segundo, said it’s “amazing to come to a space where you can watch women’s sports on TV and just have fun with friends that have a common interest.” She raved about the bar’s flatbread pizza and quinoa salad.

Pomona resident Alicia Mendoza plans to visit Long Beach’s newest sports bar with her wife. They called the grand opening “long overdue,” and found it special to be able to support an LGBTQ, women-owned business like “Watch Me!”. Mendoza is looking forward to going to more events and watching games there.

“Women’s sports have always been around, but thankfully they’re finally being highlighted. Being able to have something like this, for women and anyone who likes women’s sports, it feels like a safe space. It’s one thing to have a bar that’s always playing women’s sports, another thing to have women own the bar,” Mendoza said. “And for me, it’s even better when it’s a queer couple who are women, building this for the community.”

Originally Published: July 27, 2024 at 7:05 a.m.