This Philly WNBA watch party wants to show that the city is more than ready for a team

It was a Thursday night and the backroom of Stir Lounge was packed as the Phillies played the New York Mets on a projector overlooking the bar, only no one was paying attention.

The crowd wasn’t there for baseball. They were there to watch a WNBA game.

Jen Leary started hosting monthly viewing parties at the Rittenhouse Square gay bar in April after attempting to watch WNBA games at sports bars across Philly. The experience was demoralizing: The matchups generally played on one measly flat screen with the volume low or mute, Leary said. Dance music often drowned out the commentary.

“There was no outlet for me, no community of people — aside from Twitter — that I could find watching the games here,” said Leary, 46, who began following the WNBA in 2020, drawn in by the players’ lives inside the pandemic Wubble.

Hundreds of people have turned up to each of Leary’s watch parties at Stir, and a third is planned for Sunday, June 9, for a Philly-on-Philly matchup: North Philly native Kahleah Cooper and the Phoenix Mercury take on former Villanova phenom Maddie Siegrist and the Dallas Wings.

The viewings are a small-yet-crucial part of the city’s bid for a WNBA team, which is competing with four others to score one of two remaining spots in the league’s expansion.

» READ MORE: The WNBA is expanding to Toronto. What does that mean for Philly?

Leary believes it’s important to show WNBA officials there’s already a fan base. Her rationale: Build it and they will come.

“If the WNBA couldn’t find a single bar playing the games, why would they want to come here?” she said. “The hype we get around these watch parties is a tangible thing the WNBA can see.”

At May’s watch party, attendees were antsy as Leary faced technical difficulties replacing the Phils’ game for the main event: The perennially great New York Liberty vs. the Indiana Fever, a struggling franchise looking to turn the tide with Caitlin Clark, the no. 1 draft pick many credit with helping boost the profile of women’s pro and college ball.

Someone led the crowd in cheers after Leary started streaming the game from an iPhone that hung from the ceiling, a small flat screen behind the bar, and — eventually — the projector. The room was split between Liberty fans (many of whom chose the team because of its proximity to Philly) and Fever supporters. The latter felt emboldened enough for the occasional boo even though the Liberty won, holding a consistent double-digit lead.

“I reserve the right to be a bandwagon fan until Philly gets a WNBA team,” said Chanaiah Maxwell, 31. “Then it’s all Philly, ride or die, win or lose.”

» READ MORE: Opinion | Philadelphia needs a women's sports team, argues Jen Leary

The watch parties are a long time coming for Maxwell, who played basketball at the Academy at Palumbo and grew up idolizing three-time WNBA champion Candace Parker. Now, she keeps a list in her phone of her ideas for a Philly WNBA team name.

Maxwell’s favorite: The Philadelphia Thurls, a reference to the city’s slang for being a real one who stands on business.

“It’s just cool to be in a room full of people who are as excited as I am about women’s sports,” Maxwell said in between explaining the game to her friend Hillary Lewis, a WNBA newcomer.

Former Widener University basketball player Melissa Rucci, 39, agreed. “I’ve never been to a bar and seen a WNBA game on the screen,” she said. “Tonight is exciting.”

Philly is a sports city, but women have often lamented a lack of space for them to participate across fandoms, a problem that has endured despite women’s sports growing into a billion-dollar industry.

» READ MORE: This girls-only Eagles tailgate offers a safe space for women — and green body glitter

WNBA viewership and ticket sales skyrocketed in 2023, buoyed by an infusion of investment that has opened up conversations about better pay, dedicated practice facilities, and endorsement deals.

Philly is among those clamoring to get in early(ish) on the WNBA boom. A team of anonymous Philadelphians has a bid out for a WNBA team. The league’s commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, and many star players have roots in the region.

Leary’s watch party was former Drexel University guard Keishana Washington’s last hurrah before heading into tryouts for Canada’s women’s Olympic basketball team. Washington rooted for the Fever and Clark — once her competition to be the NCAA’s leading scorer — on that Thursday in May but was most in awe of the turnout at Stir.

“This just shows how much the game has grown,” Washington said. During Washington’s final season, attendance ranged from 19 to 648 people per game, according to data kept by the university.

» READ MORE: There’s a Philadelphia WNBA expansion bid, but no one’s saying who’s involved

The packed house was a full-circle moment for Leary, who spent halftime handing out WNBA merchandise to raffle winners and posing for photos in a graphic tee that read “Everyone watches women’s sports.”

It wasn’t always that way. Leary — a Philadelphia firefighter — played in the now-defunct National Women’s Football League for a season, winning the 2001 championship with the Philly Liberty Belles alongside her sister before quitting.

“We had to spend all of our own money for gear, for travel. I took time off work to go to games. It just wasn’t sustainable,” said Leary. For now, she’s most excited about being among Philly’s loudest spectators.

“The sky’s the limit,” said Leary. “I just gave us the venue, but women’s sports is what brought these people out.”