Phoenix food-and-beverage vets Kat Moore and Audrey Corley are teaming up
to deliver the Valley’s first women’s-athletics-driven sports bar.
by Madison Rutherford | photos by Jill McNamara
Kat Moore and Audrey Corley have a lot in common – even beyond their love of Phoenix Mercury basketball and affinity for the historical Melrose District in Phoenix, where they live and work.
Both women are also trailblazers in local hospitality. Moore ran Short Leash Hotdogs, “the first gourmet food truck in Phoenix,” with her husband, Brad, before expanding to a now-shuttered brick-and-mortar restaurant and taproom in Melrose; while Corley is the force behind LGBTQ+ mainstay Boycott Bar and Dahlia Tapas Tequila & Wine in Midtown.
Little wonder these neighbors, friends and former amateur athletes decided to launch a Melrose-area sports bar together – the Valley’s first women-focused sports bar, it should be added. “We’ve got all these great things that are coming along for women’s sports,” Corley says. “It’s a movement, and it’s on fire right now.”
Named after the landmark 1972 legislation that secured equal funding, facilities and scholarships for women’s sports programs in public schools, Title 9 Sports Grill is set to open this spring, and is poised to capitalize on a crucial moment for sports in America. Major channels like ESPN are airing more women’s sports than ever before, and people are watching. According to media research firm Nielsen, the final game of the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament averaged nearly 19 million viewers in 2024, marking an 89 percent increase from the previous year and surpassing the men’s final viewership for the first time ever.
That’s why Moore and Corley say Title 9 is more than just community support – it’s good business, meeting demand in a way that might not have been possible 10 years ago, before there were enough televised women’s sports to fill the bar’s 22 screens. Adding to the bounty: the All Women’s Sports Network (AWSN), which became the first global TV network focused exclusively on showcasing women’s sports when it went live last fall.
But there’s also the community support. As the owner of Phoenix’s sole lesbian bar – one of just 32 spaces in the country that specifically caters to lesbian nightlife – Corley instinctively sees a need for safe, inclusive spaces in Phoenix and beyond. She was also the first to perceive a demand for women-focused sports bars, which have trended nationally since the opening of The Sports Bra in Portland in 2022.
When Short Leash closed in December, Corley approached Moore with a proposal to reimagine the colorful building near Seventh Avenue and Indian School Road as a sports bar that plays women’s sports for female fans. “I was like, ‘I can get behind that,’” Moore says. “And it just kind of went from there.”
Not only will the bright space serve as the aesthetic antithesis to a traditional sports bar, but if a women’s game is on – whether it’s professional basketball or college softball – all of Title 9’s TVs will be tuned in. This doesn’t mean they won’t also show men’s sports, but that “the women’s games will always take precedence,” Moore says. “We don’t want men to feel uncomfortable, but we want women to feel very comfortable.”
Title 9’s food and drinks will draw from the owners’ culinary expertise, featuring a full menu of pub favorites, while the beverage menu will prioritize beer, cider and spirits from female-owned breweries and distilleries, including Phoenix’s Greenwood Brewing.
Moore says the following they’ve built as fixtures in Melrose will provide a major boost in getting Title 9 off the ground. Boycott regulars are asking about the opening daily, Corley says, negating concerns of self-competition. “Our people are our people, and they’re going to stay our people,” Moore adds.
Corley emphasizes Title 9’s goal of being a safe place for all. “We never want to make anyone feel alienated, but when you come in here, you’re going to know this is about the women,” she says. “This one’s for the girls.”
