From the outside, Libertee Grounds looked like a typical Friday night. <\/p>\n
But inside and down the stairs of the Girard Ave. and 16th St. building, about 100 passionate women\u2019s sports fans laughed, played mini golf, watched basketball, and celebrated their city getting a WNBA team in 2030.<\/p>\n
Hosted by Watch Party PHL<\/a>, the crowd gathered to watch the New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury WNBA game, which featured local stars Natasha Cloud, a Broomall native, on the Liberty and North Philly\u2019s Kaleah Copper for the Mercury.<\/p>\n Among those watching, were first-timers, regulars, and the Temple women\u2019s basketball team and staff.<\/p>\n \u201cTo see all these people care about women\u2019s sports, it\u2019s good for the community but especially for us because we\u2019re in women\u2019s sports, so just to see the love it\u2019s really good,\u201d said Sheyenne Swain-Price, a junior forward for the Owls.<\/p>\n She said Cloud and Copper\u2019s success shows that there\u2019s opportunities for players from any Division I school \u2014 Cloud played at St. Joe\u2019s, while Copper went to Rutgers \u2014 and that the Temple team loves to support the locals in the WNBA.<\/p>\n Watch Party PHL was founded by Philadelphia firefighter Jen Leary in March of 2024, with two main goals in mind. She wanted to create an inclusive space for monthly women\u2019s sports watch parties, and prove to the WNBA that there\u2019s enough demand and support for a professional women\u2019s basketball team in Philly. <\/p>\n Both of those goals have been met. The WNBA\u2019s announcement of adding a team in Philly came over a year after her first watch party, and the events have seen much success, so she started hosting three or more a month. Leary plans to open a brick and mortar location in spring 2026.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Women\u2019s sports bars are about to have their moment to cheer in Philadelphia<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThe goal has changed,\u201d Leary said. \u201cWe want to continue to build this community and this fandom, to show the W that they made the right decision, and as we continue to build on the numbers that come out to our watch parties, we\u2019ll build the numbers that will fill those seats when the team comes.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch Party PHL is a hub for all women\u2019s sports, not just basketball. They host soccer, hockey, and tennis events, spanning across multiple leagues, and big-name events like Wimbledon and the Olympics.<\/p>\n Leary partners with local businesses and sports organizations for mutual benefit, they can sell merchandise and tell people about their teams, and they bring more eyes from their communities to the watch party movement. <\/p>\n One of those businesses is Go Hamm<\/a>, which sells women\u2019s sports merchandise. Owner Mollie Cusak was at Friday\u2019s event selling an exclusive \u201cPhilly is a women\u2019s sports town – Est. 2030\u201d shirt, designed with Watch Party as a nod to the WNBA team coming to Philly in five years.<\/p>\n On the team side, Skilladelphia Basketball Academy\u2019s<\/a> co-founder Mac Casey and his daughter Annie were in attendance. SBA is a nonprofit that provides developmental basketball clinics to girls and nonbinary players ages 6 to 14. Casey partnered with Old Pine Community Center to start the academy, which now includes hundreds of players.<\/p>\n