Last week, the Gordon Square Arts District welcomed a pioneering new addition to Cleveland’s culture and sports scene: The W Sports Bar, the city’s first establishment dedicated entirely to celebrating women’s sports. Spearheaded by Cassy Kopp and Ally Eclarin of Kent-based sports coffee shop State Champs, alongside Shelley Pippin, co-owner of Brewnuts.
The W founders describe the concept as “both hands,” meaning the bar champions women’s sports while recognizing that sports culture is best experienced inclusively. WNBA games, NWSL matches, NCAA softball, and women’s soccer will be proudly featured on screens throughout the venue. Fans will also find Guardians games, NBA playoffs and other major sports events.
Eclarin elaborated on the inclusivity of the W, saying, “A huge portion of the women’s sports fanbase is male. This space is for everyone. There are women’s sports bars across the country that play 100% women’s sports only. We are the first that are going to be doing both, but our TVs will be primarily women’s sports and men’s sports.”
Eclarin continues, “So the cool thing is that equity and parity are very much a thing that we believe in, and that these women athletes and these male athletes shouldn’t be othered. It should be the same, the same sentence.”
The idea for The W took shape during last year’s NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in Cleveland. A national watch party guide brought the founders’ respective businesses into the same conversation. After some social media communications and coffee meetups, the idea for the W started to form. In September 2024 serious planning was underway and in November the project went public. In February 2025, the founders secured a location: the former Banter space on Detroit Avenue. “There’s something special about this building,” Pippin said, “It’s already familiar to people. There’s history here and we are building on that.”
Designing the Ultimate Community Hub
The venue features both a bar area designed for high-energy spectating on game nights and a secondary dining space which will serve as a flexible community room for events, networking and meetups.
Central to their vision was creating an inclusive, welcoming and safe space. The team chose their location carefully: close to downtown, but not defined by it. Pippin said, “We so much want to be a community space, but we wanted to be close enough to downtown that when we get a WNBA team, when the women’s pro soccer team starts playing, we would be a natural extension of that, like somewhere that you could easily go to before or after. So location was really important. Obviously, visibility was really important. This checks both of those things.”
The W also has a patio which Pippin hopes will be a cozy space for patrons. However, transforming the outdoor space has not been without its challenges. It’s basically a wind tunnel. “But we’ve got a plan,” Pippin says.
That plan includes adding large evergreen-filled planter boxes, arborvitae, specifically to break the wind and create a cozy perimeter. They repainted old planter boxes in the bar’s signature blue and orange, added colorful flowers, and upgraded lighting to create a warm, inviting environment. Pippin’s notes, “When the sun comes out, Clevelanders want to be outside. We know how much that matters here.”
Parking is often a pain point for Clevelanders as the city continues to welcome new businesses, however, the W does not see parking being a barrier. Eclarin said, “What’s really cool, though, is women’s sports fans are on a whole other level of dedication, the hoops that we have to jump through to just watch a game in the spaces that we have to travel for, like, people literally travel to go to women’s sports bars. They’ll be more dedicated than your average fan. So I think, I mean, no one has complained to us, like we’ve gotten feedback on things they like to see. No one has, like, batted an eye on the parking situation.”
Eclarin’s sentiments of women’s sports fans being built differently is echoed by Pippin. She said, “Even just the market research of the women’s sports fans in their level of … dedication and loyalty is through the roof. We spend more than men’s sports fans on merch and ticketing and like events. Also, there’s, like, at least, at minimum, 12 to 13 streaming apps you have to have just for [watching] multiple leagues. Usually, most leagues have three to four. So just juggling that is just kind of dedication. And up until very recently, most games weren’t even on TV. So people are used to jumping through hoops.”
Pippin expands further, “I mean, there’s a built-in barrier for women in just about every industry you can think of. And I think the fact that women’s sports, up until fairly recently, wasn’t getting the air time, wasn’t getting the dollars, wasn’t getting the media slots to watch it at convenient times, in convenient ways, and it’s still a challenge. Like what we’re going to have to pay for in streaming here just to be able to have our fans be able to watch sports is astronomical. So there are still barriers.”
Every detail from the aesthetic choices to the merchandise was thoughtfully curated. The existing bar installed by Banter will remain, along with key features like the shelving behind the bar and the open dining layout. Instead of undertaking major renovations, the W team chose simpler yet equally impactful design updates. The W’s logo incorporates the classic colors of the city’s former WNBA team, the Cleveland Rockers, which also echo the vintage hues of the old Cavaliers jerseys. Retro stripes painted along parts of the bar’s side walls extend into the dining area, visually linking the two spaces. Vintage lockers now serve as part of the bar’s shelving, and old, donated high school trophies are proudly displayed as decorative highlights.
A former nook that once held Banter’s wine coolers has been transformed into a cozy podcast corner, where Eclarin and a friend will be recording episodes of Soccer Moms. Pippin explains, “The hope would be that there’ll be remote broadcasts that certain podcasters want to do, like women athletes and stuff. So we’d love to be able to host people here.”
One of the standout features of the bar is its crafted cocktail menu. Beyond offering a wide selection of beer and cider on tap, the cocktail list is a tribute to iconic women in sports. Each drink is named with intention and fandom in mind. Take the cocktail “Of Course She Has a Drink”—a clever nod to WNBA star A’ja Wilson. Or “Mamacita,” named in honor of Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, with proceeds supporting the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation. Even the zero-proof (non-alcoholic) drinks carry the same spirit of recognition and inclusion, paying homage to figures and themes rooted in women’s athletics. “We wanted the menu to be playful, fun, and something you want to engage with,” Pippin shared. “It’s more than just ordering a Cosmo — it’s about feeling connected to the stories behind the names.”
When it comes to food, the goal was clear: elevated bar bites that complement the sports-watching experience without sacrificing quality. Rather than offering full entrees that require diners to focus more on their plate than the screen, the menu was designed for easy sharing and casual enjoyment. Pippin said, “We really focused on food you can pass around the table, things that make you say, ‘I want to try that, while still being able to keep your eyes on the game.”
The menu is also inclusive. With two dedicated gluten-free fryers, the kitchen is able to safely serve guests with celiac disease and gluten sensitivities. Eclarin expanded on this, “As someone with celiac, I know how tough it is to eat out in Cleveland. A lot of places offer ‘gluten-free’ options but don’t have the protocols to avoid cross-contamination. We’ve heard directly from our community through surveys, DMs, emails asking us to please provide gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options. So we took that to heart.”
The Future of Sports Bars
As women’s sports continue to grow both in popularity and profitability, spaces like The W are becoming more essential. It is projected that by the end of September 2025 there will be 29 women’s sports-focused bars opened across the country, a fact that Eclarin shared.
Places like the W reflect a broader cultural shift toward inclusion, equity, and shared experience. This is so much more than a bar, it is a safe space for people, especially women, to celebrate without the fear that could at times be present in other establishments, the founders said.
Pippin added, “That’s such a big piece too is just the ability to have a space , and I think that’s like a secondary mission that this is fulfilling. And we’ve heard this from people from the jump, how nice it’ll be to go somewhere and be like, “Oh, I can just feel comfortable,” We will not forget that there’s women’s sports on the TV, because obviously that’s our mission. For some people[they] just want to go somewhere where I can feel comfortable and hang out with my friends and know that I’m in an environment that feels welcoming, safe, and I feel confident to just have a good time, and I don’t have to worry about variables that I have to worry about in other bars, right?”
Whether you’re a die-hard fan of women’s soccer, a loyal Guardians follower, or just looking for a safe, welcoming place to catch a game, The W is where Cleveland comes together — one screen, one cheer, and one community at a time.
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