During WNBA season, bars and restaurants say they saw greater customer demand for women's sports

CHICAGO (AP) — Josh Pehlke remembers having to beg and plead at bars and restaurants to get them to show WNBA games just a few years ago. Too often, the answer was a flat-out no.

These days, he doesn't have to worry as much.

As the general manager at Signature Bar & Restaurant in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood, about a 3-point shot from the Chicago Sky’s home at Wintrust Arena, he has some say. But even when he's not at work, he has noticed a difference.

“I’ve been to Cubs games this season and gone into sports bars in Wrigleyville and found the WNBA on TV, whereas two or three years ago, that wasn’t happening,” Pehlke said.

The WNBA drew sellout crowds and unprecedented ratings in a transformational season that's winding down with a finals matchup between the New York Liberty, seeking their first title, and the Minnesota Lynx going for their record fifth. The best-of-five series opened Thursday with Minnesota rallying to beat New York in overtime.

Whether it was Indiana's Caitlin Clark and Chicago's Angel Reese taking their captivating rivalry from college to the pros, Simone Biles capturing more gold at the Olympics or 92,003 fans packing Nebraska's football stadium for a volleyball game, women's sports in general are drawing more eyeballs.

Sports bars and restaurants are taking note, adjusting their marketing and menus in order to attract a wider range of customers. At least some say they're seeing an increased demand for women's sports on their TVs, though the evidence is more anecdotal than statistical. A handful catering specifically to women's sports have opened in recent years, such as The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon.

Either way, fans have options if they want to grab a bite and a drink and watch a game away from home.

”You’ll see small groups of women coming out to watch the actual sports,” Bar Louie CEO Brian Wright said. “And you see a lot of men requesting women’s sports now. So it’s kind of an entire paradigm shift of how women’s sports are being viewed. You very seldom saw a group of men coming in saying, ‘Can you put on that WNBA game?’ Now, that’s really becoming commonplace.”

Bar Louie has restaurants in 21 states from coast to coast and as many as 20 TVs per location. As for how many are tuned to each specific sport, Wright said there's no real science in determining that. But he is sure of a few things.

The chain is attracting a greater percentage of female customers. And when Clark or Reese were playing, that was good for business. Their NCAA Tournament games the past two years, for example, created about a 10% bump in business.

At Twin Peaks, where most locations have 16 satellites and 75 TVs, the clientele skews about 80% male, CEO Joe Hummel said. But the gender gap is narrowing.

“Five years ago we might not have advertised or pushed women’s March Madness,” Hummel said.

The company evaluates the schedule every day to determine how many TVs will be tuned to each game. The restaurants can adjust based on news and customer demand, which is key. Hummel said Twin Peaks does not track how many TVs are tuned to specific events or customers requesting to sit where they can see a particular game.

“It'd be very difficult,” he said. “Our operators have a lot of communication back and forth with the guest and if we inundated our operators -- you have to track this, this and this all the time -- they would end up worrying about the stats and not even taking care of the guests.”

Nicole Bond, associate director of marketing strategy at Mintel Comperemedia, said research shows 71% of consumers believe women’s sports will continue to grow in popularity. She sees it up close in her side job as a bartender at Bernie's Tap & Grill near Wrigley Field in Chicago.

“Men are leaning into women’s athletics,” said Bond, a former Northwestern softball player. “And I hear the conversations that you hear them having about what’s happening in the W, or what’s happening in the NWSL or whatever it is. It’s become really interesting and like a norm in bar conversations. I think people are wanting to watch those games and groups just like you do when you bring people in for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup.”

Pehlke became a WNBA fan about a decade ago and started following the Sky when they added Chicago-area product Candace Parker prior to the 2021 championship season. He grew up a Los Angeles Lakers fan in northern Wisconsin.

Pehlke, whose friend has season tickets, is a regular at Wintrust Arena for Sky games. He even collects WNBA trading cards.

Signature, which is owned by former Bears defensive lineman Israel Idonije, opened in January. There are 13 TVs on the walls, with 10 tuned to the WNBA on a Friday night near the end of the regular season. Six were showing the Sky's game at Minnesota.

During the playoffs, Pehlke said, the restaurant saw more requests for TVs to be tuned to the WNBA. He was expecting an uptick in business, too.

“Demand has been outstanding this entire playoffs,” he said. “I was very happy to see that it wasn’t just for the Fever games, but seemingly for all of the games.”

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Minnesota Lynx's Alanna Smith, left, shoots against New York Liberty's Jonquel Jones, right, during the second half in Game 2 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Minnesota Lynx's Courtney Williams, left, reacts after scoring during the second half in Game 2 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series against the New York Liberty, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

New York Liberty's Courtney Vandersloot (22) and Breanna Stewart (30) react after Steward scored a 3-point basket during the second half in Game 2 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series against the Minnesota Lynx, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Josh Pehlke works the bar at Signature Bar & Restaurant in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood near the Chicago Sky’s home at Wintrust Arena sit at the bar as Game 2 of the WNBA finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx is shown on a TV on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. Pehlke, Signature's general manager, says the restaurant is getting more requests for TVs tuned to the WNBA. (AP Photo/Andrew Seligman)

Customers at Signature Bar & Restaurant in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood near the Chicago Sky’s home at Wintrust Arena sit at the bar as Game 2 of the WNBA finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx is shown on a TV on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. The WNBA drew sellout crowds and unprecedented ratings in a transformational season. Sports-oriented bars and restaurants are taking note. Some say they’re seeing an increased demand for women’s sports on their TVs. (AP Photo/Andrew Seligman)

The path for the NFL's Washington Commanders to return to the nation’s capital is clear after an on-again, off-again saga in Congress ended early Saturday with a postmidnight reprieve.

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution to transfer the land including old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia. The D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act passed by voice vote at roughly 1:15 a.m. after more than a year of lobbying and support from Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., district Mayor Muriel Bowser, Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“We are extremely grateful that our elected officials have come together on a bipartisan basis to give Washington, D.C., the opportunity to decide on the future of the RFK Stadium site," Harris said. "This bill will create an equal playing field so that all potential future locations for the home of the Washington Commanders can be fairly considered and give our franchise the opportunity to provide the best experience for all of our fans.”

The RFK Stadium land provision was part of Congress’ initial short-term spending bill Tuesday before it was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the latter of whom amplified misinformation about the site on his social media platform X. Two versions of the House's slimmed-down bill, including the one that passed Friday night to avoid a government shutdown, did not include it.

Giving the local government control of the land for the next 99 years allows for the decaying husk of the old stadium to be torn down and the site redeveloped for any number of things. One of the possibilities is a football stadium and surrounding entertainment options at the franchise's former home.

Bowser called it “a win for D.C., for our region and for America.”

“Everybody loves a good comeback story — and that’s D.C.’s story,” she said.

All that awaits is President Joe Biden's signature to become law. Comer went as far as saying that Senate passage of the bill is “a historic moment for our nation's capital.”

“If Congress failed to act today, this decaying land in Washington would continue to cost taxpayers a fortune to maintain,” he said. “Revitalizing this RFK Memorial Stadium site has been a top economic priority for the city, and I am proud to have partnered with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to get this bill across the finish line and to the president’s desk. This bipartisan success is a testament to the House Oversight Committee’s unwavering effort to protect taxpayers and our full commitment to ensuring a capital that is prosperous for residents and visitors for generations to come.”

Playing in Washington again is no sure thing. The Commanders are considering places in the district, Maryland and Virginia to build a stadium in the coming years.

Their lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, runs through 2027. Harris called 2030 a “reasonable target” for a new stadium.

The team played at RFK Stadium 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the Capitol from 1961-96 before moving to Maryland. Harris and several co-owners, including Mitch Rales and Mark Ein, grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included the glory days of three Super Bowl championships from 1982-91.

Part of the way the provision got into the bill initially involved an agreement between the team and Maryland to tear down the current stadium in a timely fashion and redevelop the site with a project of equal economic impact, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press earlier this week on condition of anonymity because the deal was not being publicized.

After the Senate greenlit the RFK Stadium land transfer, Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats, said they continued to believe their state's partnership with the team should continue long into the future.

“After working to level the financial playing field, and receiving assurances that should the team move they will redevelop the existing site in a manner that meets the needs of the community, tonight we supported the proposed land transfer legislation,” Cardin and Van Hollen said. "We have always supported the District’s effort to control its own land, and through regional discussions and cooperation, our concerns with this proposal have been addressed.”

The team has played games in Maryland since 1997 and practices in Ashburn, Virginia, not far from Dulles International Airport.

A return to the district would be another victory for Bowser, who on Thursday celebrated the start of an $800 million downtown arena renovation that is keeping the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals in town. At that news conference, she took aim at Musk for sharing incorrect information on X, formerly Twitter, about taxpayers footing the bill for a new stadium.

“It was stated that the (continuing resolution) contains $3 billion for a stadium,” Bowser said. "All wrong. There are no federal dollars related to the transfer of RFK, and in fact the legislation does not require or link at all to a stadium. We’re talking about how the District can invest in removing blight.”

Musk reshared an inaccurate post saying: “Buried in the 1,547-page omnibus bill is a provision to facilitate a $3 billion NFL stadium in Washington, D.C." with the message, “This should not be funded by your tax dollars!”

The bill specifically prohibits the use of federal funds for a stadium on the site, “including training facilities, offices, and other structures necessary to support a stadium.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

FILE - A vehicle pushes up pikes of snow after trucks dump their loads of snow in the parking lots of RFK Stadium in Washington, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)