Kansas City’s first women’s sports bar, The Dub, to debut soon

Photo Courtesy of Monica Brady

Kansas City has seen a climb in love for women’s sports over the last few years. After KC Current’s Women’s Cup win, the demand for a women’s sports bar has only grown.

Women’s sports bars are specifically designed to cater to fans of women’s sports and aim to provide a space where women’s sports get equal or greater visibility. This helps curate a community that celebrates female athletes and sports culture.

Kansas City’s first women’s sports bar, The Dub, is getting ready to make its debut later this year at 107 W. Ninth, and they have been building a following of anticipating patrons.

Co-owners Monica Brady and Rachel Glenn set off on their journey to open Kansas City’s first women’s sports bar after seeing the success of a women’s sports bar in Portland, OR: The Sports Bra.

“It was really just inspired by the sports bar in Portland that had opened up in early 2022. My wife and I lived in Omaha when the sports bar opened and we had talked about it, and I was like, ‘Hey, you know that would be a really fun idea. Do you think you’d ever be interested in opening that kind of bar with me?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t know that Omaha is the right place to do that,’ so we didn’t,” Brady says.

After relocating to Kansas City, Monica brought up the idea to her wife again.

“We moved to Kansas City last year. I brought it back up in Nov., and I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘Hey, I’ve been thinking about this a lot again. With The Current in KC, and with sports kind of reaching a fever pitch last fall, I think that Kansas City is the right place for it, I’m really interested, and I think I’m at a place in my life, in my career, where I would really like to pursue this.’”

After writing a business plan in February of this year, and getting friends and family on board, they officially started the process. By April, they were in talks with realtors to find a home for The Dub. 

Monica was very eager to share how fostering inclusivity is so important in opening the bar. 

“We are absolutely, 100% focused on being a safe and inclusive bar that is inclusive of all women’s sports fans, no matter how a woman sports fan may identify—gender, orientation, sexuality, whatever that may be, we want to invite people who identify as men and are fans of women’s sports. They are absolutely welcome in the bar. It will be a mantra and just the values that we instill within our employees and within the energy of the bar to make sure that no patron, no customer, no employee, no vendor that we work with ever feels excluded or discriminated against, or in any way, not a part of our community,” Brady says.

Although The Dub does not quite have a brick-and-mortar open yet, they have been doing pop-ups around Kansas City and getting people excited for what’s to come. 

“This just feels like it’s what I’m meant to do, and I just know that once it’s up and running, and I’m part of the community and bringing this to KC, it’s going to be so fulfilling for me, and I just can’t wait to see it be fulfilling for the community.”