MINNEAPOLIS — May our feet be swift; may our bats be mighty; may our bars... be plentiful.
The team behind Minnesota's first bar dedicated to women's sports, A Bar of Their Own, announced it will open this spring in Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood.
The business, the brainchild of Jillian Hiscock — a Lynx and Gophers Softball season-ticket holder and community owner of the Minnesota Aurora FC — will open at 2207 E. Franklin Ave., the former home of Tracy's Saloon and Eatery.
Hiscock announced the news Wednesday on the bar's social media accounts, saying the team "cannot contain our excitement" about locking down the location.
Hiscock spoke to KARE 11 about her new venture in October, telling reporter Heidi Wigdahl it was "frustrating to be a women's sports fan" and only "see all men's sports, on many, many, many TVs."
"Nothing against men's sports. I love football; I love baseball; I love all those things. And I want to be able to know that my Lynx fandom, my Minnesota Gophers women's fandom is as important as everybody else's fandom," Hiscock said. "Really right now, women sports fans feel like an afterthought in so many of the establishments, not just here but everywhere."
A Bar of Their Own comes after other cities in the U.S. also successfully executed the concept. Hiscock hopes the bar will foster the idea that "If you can see it, you can do it."
"I was a three-sport athlete growing up and played youth softball from when I was 6 until I was 18," she said. "I love thinking about having a girls' softball team sitting at the restaurant, eating their chicken fingers and watching professional softball on TV. I never had that experience.
"A lot of people my age and older never had that experience to see that as a kid and how powerful would that be to be able to see professional athletes that look like you on TV, being celebrated, being elevated, being the focus of an event which is not an experience that many of us had."
A Bar of Their Own's crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $140,500 of its $200,000 goal, which is two times the amount it had raised as of October.
For more information about A Bar of Their Own and how you can join its inaugural team, visit its website.
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