⚡️ AWSN Power Player: Jillian Hiscock (Owner, A Bar of Their Own) ⚾️
- Bo Maxwell
- Apr 10
- 4 min read
Jillian Hiscock (she/her) is the owner of A Bar of Their Own, the Midwest’s first sports bar to exclusively show women’s sports. After years of feeling like her fandom didn’t matter to traditional sports bars, she opened A Bar of Their Own in March 2024 as an inclusive, family-friendly space dedicated to prioritizing women, non-binary, and trans folks on and off the TV screens. Earlier this year, she was named a Women in Business Honoree by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Jillian is a lifelong learner, community builder, and eternal optimist who is excited to elevate and amplify women’s sports to the level they deserve.
We spoke with the trailblazer, and her passion for women’s spaces and sports rings clear. This is why she joins the esteemed ranks as an AWSN Power Player! ⚡️
Sitting at your bar top is a dream team of your favorite women athletes, past or present. Who are they?
Maya Moore, Dominique Dawes, Lisa Fernandez, Paige Bueckers, and Venus Williams.
How do you foster a sense of community among your patrons? Are there any particular events or traditions that have become staples of your bar?
Our bar would never exist if it weren’t for the community that started building before we even had a physical location! We generated excitement online through our crowdfunding campaign, raising over $205,000 from over 1,000 individuals from 48 states and 14 countries. From there, we have maintained a connection with our community through our active social media presence, weekly trivia nights, non-profit giveback nights, and watch parties for all sorts of teams!
Tell us about your local community. What are the hometown teams? Local heroes?
Minnesota is literally the Mecca of women’s sports—we have our 4-time WNBA Champion Minnesota Lynx WNBA team, our inaugural Walter Cup Champion Minnesota Frost PWHL team, our brand new Twin Cities Gemini Women’s Rugby team, and the Minnesota Vixen Women’s Professional Football team. Add to that countless local leagues such as two roller derby leagues and professional women’s ultimate frisbee, and an incredible mix of colleges ranging from Division III to Division I—we are so fortunate to have such a robust landscape for women’s athletics in Minnesota.
Do you see growth in media coverage and viewership of women’s sports affecting your business? In what ways?
Absolutely! Even in the last year since we opened, we have seen more and more women’s games moved to major networks, making viewership more accessible to all fans. You used to need a master’s degree in streaming services to find the game you wanted to watch, and now the overall investment and exposure for women’s sports is making it easier for folks to become casual fans of women’s sports.
What is the most memorable event or reaction from a customer that has stuck with you?
SO MANY! This past WNBA season, we hosted an Official Watch Party for the Commissioner’s Cup, where our Minnesota Lynx played against the New York Liberty. We had a packed house, the Lynx pulled off an epic win, and the energy was electric. It ended up being a preview of the eventual WNBA Finals between the same two teams, which was such an incredible 5-game series. We even threw a “Post-Season Celebration Party” because fans weren’t ready for the season to end! Another incredible moment was the Gold Medal game for the US Women’s Soccer team. The game was very early, but fans lined up around the block to get a spot at the bar to catch the game at ABOTO—it was amazing!
If you could host any women’s sports team or athlete at your bar, who would it be and why?
I’d love to host players from the AAGPBL—the women’s baseball league that A League of Their Own was based on. Not just because our name is an homage to the movie but because I’m amazed at the resilience those women displayed despite the sexism, racism, and homophobia. We do our best to bring light to the women who lead the way for the progress we’re seeing in women’s sports now because coverage of their accolades was virtually non-existent at the time. We owe so much to those women, and I’d love to sit around and listen to stories of their playing days.
What advice would you share with women wanting to make it in the business of women’s sports?
Figure out what you don’t know, and then make a list of women who you think might hold that knowledge. Reach out to them and ask for help! The network of support I have found from other women in sports and business is invaluable, and I think one of the things that makes this work so rewarding. In my very first conversation with Jenny Nguyen from The Sports Bra, she told me, "The goal is always more eyes on women’s sports,” and that mantra has guided me to connect with countless women who are in various stages of their journey to work in women’s sports. We’re investing in each other the same way that people are investing in women’s sports.
Connect with Jillian and A Bar of Their Own here:
