Women’s Sports Bar Owners: Matinee WNBA Finals Game a ‘Slap in the Face’

Moments after the WNBA rescheduled Game 6 of the Finals to a matinee, Clarissa Flores shared her surprise on Instagram. “A WNBA Finals game at 12:30 p.m. on a Thursday. Are you serious?” said Flores, the owner of Level Sporting Club, a Chicago-based women’s sports bar that opened earlier this year.

On Monday afternoon, the WNBA announced that it was pushing the game forward from 8 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET Thursday, allowing the Dream to host the game at the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena rather than the 3,500-seat Gateway Center. The Hawks, who operate State Farm Arena, have a regular-season game on Thursday night.

Many people were surprised by the WNBA’s decision to move a Finals game—especially a potential title-clincher—so early. The Valkyries, who are up 3–2 in the series, would win their first title in franchise history with a win Thursday—and the game tips off at 9:30 a.m. in San Francisco.

In her social media post, Flores expressed how the early game affects all WNBA fans, as many will be at work or school during the game. For her business, she said WNBA Finals games “help keep the lights on.”

“We spend all year telling people to show up for women’s basketball, then on one of the biggest stages in the world, we make it even harder for them to show up. We’re putting our money, our livelihoods, our future behind women’s sports. … We need the people making the decisions to match that same commitment that we’re giving,” she said.

Front Office Sports spoke to multiple women’s sports bar owners, who say that while they understand the league’s logistical difficulties, the WNBA’s decision negatively affects their businesses and sends a poor message to fans.

“To have this be what might be the last game of the Finals feels like such a slap in the face, and shows that they really don’t care about us being able to watch the game,” Chandler Robertson, owner of Blazers in Brooklyn, New York, told FOS. 

Jenny Nguyen, founder of The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon, said in a statement to FOS that there could be negative consequences for potentially sacrificing TV viewership of what is currently on pace to be the league’s most-watched Finals ever: 

“When you schedule a Finals game at a time that keeps people from watching, it absolutely will hurt the numbers. Then those numbers risk being used as evidence that the audience isn’t there. That’s a frustrating cycle, and it’s one that everyone in women’s AND men’s sports should be working together to break.”

Jen Barnes, owner of Rough & Tumble in Seattle, told FOS that she’s not sure if she’ll be able to open for a 9:30 a.m. tip on the West Coast. “We normally open at 4 p.m. on weekdays. We’re pulling in different schedules as it is for these games, but my kitchen team is not able to be on site for a 9:30 a.m. tip off,” Barnes said. 

She usually makes $10,000 to $15,000 between Rough & Tumble’s two locations for a weeknight WNBA Finals game, revenue she may lose due to the Game 6 morning tip-off time. She said her business has seen “lines down the street” to get in for WNBA Finals games, particularly because of the many Valkyries fans in Seattle, but doesn’t expect the same crowd this time around.

“I think it’s a huge underservice to the WNBA fan at the minimum, and it’s an unfortunate revenue loss for all the places that play these games,” Barnes said.

Blazers in Brooklyn will be open for the early afternoon game on the East Coast, but Robertson said she expects turnout to be less than half of a primetime game. The WNBA Finals are core to her business; she said that for Game 5, Blazers made “more than triple” the revenue it would normally generate on a Monday. 

Flores’s Level Sporting Club announced late Monday that they will open for Thursday’s 11:30 a.m. CT tip, branding it as a remote-work function on their social media. Speaking to FOS, Flores said it’s the first time her bar has ever opened on a weekday morning.

“Having to open at 11, lunchtime for a Game 6 is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard,” Flores said. “But we are going to do it because we’re going to stand up for women’s sports.”