First women’s sports bar in Calif. officially opens

The lines wrapped around the block and customers waited hours to get a table at California’s first sports bar dedicated to women’s sports.

Resting on the 6500 block of Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, Watch Me! Sports Bar celebrates women athletes and their achievements.

“We look at the sea of people and realize the need is here,” said Mean Eddy, co-owner of Watch Me. “It’s been a labor of love. We’ve put our heart and souls into it for months and months.”

Eddy and her partner, Jax Diener, created the sports bar after seeing a need for a place where women’s sports were front and center.

“I think we are holding so much for so many women,” said Diener. “To create a space and open it up for everyone to celebrate women’s sports and athletes is monumental.”

The name “Watch Me” is a reference to how women athletes often have to prove themselves by showing doubters what they can do. Sports bars for women’s sports have proved to be pretty successful.

The “Sports Bra” opened up in Portland, Oregon in 2022 and saw $944,000 in revenue in the first eight months it was open, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

“I’ve need waiting my entire 72 years of life to come to a place that embraces women and sports,” said Diane Higgs, a member of the sports and social club “Old Beaches,” who waited hours to get a table on opening day.

“We heard rumblings that people were going to tailgate in our courtyard,” said Diener.

“It’s an exciting moment,” said Rex Richardson, Long Beach Mayor, who attended the opening with his wife and two daughters. “I just wanted to be here because it’s so important and it’s important to me personally as a dad of two athletes — two girl athletes.”

Watch Me! Sports Bar will operate a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. schedule during the Olympics and go to a normal operating schedule after the Paris Games conclude.