Keeler: Denver’s first women’s sports bar will celebrate USWNT’s South Korea friendly with watch party in Englewood

BOULDER — The irony’s as cruel as an own goal, as cutting as a Lindsay Horan header.

Only a handful of tickets were left after Memorial Day for the USA-South Korea friendly at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Saturday. Any other summer, Miranda Spencer and Annie Weaver would’ve snapped those puppies up.

“We’re pretty sad we’re not going,” Weaver told me Tuesday with a rueful chuckle.

“We would definitely be there,” Spencer added.

They’ve got a good reason, though. The best. Spencer and Weaver can’t make one of Front Range’s premier women’s sports events of the year because they’re still burning the midnight oil getting a premier women’s sports bar for Denver up and running.

The 99ers Sports Bar, Spencer and Weaver’s passion project, is aiming for a July grand opening. But if you want a taste of what’s to come at 909 E. Colfax, Miranda and Annie are holding a preview pop-up/U.S. Women’s National Team soccer game-watch party on Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. at Lady Justice Brewing in Englewood.

“(The pop-up) gives people a chance to watch it,” Spencer said. “Especially for those who couldn’t make it to the game or couldn’t afford tickets to the game.” Ave.

After all, they wouldn’t be there without them. Or rather, they wouldn’t not be there without them.

The 99ers is named for, and inspired by, the legendary USWNT that won the 1999 World Cup, a benchmark moment for women’s sports — and for how women’s sports have been watched and covered since.

“I think for women’s sports, they showcased it, they started it,” Spencer said. “Without them, there is no this. Without the ceilings they broke and continue to do so, there is not an us.