CHICAGO (AP) — Josh Pehlke remembers having to beg and plead at bars and restaurants to get them to show WNBA games just a few years ago. Too often, the...
CHICAGO — Josh Pehlke remembers having to beg and plead at bars and restaurants to get them to show WNBA games just a few years ago. Too often, the answer was a flat-out no.As the general manager at Signature Bar & Restaurant in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood, about a 3-point shot from the Chicago Sky ’s home at Wintrust Arena , he has some say. But even when he's not at work, he has noticed a difference.
”You’ll see small groups of women coming out to watch the actual sports,” Bar Louie CEO Brian Wright said. “And you see a lot of men requesting women’s sports now. So it’s kind of an entire paradigm shift of how women’s sports are being viewed. You very seldom saw a group of men coming in saying, ‘Can you put on that WNBA game?’ Now, that’s really becoming commonplace.”Bar Louie has restaurants in 21 states from coast to coast and as many as 20 TVs per location.
“It'd be very difficult,” he said. “Our operators have a lot of communication back and forth with the guest and if we inundated our operators -- you have to track this, this and this all the time -- they would end up worrying about the stats and not even taking care of the guests.” Pehlke became a WNBA fan about a decade ago and started following the Sky when they added Chicago-area product Candace Parker prior to the 2021 championship season. He grew up a Los Angeles Lakers fan in northern Wisconsin.
During the playoffs, Pehlke said, the restaurant saw more requests for TVs to be tuned to the WNBA. He was expecting an uptick in business, too.
Caitlin Clark Women's Sports Josh Pehlke Chicago Sky Angel Reese Restaurants WNBA Game Volleyball Game Simone Biles Wintrust Arena New York Liberty Minnesota Lynx Los Angeles Lakers Indiana Fever
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