As interest in women’s sports grows, new bars in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh reflect the shift

In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, new women’s sports bars Marsha’s and Title 9 are redefining the game-day experience, by offering spaces where fans can cheer on their teams in an inclusive environment.

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On a Sunday afternoon in late September, the scene inside the newly opened Philadelphia sports bar Marsha’s resembled that of any other sports bar in the area—with one notable exception.

The game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams game was on, of course, but only on three of the six TVs mounted inside the cozy South Street bar. On the other screens, the WNBA playoff game between the Indiana Fever and Las Vegas Aces was showing, with the volume up.

“At first people were like, ‘What’s going on?’” said Marsha’s owner, Chivonn Anderson. “And I was like, ‘This is a women’s sports bar. I love the Birds, but this is a regular season game against the WNBA semifinals.’ People understood, and were really excited to watch the WNBA and the Eagles at the same time. The WNBA game got sound, because they are actually what we are promoting.”

In a city where it’s not uncommon to hear an E-A-G-L-E-S chant break out at a sports bar even when the Birds aren’t playing, Marsha’s stands far apart from the pack as Philadelphia’s first queer-focused women’s sports bar. It joins Title 9 in Pittsburgh, which opened earlier in the year, as part of a steadily growing community of women’s sports bars across the US, a movement that began when The Sports Bra opened in Portland, Oregon in 2022, and continues to pick up steam as professional women’s sports leagues like the WNBA expand and gain more media attention.

Philadelphia was finally granted a WNBA franchise over the summer, and the team is scheduled to begin playing in the 2030 season. By that point, Anderson’s goal for Marsha’s is to expand with additional locations across the city, including a spot inside the Xfinity Mobile Arena, where Philly’s as-yet-unnamed WNBA team will be competing.

“To have representation of women-owned businesses, and especially a women’s sports-focused bar, in the arena where the women are going to be playing, that’s an extremely important goal for me,” Anderson said.

Even without the prospect of a WNBA team coming to Pittsburgh any time soon, Title 9 owner Sherre Goldstein felt the city was ready for a bar focused on women’s sports. Especially in the East Liberty neighborhood, a longtime hub for Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ community, where she’s owned the neighboring breakfast-brunch-lunch spot Square Cafe since 2003.  

“Just like women’s sports are taking off on a national level, they’re also taking off more on a local level, with so many college teams here and the Riveters (Pittsburgh’s pre-professional women’s soccer team), so we felt like we’d have a built-in crowd,” said Goldstein. “And so many of my friends play women’s sports, and I go to a lot of the games. I saw a huge opportunity to use women’s sports as a way to create a community here, which we did really well with Square Cafe.”

Location, location, location

Marsha’s location in the heart of Philadelphia’s iconic South Street holds significance. 

Anderson, a native of the city’s Olney neighborhood, was hanging out there often when she came out at age 15 in 1995—when South Street still bore a fleeting resemblance to the counter-culture destination it once was. This was before the chain stores moved in, and hipper nightlife options began sprouting up in neighborhoods like Old City, Northern Liberties, and Fishtown.

Having worked in different hospitality ventures around town following a stint in the US Air Force, Anderson set her sights on opening a bar where the focus would be on women’s sports. She considered several other neighborhoods in the city, but the South Street location was most appealing because Anderson saw it as a way to help it return to its former glory, when diversity was an integral part of the neighborhood’s identity.

“When you think of Philly, you think of South Street,” she said. “She’s been on a bit of a decline, and I want to help spur a resurgence. Having Marsha’s open is bringing people back to South Street, and bringing people to South Street who have never been here before.”

Anderson also wants people who have never been to a queer-focused bar that highlights women’s sports to know that there’s a seat for them at Marsha’s, too.

“I created this space to highlight these women who have sacrificed basically their entire lives to get to the level where they are,” Anderson said. “And everybody who wants to have a good time, and feel the camaraderie of watching people compete at this level, is welcome.”

Goldstein characterizes Title 9 as more of a restaurant/bar, something that is reflected in its current operating hours (Thursday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.), which Goldstein hopes to expand eventually. 

With more of a focus on food and earlier last call times than a traditional bar, Goldstein said families have been frequenting Title 9 with regularity, something she feels is an ideal way to showcase professional women’s sports to younger generations.

“We see lots of families coming in with young daughters and sons, and they’re seeing a women’s softball game and a Pirates game at the same time, or Duquesne women’s basketball and the Steelers,” Goldstein said. “I like having it all out there for them to see. We’re focused on women’s sports. But we’re also showing them that men’s sports, women’s sports, it’s all competition, it’s all sports.”

“I created this space to highlight these women who have sacrificed basically their entire lives to get to the level where they are,” said Chivonn Anderson about Marsha’s, her queer-focused women’s sports bar in Philadelphia. (Roux Ali/Marsha’s)

Honoring the struggle for equality

The names of each of Pennsylvania’s women’s sports bars pay homage to pivotal moments in the fight for equality.

Marsha’s is named for the late Marsha P. Johnson, a gay rights activist and drag performer who was a central figure in the Stonewall uprising of 1969, when police raided the gay bar the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Title 9 takes its name from the federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any federally funded education program or activity, and requires schools to have procedures in place and staff designated to handle complaints. 

Anderson said she’s reminded of the struggle endured by those who have paved the way for a younger generation to have the courage to come out through the clientele who have frequented Marsha’s so far.

“We’ve had older queer women coming in from the suburbs and thanking me for creating this space, and I’m like, ‘No, thank you for living your truth for so long,’” Anderson said. “For them to thank me for creating this space has been something I was not expecting ever to happen.

“It kind of blows me away that it took so long for these women to have a space like this that highlights professional athletes, especially women, and that they’ll travel to come here. And they’re bringing their friends, and they’ve come back multiple times. It shows me that there has always been a need for a place like Marsha’s to help fill that void.”