Women’s sports bar, The 99ers, coming to Denver

In 1999, the U.S. women’s soccer team captivated sports fans across the globe when it won the World Cup and became the first team in the female league to do so on home soil. The championship title was a pivotal moment for women’s sports that inspired a generation of young girls, among them Miranda Spencer and Annie Weaver.

“I remember the 1999 World Cup and the Fab Five and the rest of that group, the ’99ers,” said Weaver, who was 5 years old then. “That was the first time it was broadcast live and people were seeing women being extremely successful in a professional sport. Seeing them win, seeing Brandi Chastain rip her shirt off was insane because as a little girl, I was like, ‘Oh you can do that?!’ It’s super empowering.”

That’s the kind of energy Spencer and Weaver hope to bring to Denver with the opening of The 99ers Sports Bar, named in honor of the World Cup squad that included Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett, Kristine Lilly, and Chastain.

When it opens, The 99ers will join a growing national scene of bars dedicated to women’s sports. The 870-square-foot spot at 909 E. Colfax Ave. will be equipped with eight TVs that show sports such as basketball, soccer and hockey, as well as documentaries highlighting the greats. It’s expected to open in June.

Neither Spencer nor Weaver has ever owned a bar and the two met just a year ago. They’re both also new to Denver, but saw an underserved niche in the market and shared the desire to build something catered to sporty types like themselves.

As a kid, Spencer played football as quarterback. When she couldn’t move up to tackle, she played ice hockey, basketball and softball. Weaver grew up playing soccer and the two met on a flag football team that Spencer started in Denver. They’d only known each other a month before deciding to be business partners.

“When we first met, what we connected on very deeply was the lack of opportunities for us growing up,” said Weaver. “We wanted to, in some capacity, create more opportunities for girls and women.”

“I never thought sports would be a career opportunity for me. The fact it’s aligning this way, we’re both humbled and happy,” Spencer added.

Spencer comes to hospitality from a career in engineering and Weaver, a former math teacher, is pivoting from corporate America. Weaver was looking for a chance to do something more fulfilling when she visited the Sports Bra in Portland, which made waves as the country’s first female-focused sports bar.

Immediately, Weaver felt a calling, and the Mile High City seemed like an apt place to launch a similar concept.

“Denver is a progressive, liberal city and it’s big enough I think it could support this concept and something of this magnitude. There’s also just a lack of representation for women in sports in Denver right now,” Weaver said.

While The 99ers is a passion project for both owners, they also see it as an avenue to tap into a national resurgence in interest around women’s sports, which they feel is long overdue. The longstanding assumption is that women’s games are less interesting and exciting than men’s, but support has been growing thanks in part to former athletes who have shown a spotlight on how fierce the competition can be, Spencer said.

Rising stars like the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark have also demanded attention. Case in point: The recent NCAA women’s basketball championship set a record for viewership with an average of 18.7 million viewers tuning in to watch the University of South Carolina Gamecocks play the Iowa Hawkeyes in the finals, according to NPR. That’s compared to 14.82 million who watched the men’s finals.

Enthusiasm has also led to expansions in the National Women’s Soccer League and the Women’s National Basketball Association. Both plan to add new teams in the coming years, upping the total to 16 in the NWSL and 14 in the WNBA by 2026. The 99ers’ owners want to use their platform to encourage expansions to the Mile High City.

“Denver right now hasn’t really tapped into that yet and I think it’s getting ready to blow up,” Weaver said. “We want to be part of it.”

Spencer and Weaver also want to offer fans a place where they can support their favorite teams and empower them to become part of the movement. In addition to showing games, they hope to start fantasy leagues and host special events that welcome females into the fold. (empowHer is also the name of the women’s flag football league they started in Denver.)