VOA文化艺术2024--Restaurant Showing Only Women’s Sports to Expand in US

Restaurant Showing Only Women’s Sports to Expand in US

There is a place in Portland, Oregon where people like to spend time enjoying food and drinks and watching sports on television.

Places like it are called sports bars in America. This sports bar in Portland has an unusual name. It is called The Sports Bra, and it only shows women’s sports events on television.

A sports bra is a piece of under clothing that many women wear while exercising.

The Portland sports bar is getting so popular that some well-known investors² are getting interested. They include Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of social media service Reddit. They want to expand The Sports Bra restaurants all over the U.S. Ohanian is also the husband of one of the world’s most famous female³ athletes – Serena Williams. He runs an investment⁴ fund⁵ that will help businesspeople open restaurants in their cities.

Jenny Nguyen founded The Sports Bra. She said she only wanted to create a little restaurant. She is surprised by the interest in her business. “Things have happened at light speed,” Nguyen said.

The time appears to be right for bars like The Sports Bra because of the sudden interest in women’s sports. There are other successful bars that only show women’s sports, but have different names, in cities including Minneapolis, Minnesota and Seattle, Washington.

The recent women’s college basketball championship in the U.S. was the most-watched ever. Almost 19 million people watched the final game on April 7. For the first time, that was more than watched the men’s final game.

One week later, 2.45 million people watched the WNBA draft⁶. The event is where professional teams choose college players to play for them. People wanted to see the Indiana Fever pick the University of Iowa’s star player Caitlin Clark. Clark recently signed a $28 million contract to advertise for Nike shoes.

Interest is increasing for other women’s sports. Almost 2 million fans went to women’s World Cup soccer games in Australia and New Zealand last year. A women’s volleyball game played in a football stadium in Nebraska brought in 92,000 fans last August. It was the largest-ever crowd for a women’s sports event.

Lauren Anderson is director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon. She called the current time a “pinnacle⁷ moment,” adding that women’s sports seem to be “more than just a flash in the pan¹.”

Nguyen said sports bars were not always welcoming to women. A sports fan all her life, she said she would only go to sports bars with friends because she felt uncomfortable going alone. She remembered that people who worked at the bar would not always put women’s sports on the televisions.

She said she wanted to start The Sports Bra to “flip⁸ the status quo.” And now that the restaurant has been in business for several years, she has a favorite memory. It came in 2022 when a large crowd came to watch Serena Williams’ final match. People cheered loudly when Williams made a good shot, and the whole bar was quiet when the players were hitting the ball back and forth⁹.

Toward¹⁰ the end, she said, many people got emotional¹¹ thinking that they would never see Williams play again. They started crying, and Nguyen passed out facial paper so people could wipe away their tears.

Williams’ final match was on television all over the world, but fans came to enjoy it together. Nguyen said people were watching through the windows because there was not enough space inside.

But not every women’s sport is easy to find. College and Olympic sports like water polo, volleyball, tennis, softball and others are rarely on big TV channels. It can be costly¹² to purchase a special TV channel that only carries smaller sports events. A place like The Sports Bra offers those unusual games for people wanting to see them.

But not everyone likes going to a place like a sports bar to watch games on television.

Joanna is a fan who was walking into a recent professional baseball game in San Diego.

“I don’t think I would go. I don’t really like going to watch sports at bars. I’m more of like a ‘live, in-person’ (fan).”

She was with Alex, who said he probably would go:

“It would be interesting. I mean, it depends on what sport I’m watching. I do watch the WNBA once in a while on the TV. And also, like, pickleball, those are the co-eds and the singles, women's, so I mean, I would watch it.”

One fan, Shreya, was standing¹³ outside of a sports bar watching the end of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball game on television. She said she would go to The Sports Bra but said she wants to be sure it is not just a scheme to get people into the bar.

“I follow the WNBA. The local (San Diego) Wave (women’s) soccer team. I have two girls. Assuming¹⁴ it has some sort of family-friendly vibe, like a restaurant and bar, it would be cool. The reason for the pause was because I don’t feel like it should be segregated¹⁵. I would want it to be at par¹⁶ with men’s sports.’”

One expert agrees. Tarlan Chahardovali is an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina in the department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Chahardovali said there is still work to be done to make sure the media market does not undervalue women’s sports. She said there needs to be investment to be sure the current popularity¹⁷ does not disappear.

“Today’s numbers are hard to ignore, and I think it’s a very exciting time,” she said.

Words in This Story

draft –n. an event that happens in certain national sports every year in which team officials choose college players to play professionally for their teams

pinnacle –n. the highest point

flash in the pan –idiom something that gets attention for a little while and then disappears

flip –v. to turn upside down

status quo –expression the way things are right now

co-ed (coeducational) –adj. (dated) educating men and women in the same school

scheme –n. a plan to trick people

vibe (vibrations) –n. the feeling you get from a person or thing

segregated –adj. having groups separated

at (on) par –phrase equal to

1 pan   

n.平底锅；v.严厉批评

参考例句：

• The water had all boiled away and the pan was burned.水煮干了，锅也烧坏了。
• The eggs were frying in the pan.鸡蛋正在锅里煎。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

4 investment   

n.投资，投资额；(时间、精力等的)投入

参考例句：

• It took two years before I recouped my investment.我用了两年时间才收回投资。
• The success of the project pivots on investment from abroad.这个工程的成功主要依靠外来投资。

5 fund   

n.基金，资金，存款，财源，贮藏；vt.提供资金，积累

参考例句：

• They decided to set up a fund for this purpose.他们决定为此专立一项基金。
• This fund may not be drawn on without permission.这笔钱非经批准不得动用。

6 draft   

vt.起草，作...的草稿；n.草稿，草图，草案

参考例句：

• He's now revising the first draft of his essay.他目前正修改他的文章初稿。
• The draft of this article has been done。这篇文章已经定稿。

7 pinnacle   

n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰

参考例句：

• Now he is at the very pinnacle of his career.现在他正值事业中的顶峰时期。
• It represents the pinnacle of intellectual capability.它代表了智能的顶峰。

8 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

9 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

10 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。

11 emotional   

adj.令人动情的；易动感情的；感情(上)的

参考例句：

• Emotional people don't stop to calculate.感情容易冲动的人做事往往不加考虑。
• This is an emotional scene in the play.这是剧中动人的一幕。

12 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

13 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

14 assuming   

如果

参考例句：

• You were mistaken in assuming it. 你这样臆断是错了。
• The country's industry is assuming a new aspect. 该国的工业正在呈现新的面貌。

15 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

16 par   

n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的

参考例句：

• Sales of nylon have been below par in recent years.近年来尼龙织品的销售额一直不及以往。
• I don't think his ability is on a par with yours.我认为他的能力不能与你的能力相媲美。

17 popularity   

n.普及，流行，名望，受欢迎

参考例句：

• The story had an extensive popularity among American readers.这本小说在美国读者中赢得广泛的声望。
• Our product enjoys popularity throughout the world.我们的产品饮誉全球。