When Nora McConnell-Johnson opened the first bar to exclusively show women’s sports in Chicago, Illinois, she imagined a place where women’s sports fans could watch games together in a fun, inclusive environment.
Before opening Babe’s Sports Bar in the city’s Logan Square neighborhood, the former middle school teacher and avid rugby player had no previous experience working in bars or nightlife. The idea came to her after she struggled to find a space to watch the WNBA Chicago Sky playoff game in 2021. On a cold fall day, she ended up watching the game with a small group of fans on the outdoor patio of the only bar she could find that would actually play it with sound.
“We sat on the patio with other people who had also ended up there. We all were cuddled up watching,” McConnell-Johnson says. “Now I see them at Sky games. It was a bonding moment.”
She pitched the idea of a bar dedicated to women’s sports to people she knew in the service industry, hoping someone else would open the space she wanted to frequent. Eventually, she decided to start the business herself, teaming up with her college rugby co-captain and now business partner, Torra Spillane. In September 2024, the two launched a crowd-funding campaign that raised more than $75,000—which McConnell-Johnson says is a testament to Chicago’s appetite for a place like Babe’s.
At the beginning of 2025, there were only six women’s sports bars across the country. Since then, women’s sports viewership has skyrocketed in tandem with a desire to create space specifically for queer people. Since its opening in September 2025, Babe’s has become one of more than twenty currently in operation, including The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, and A Bar of Their Own in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The bar was named after prolific female athlete Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, who won three Olympic medals in track and field, numerous major golf titles, and pitched in three Major League Baseball spring training exhibition games. McConnell-Johnson had taught some of her students about Babe while teaching middle school reading and writing.
While opening the bar, McConnell-Johnson and Spillane focused on inclusivity, recognizing that women and LGBTQ+ people can often feel excluded from typical sports bars, and that queer people make up a large share of women’s sports fans.
“Queerness and women’s sports are inherently linked,” McConnell-Johnson says. “Women’s sports owes a lot to queer people, and queer women and queer people also do a lot for women’s sports. There’s a really overlapping Venn diagram.”
But when asked if Babe’s is a lesbian bar, McConnell-Johnson—who is herself a lesbian—says the space is for everyone who wants to watch women’s sports, not just lesbians.
“I have friends who are trans or nonbinary, or just not part of the tight-knit lesbian community, and sometimes when they go to spaces—and I’ve experienced it, too—where you’re in too small-knit of a space, it can feel exclusionary,” she says.
McConnell-Johnson adds, “Being a women’s sports bar really opens it up—we can have people who look a lot different here, who are maybe not all the same in one way, but because we all have the common denominator of women’s sports, we all have at least this understanding of respect for each other.”
In order to create a welcoming environment, McConnell-Johnson says she tries to hire friendly and kind bartenders, making a concerted effort to not recreate the feeling of exclusion women and LGBTQ+ people may experience at a typical sports bar.
“I really wanted anybody who comes in here to feel like they’re being invited in,” she says.
She also reaches out to the surrounding community in Logan Square to hear people’s needs and provide opportunities for them to see themselves reflected in the space. Community feedback prompted them to expand the bar’s nonalcoholic drink menu and collect trophies and memorabilia from women athletes in the area to add to their decor.
“We made a post saying ‘We want to show off your personal women’s sports history,’ ” McConnell-Johnson says, which led to dozens of donations of medals, player cards, and ribbons. “You get to come and see yourself in the space. We’re building this for you.”
Babe’s has become not only a place where you can access features like WNBA games, but also a space for community to grow and acceptance to prosper.
Nora McConnell-Johnson, co-founder and co-owner of Babe’s, stands in front of the bar on April 22, 2026.
Nora McConnell-Johnson, co-founder and co-owner of Babe’s, stands in front of the bar on April 22, 2026.
Zoë Takaki
A couple watches the women’s NCAA March Madness national championship game on April 5, 2026.
Zoë Takaki
A bedazzled silver and pink basketball sparkles alongside glassware at the bar.
Zoë Takaki
Margaux Lent, the bar manager at Babe’s, pours a glass of “Baberade,” an alternative to Gatorade that has less sugar, on April 22, 2026.
Zoë Takaki
Fans sit at the bar watching the women’s NCAA March Madness national championship game on April 5, 2026.
Zoë Takaki
A Babe’s bartender makes a cocktail on April 5, 2026.
Zoë Takaki
Community members donated their own women’s sports memorabilia, including pompoms, helmets, and trophies, to Babe’s, which the business uses to decorate the space.
Zoë Takaki
A couple watches the women’s NCAA March Madness national championship game on April 5, 2026.
Zoë Takaki
Patrons chat over a beer on April 5, 2026.