A new sports bar that has been popping up in Detroit over the past couple of years is officially beginning a campaign to get a permanent location.
Bar IX will launch its crowdfunding campaign on Tuesday, June 30 at the Detroit Shipping Company in Midtown. They'll have women's sports trivia starting at 7 p.m. and then the Commissioner's Cup at 8 p.m. You can learn more on their website here.
Watch below: Past coverage on Bar IX ahead of PWHL Detroit Takeover Tour Game
The concept comes as interest in women's sports continues to grow. Detroit is getting a PWHL Team starting next season, and a WNBA team starting in 2029.
"We’ve always wondered what if we could go to a bar and not have to fight to have the game on the television," Alissa Graff said.
Graff is turning that idea into a reality by bringing Detroit’s first bar dedicated to women’s sports.
"It’s a common misconception that Bar IX is only for women. It is a bar for everyone. It is a bar that is celebrating and highlighting women’s sports specifically and that is an entertainment space for everyone," Graff said.
She named the venture Bar IX, inspired by Title IX, the landmark 1972 law that expanded opportunities for women in education and sports.
"We want to make sure that, that history is acknowledged and we bring it into the modern day in a lot of different ways," Graff said.
The venture is personal for Graff and was shaped by her mother’s influence.
"She was a beneficiary of Title IX, it was implemented just a few years before she was in college and she had the opportunity to play college basketball on a scholarship, which she didn’t even know could have been a possibility when she was in high school to start, and because she played college basketball, she encouraged me," Graff said.
Even without a permanent location, Bar IX is already seeing success and drawing big crowds at pop-ups across the city.
"We’ve had anywhere up to 120 people at some of our events," Graff said.
