It all started on September 10th, 2023. It was a cold, windy, rainy Sunday when Caroline left the Brooklyn museum in search of a local spot to watch the game. Short on time and unable to make it home for tip-off, Caroline searched for a nearby spot to watch the NY Liberty play their final regular season game against the Washington Mystics. Thankfully, a quick search surfaced of a local sports bar in walking distance.
If you’re a women’s sports fan you probably know where this is going…Upon arriving, Caroline found the plentiful TVs all tuned to the NFL game (expected). But surely, it would be possible to dedicate one of those screens to our playoff bound NY Liberty, right?
Shedding the layers of drenched outerwear, Caroline approached the bartender and made the request. Hey, can you put the NY Liberty game on one of the TVs? The bartender’s response:
"I don’t think anyone here wants to see that [Liberty game]. Maybe if it stops raining, I can put it on outside.”
Maybe it was lingering fire lit by Hannah Gadsby’s biting commentary and curation of the Pablo-matic exhibit at Brooklyn Museum, maybe it was the wet shoes, maybe it was the culmination of a season's worth of frustrations, or perhaps some concoction of all of these. It was certainly ENOUGH.
This ‘enough is enough’ breaking point inspired Caroline to reach out to the wider women’s sports community to find out if others shared her frustrations and desire for change. She sent out a survey to the nyc fan community in January 2024 and the story was clear:
Survey respondents said being a woman’s sports fan is more than just an entertainment experience. Yes, the amazing feats of athleticism, teamwork, and dedication inspire our love, but along with these joys, fans are confronted with a host of intersecting social and economic issues.
Our fan community is here for this. In the survey, 67% of fans say they appreciate the way in which women’s sports can lead and accelerate social change and 85% want to show their support for women’s sport equity.
In the words of one of our survey respondents, “Ball is life and women are the future.”
And so, Women’s Sports Rally was born to create a place for our women’s sports community to surface and rally behind our wishes so we can make them our reality.
Women’s Sports Rally is an IRL social club for building fan friendships, celebrating women's sports, and accelerating the social and economic progress that surrounds it.
You don’t need to work at a non-profit/foundation, write policy, or have big money to influence the future of women’s sports. Come Rally with Us!
