Women sports teams have grown in popularity, with huge fandoms for teams like WNBA’s the New York Liberty; the National Women’s Soccer League; and college gymnastics. People have been packing in arenas and stadiums and bars to track games and cheer on their favorites. To answer that call and love, people have been opening bars […]
Women sports teams have grown in popularity, with huge fandoms for teams like WNBA’s the New York Liberty; the National Women’s Soccer League; and college gymnastics. People have been packing in arenas and stadiums and bars to track games and cheer on their favorites. To answer that call and love, people have been opening bars dedicated to women’s sports. There’s the Sports Bra in Portland, Rough and Tumble in Seattle, and the brand-new 1972 in Austin.
And now, New York is getting not one but two new women’s sports bars this year. There’s Athena Keke’s opening in late springin Clinton Hill at 222 Greene Avenue near Grand Avenue; followed by Wilka’s Sports Bar on the Lower East at 241 Bowery near Stanton Street.
Athena’s Keke’s co-founders and couple Claudia “Clau” Capriles and Alexandra “Al” Murray had been toying with the idea of opening a women’s sports bar for some time. The two, who had met while working at now-closed East Village restaurant the Eddy, had been in New Orleans trying to find a bar to watch the Women’s World Cup soccer competition, but failed.
“It was just so difficult to find a place to watch the games, especially if the U.S. team wasn’t playing,” Capriles says. They decided to open their own bar in Brooklyn, shooting for a late spring debut; they got their community board approval in February.
Athena Keke’s will both be a community hub and a place to watch women’s sports. The Brooklyn bar’s namesake is the cat the two adopted in New Orleans when they lived there in 2018 — Athena the tabby also serves as their mascot and logo.
Sports is always political, Murray says, and “to say not would be very naive.” Both co-owners are major women’s sports fans themselves; they have season tickets for the Liberty and the Gotham FC.
“There’s so much money that goes in, and where there’s money, there’s politics and taxes,” they point to the U.S. women’s soccer team’s equal pay lawsuit. “it’s just very reflective of society at large,” they continue, “And I think a lot of good can come out of the crossover of sports, activism, and just caring. In women’s sports, you see that a lot more so played out. It seems to always have been part of it.”
One of Capriles’s and Murray’s friends is Caroline Fitzgerald, who is the founder of community organization Women’s Sports Rally. “Her whole goal is to really play on that idea of: ‘Yes, this can be fun and cool and we can support women’s sports, but we can also rally behind something bigger,’” Murray says. “The political climate now is very intense. To just stay quiet about things that we think are important and believe in would be a disservice to ourselves.”
For Athena’s Keke’s pre-opening watch parties (often held at Brooklyn beer bar Berry Park), they’ve partnered with that organization as well as Working Families Party to educate voters about ballots.
When Athena’s Keke’s does open, it’ll have lots of television screens (naturally), a full bar, and a full kitchen. For the latter, Capriles will use her background — who is from and grew up in Baltimore — to inform the bar snacks menu; it’s safe to expect something with Old Bay. The two have been collecting books about queer spaces and queer history and women’s sports so they can build out a library corner.
Along with Athena’s, there’s WIlka’s to look out for. Co-owners and friends Lauren Louise and Melissa Ng’s Manhattan bar will air women’s sports games while serving cocktails, beers, and snacks. The name is a play on the Polish word for wolf, “wilk,” with the idea of patrons being in a wolf pack together, supporting their teams. The two have a crowdfunding campaign so they can install a high-quality television setup conducive for sports bars, among other opening costs. There is no projected opening timeline yet. (In 2024, there had been another New York women’s sports bar that was in the works, Althea’s, but that never opened.)
It has been fun for Athena’s Keke’s co-owners to operate these watch parties in other bars, but they’re looking forward to opening their very own space. “It’s so great to be in a room full of people that obviously are there to watch the sports, to support [the teams],” Capriles says. “There’s a feeling of something greater, something bigger, and that’s important for us. We’re excited to have one space dedicated to it.”
