With March Madness underway, it's game time for newly opened women's-sports bars across the US

PHOENIX (AP) — When you walk into Title 9 Sports Grill in Phoenix's Melrose District, its mission to be a haven for watching women's 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.

It's an impressive turnaround for co-owners Audrey Corley and Kat Moore. Just before Christmas, the space was still Moore and her husband Brad's hot dog restaurant. But last summer they sold the business and the new owners didn't want to stay in the property. That's when Corley, who owns a popular lesbian bar on the next block, proposed partnering on the city's first women's 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, it’s just time. It has to be,” Corley said before Title 9's grand opening earlier this month.

Several new bars dedicated to women's 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 women's 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 Clark's teams never saw a dollar. Now, the women's 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 women's sports, Moore said.

"The only question I’ve 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 Women's 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 bar’s 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 that’s the only way we’re 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. It's clear both are passionate.

“It is so hard to find a bar or a pub that will show women’s 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.”

They've 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 men’s 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 Weaver’s Halloween costume for years. They settled on a name that honors the 1999 U.S. Women's World Cup soccer team, filled with names and faces that didn't 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 doesn’t even have any women’s 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 hasn't been served. But hopefully, anyone looking to open a women's sports bar isn't doing it “just to be trendy,” said Moore, of Title 9.

Corley's most important advice for any would-be barkeep: "The same way you play sports for the love, open this up for the love.”

Patrons crowd into the narrow space in The 99ers, the first bar dedicated to women's sports in the Mile High City, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A patron wears a baseball cap in The 99ers, the first bar dedicated to women's sports in the Mile High City, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Patrons hug while watching the selection show for the NCAA women's college basketball tournament in The 99ers, the first bar dedicated to women's sports in the Mile High City, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Patrons gather in The 99ers, the first bar dedicated to women's sports in the Mile High City, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Patrons cheer during the selection show for the NCAA women's college basketball tournament in The 99ers, the first bar dedicated to women's sports in the Mile High City, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Owners Miranda Spencer, front, and Annie Weaver work behind the bar in The 99ers, the first bar dedicated to women's sports in the Mile High City, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top vaccine official with the Food and Drug Administration has resigned and criticized the nation’s top health official for allowing “misinformation and lies” to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccinations.

Dr. Peter Marks sent a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner on Friday saying that he would resign and retire by April 5 as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

In his letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Marks said he was “willing to work” to address the concerns expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., about the safety of vaccinations. But he concluded that wasn't possible.

“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he wrote.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.

Marks was offered the choice of resigning or being fired by Kennedy, according to a former FDA official familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t have permission to discuss the matter publicly.

Kennedy has a long history of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, although during his Senate confirmation hearings he seemed to say he would not undermine vaccines. He promised the chair of the Senate health committee that he would not change existing vaccine recommendations.

Since becoming commissioner, Kennedy has vowed to scrutinize the safety of childhood vaccinations, despite decades of evidence they are safe and have saved millions of lives.

Marks oversaw the agency’s rapid review and approval of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments during the pandemic.

Marks is credited with coining the name and concept for “Operation Warp Speed,” the effort under President Donald Trump to rapidly manufacture vaccines while they were still being tested for safety and efficacy. The initiative cut years off the normal development process.

Despite the project’s success, Trump repeatedly lashed out at the FDA for not approving the first COVID shots even sooner. Trump told confidants after his 2020 loss that he would have been re-elected if the vaccine had been available before Election Day.

Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized what he called the “firing” of Marks.

“RFK Jr.’s firing of Peter Marks because he wouldn’t bend a knee to his misinformation campaign now allows the fox to guard the hen house," Offit said. “It’s a sad day for America’s children.”

Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said the issues raised in Marks' resignation letter “should be frightening to anyone committed to the importance of evidence to guide policies and patient decisions.”

“I hope this will intensify the communication across academia, industry and government to bolster the importance of science and evidence,” he wrote.

The resignation follows news Friday that HHS plans to lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies, including ones that oversee billions of dollars in funds for addiction services and community health centers across the country.

In a post on social media Thursday, Kennedy criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy." He also faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.

The resignation is the latest blow to the beleaguered health agency, which has been rocked for weeks by layoffs, retirements and a chaotic return-to-office process that left many staffers without permanent offices, desks or other supplies. Last month, Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, resigned, citing “the indiscriminate firing” of nearly 90 staffers in his division, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by the AP.

Marks, who could not be reached for comment, also raised concerns in his letter about “efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination are concerning” as well as the “unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation.”

He went on to detail the historic benefits of vaccinations dating back to George Washington and pointed to the ongoing measles outbreak as proof of what can happen when doubts about science take hold.

“The ongoing multistate measles outbreak that is particularly severe in Texas reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined,” he wrote.

The measles outbreak, which could go on for months, has now spread to Kansas and Ohio after sickening more than 370 in Texas and New Mexico.

If it hits other unvaccinated communities across the U.S., as may now be the case in Kansas, the outbreak could endure for a year and threaten the nation’s status as having eliminated the local spread of the vaccine-preventable disease, public health experts said.

Casey reported from Boston. Perrone reported from Washington, D.C.

FILE - Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing to examine an update from Federal officials on efforts to combat COVID-19, Tuesday, May 11, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via AP, File)