Patrons attend the grand opening of the Title 9 Sports Grill, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)2025-03-24T10:00:07Z Follow APs full coverage of March Madness. Get the AP Top 25 womens college basketball poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. PHOENIX (AP) When you walk into Title 9 Sports Grill in Phoenixs Melrose District, its mission to be a haven for watching womens sports permeates every nook and cranny. From the over dozen TVs mounted on pink and orange walls to the Play Like a Girl! neon sign against a giant image of retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi.Its an impressive turnaround for co-owners Audrey Corley and Kat Moore. Just before Christmas, the space was still Moore and her husband Brads hot dog restaurant. But last summer they sold the business and the new owners didnt want to stay in the property. Thats when Corley, who owns a popular lesbian bar on the next block, proposed partnering on the citys first womens sports-centric bar. She had been mulling the idea since reading about the Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, which opened in 2022, and then seeing a half-dozen similar bars emerge in the last year. Then I see, you know, another one popped up here and another one. And then I was like, its just time. It has to be, Corley said before Title 9s grand opening earlier this month. Several new bars dedicated to womens sports have made the mad dash to open in time to capitalize on March Madness, now in full swing. From San Francisco to Cleveland, there will be more than a dozen across the country before the year is over. The femme-focused bar scene has made huge strides from three years ago when The Sports Bra was the only one. It comes during an exciting first year during which teams in the womens bracket will finally be paid for playing in the NCAA tourney. Many credit stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese for increasing the marketability of female players. Last season, Reese and Clarks teams never saw a dollar. Now, the womens teams will finally earn individual revenue, known as units. A unit is money paid to conferences when one of its teams appears in the NCAA Tournament. Teams earn another with every game played. The most seamless part of transforming her old restaurant into Title 9 has been the built-in community anticipation of having a place to view womens sports, Moore said. The only question Ive gotten from quite a few men, especially when we first started telling people, was, Are men allowed? Yeah! Moore said, with a chuckle. Named for the landmark 1972 law that forbids discrimination based on sex in education, including athletics, Title 9 is filled with tributes to female athletes, from framed photos with QR codes to a cocktail roster with drinks such as the Pat Summitt Sour and Taurasi Goat-Tail. However, the owners emphasize a family-friendly atmosphere where young girls can come celebrate after a school game. Even some of the little girls, they could come here and dream of being on the TV someday and actually getting paid for it, Corley said. Debra Hallum and Marlene du Plessis were also inspired by the Sports Bra. They made their targeted opening in Austin last week of 1972 ATX Womens Sports Pub across from the University of Texas campus. The day included a rainbow ribbon cutting and officials from the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce. While they are in a conservative state, the women have been emphasizing the bars LGBTQ-friendliness.We want to be very clear that we will be a very welcoming and inclusive space for all women sports fans, Hallum said. We want to invite everyone to grow the interest and the viewership, because thats the only way were going to fix that gap for women, including the pay gap.Neither woman has hospitality experience. Hallum has a corporate background and du Plessis is in education. But, they researched running a business like this and hired a talented chef and staff. Its clear both are passionate.It is so hard to find a bar or a pub that will show womens sports, du Plessis said. You always have to call around, ask around to find where they going to show it. And then most of the time you know they will not have the sound on. And we will.Theyve been touched by the reactions from residents, even parents of boys. We had a mom and dad, two daughters and their son show up and (the mom) was all about, This is exactly what we need, Hallum said. We want our son to be raised knowing that this is just as great and just as wonderful as mens sports.In Denver, Annie Weaver and Miranda Spencer met playing on opposing flag football teams. A month later, they began drafting a business plan for a similar concept, also inspired by The Sports Bra. Open since December, the 99ers Sports Bar is now hosting its first March Madness crowds.They were first mulling a name that would play off of Mia Hamm, the 1990s soccer icon who inspired Weavers Halloween costume for years. They settled on a name that honors the 1999 U.S. Womens World Cup soccer team, filled with names and faces that didnt get as much attention as Hamm. On a recent Sunday, the bar was standing room only as the TVs aired an NWSL game, Unrivaled semifinal games, and the Selection Sunday broadcast announcing the brackets for the NCAA Tournament. The city doesnt even have any womens teams in the major national leagues, but it was recently awarded the 16th NWSL expansion team, to begin play in 2026.A tri-fold bracket covered one table, and an impromptu friendship bracelet-making station occupied another.I wish I would have had this space growing up, Spencer said. These new bar operators agree this is not a trend but an indicator of a market that hasnt been served. But hopefully, anyone looking to open a womens sports bar isnt doing it just to be trendy, said Moore, of Title 9. Corleys most important advice for any would-be barkeep: The same way you play sports for the love, open this up for the love.___ Peterson reported from Denver. TERRY TANG Tang reports on race and ethnicity issues, including Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, for The Associated Press. She is based in Phoenix and previously covered breaking news in the Southwest. twitter mailto BRITTANY PETERSON Peterson is an Associated Press video journalist based in Denver. She covers water in the western U.S. for APs global climate team. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site