Marsha's sports bar in Philadelphia closes after a year
The South Street bar, the city's first built around women's sports, opened in September 2025. Its last shift is on Sunday, and the owners gave no reason in their announcement.
Marsha's sports bar, the women's sports bar on South Street in Philadelphia, will close for good after its final shift on Sunday 18 October, just over a year after it opened. The owners announced the closure on Instagram on Thursday 15 October, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Gay News reported.
“It is with heavy hearts that we have decided to close Marsha's doors for good,” the post said. The bar is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with its regular hours for a closing weekend, and the Inquirer reported that the screens will show the WNBA Finals and the Eagles against the Panthers. Owner Chivonn Anderson told her employees before the public announcement and is helping them find new jobs, according to the Inquirer.
Why Marsha's sports bar is closing
A bar built for an audience with nowhere else to watch lasted thirteen months on South Street.
The post gave no reason, and Anderson’s team did not respond to requests for comment from Philadelphia Gay News. Speaking to the Inquirer, Anderson linked the decision to a former employee’s public claims about the workplace in April, which she said damaged the bar’s reputation in the community: “Business just never kind of rebounded from that.” Marsha's answered with statements and community discussions, which Anderson told the Inquirer were not enough.
The bar had already drawn attention in February, when about a dozen Philadelphia and Pennsylvania State Police officers entered during a late-night compliance inspection. Philadelphia Gay News reported that the inspection produced no citations.
A room for women's sports in Philadelphia
Marsha's opened on 19 September 2025 at 430 South St. in Queen Village and is named after the activist Marsha P. Johnson. Philadelphia Gay News described it as the city’s first queer-owned women’s sports bar and reported that hundreds of people queued on opening night. It also filled a gap left by Toasted Walnut, Philadelphia’s only lesbian bar, which closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The model gained visibility after The Sports Bra opened in Portland, Oregon, in 2022 as a bar showing only women’s sports and later announced plans to franchise, the Associated Press reported. Closures are not limited to young concepts: in Australia, the Melbourne cocktail bar Byrdi closed after six years in the city centre.
In its post, Marsha's said Philadelphia needs more businesses owned by women, queer people and people of colour. “We sincerely hope that someone is able to step up and fill this void,” it said. No new tenant for 430 South St. has been announced.
