About a year ago, Rose Valente had what she calls an "early thirties crisis".

After working for FIFA during the 2023 Women's World Cup, doing transport administration and shuffling famous football people around the country, she experienced a huge emotional come-down once the tournament was over.

She was out of a job. She had little money. And she had no idea what she wanted to do next. So she packed up her apartment, piled everything into her car, and went on a road trip from Sydney to Queensland. 

A few months later, after picking up an illness in a hostel, she ended up driving three straight days back to her hometown of Adelaide to stay with her dad. With nothing to do while she recovered, she started researching.

"I didn't know where I belonged or what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to do something in sport," she told ABC.

"My whole life, I've worked in hospitality. I did fine dining, I ran weddings, I worked in cafes and restaurants. But my focus has always been on customer service: making sure people are enjoying what I'm offering and having a great time.

"When I got into football, I'd sometimes go to bars and not really feel comfortable. There can be so much stupidity and negativity around women's sport; even when you watch men's sport, you can go to some toxic sports bars where you're questioned about being a fan or whatever.

"I started researching empty business lots in Sydney, inquiring, calling agents. And I discovered we were in a bit of a post-COVID time for business owners, where there's a lot of negotiating on rent. This particular area was revitalising, the council wanted Oxford Street's nightlife back, so there's a lot of flexibility in what you can do.

"Six months later, I was in Sydney inspecting places. Before I knew it, I had a financial plan, I was talking to my accountant. It's been about nine months since I started thinking about it, and now here we are."

Here is The Ladies League: Australia's first-ever women's sport-focused bar, sitting snug on Sydney's famous Oxford Street, a minute's walk from Taylor Square and the National Art School.

She took the name from an online brand that she started with two friends, who noticed the lack of young women covering Australian football on social media, and so decided to start their own. With their blessing, Valente used their name, badge, and iconic pink and black colours across the signage and interiors, which stretch across two floors.

It was strategic: The Ladies League had already built an enthusiastic fanbase with its online content, and knew it would be easier to translate that into real-life customers at a real-life venue rather than trying to create a community from scratch.

In fact, the support from their existing fans has had a direct impact on the bar itself. Having dug into the bottom of her savings, including selling her only investment property (which, she acknowledges, she was super privileged to have in the first place), unexpected costs saw Valente throw open The Ladies League's coffers to anyone who could help.

Hundreds of fans flooded in, signing up for foundation memberships to have their names written on one of the upstairs walls, while others paid to sponsor particular areas of the bar such as tables, benches, and even toilet cubicles.

She hadn't been able to get a bank loan for the bar — she was considered "too risky," she said — but, in the end, the bar has been built, literally and figuratively, by the fans she knows will flock to this place after its grand opening on Friday night.

"I have 100 per cent faith that I'm going to, at the very minimum, get my money back: that's how much faith I have in the women's sport community," she said.

"That's how confident I am that women's sport needs a space like this. I'm willing to put every single dollar I have into it. I don't care that I couldn't get a loan for it; I knew I had to do it and needed to make it happen. Banks don't see passion.

"If you want change, you need to go and do it yourself. That's always been my attitude. The Ladies League may not always get things right, people may not understand why we do what we do or our direction, and that's fine. But we know what we're about and so do the people who will come here."

From the moment you walk in, you can see this bar is different. 

Signed women's sports jerseys and scarves (some of which her mum knitted) line the walls and doorways, the dining tables are lit by fluro pink and blue LEDs, the bar is fringed by pastel flower arrangements, and the big screens play women's competitions like the Women's Super League or National Women's Soccer League on loop.

Upstairs, the space opens out into a series of low couches and tables — low enough so that everybody can see the huge screen that fills an entire back wall — which is designed for bigger groups and watch parties.

The idea, partly inspired by similar women's sports bars elsewhere in the world such as Oregon's The Sports Bra, which raked in almost $1 million in its first year in 2022, is to show women's sport on television as often as possible. 

With studies showing that women's sport receives between 12 and 15 per cent of all mainstream media coverage, Valente wants the bar to be a place that rectifies that imbalance.

She's open to showing men's sport if there's an appetite for it, or if there's an important national team game on (such as the Socceroos), but the priority will always be to broadcast women's sport first, even next-day replays of games that happen overnight when they're closed.

But the bar won't be closed too often: its hours will extend from midday to late from Wednesdays to Sundays, with Valente currently trying to extend the license to 4am, meaning fans of clubs and competitions in unfriendly time zones still have a safe and welcoming space to go and watch their teams — with late-night snacks available for them, too.

The food and drinks menu has been designed as a homage to traditional sports bars, with all the sharing and finger food you can expect like wings, nachos, dumplings and burgers, and there is a plan to gradually rename cocktail items after famous women athletes such as "Vine Time", the nickname of Matildas striker Cortnee Vine.

"It comes down to what our customers want," Valente said. "I enjoy men's sport as well as women's sport, but our core values are extremely important.

"We will always support women's sport, and I think the World Cup and the Olympics really sold a lot of people on just how amazing our women athletes are.

"They're very marketable. People want to watch them. So we're giving people what they want."

Being based on Oxford Street, Sydney's iconic LGBTQIA+ strip, was what sold Valente on The Ladies League's final location. 

Recognising the crossover between women's sport fans and the LGBTQIA+ community, and appreciating that queer fans of sport may not feel safe going to regular sports bars or pubs to watch sport and socialise, she wanted to ensure the bar was visibly inclusive for anybody and everybody who wanted to be part of it.

Rainbow flags are strung around the walls, both bathrooms are gender-neutral, and a large Progress Pride flag welcomes you up the illuminated steps to the open-plan seating area on the top floor.

"That was also part of my hiring process: making sure everybody is inclusive and open-minded. We need to be that. That's why Oxford Street was my preference: even though it was more expensive to be on a main road, especially this one, it mattered a lot to be here.

"So many queer organisations have reached out to us already, a whole bunch of drag queens as well. One of them, who works next door and does drag, said they're going to rock up on our launch.

"If the locals are feeling comfortable, that they can walk in here being themselves, that's the most important thing."

The commitment to equality and inclusion is threaded throughout the business, from the bar's sponsorship partners to its staff. 

Two of its taps are from Reckless Brewing Co, Australia's biggest woman-owned and operated brewery based in Bathurst, while its wines and champagnes are sourced from women winemakers in the Hunter Valley. 

Half of the waitstaff are women, too, with Valente prioritising people who had applied through The Ladies League's social media channels, knowing they were already part of the women's sport community. 

Valente has even asked for women security guards to be used during the busiest periods on weekends, and is planning women's sport trivia nights, as well as watch parties for major women's sport events.

While Valente is a football fan primarily, and the bar is decorated mostly in football gear, she says matches across all sports and codes will get airtime, especially if they feature Sydney teams like the Swifts (netball), Flames (basketball), Sixers (cricket), Roosters (NRLW), and Swans (AFLW). 

Already, multiple clubs from across the city have reached out to her, donating signed or match-worn uniforms, and merchandise, and even asking to partner up in an official capacity, with A-Leagues club Sydney FC currently negotiating with her to run events during "Unite Round" this November.

So what does success for The Ladies League look like?

Having poured "literally blood, sweat and tears" into this place, Valente isn't focusing on margins or profits for now.

Instead, having first-hand knowledge of how it feels to not belong somewhere, to not have a sporting space that accepts and includes and makes you feel safe, her measure of success is something far greater than whatever numbers are printed out on the balance sheet at the end of every quarter.

"I consider myself rich if people are coming here and I've created a place where they can be comfortable, they can exist, that this is their place, and they can create lifelong memories in," she said.

"I want people to celebrate their birthday here, I want them to watch historic sporting moments here, I want them to meet their favourite commentator or journalist or athlete here.

"As humans, we can get addicted to chasing money and promotions and getting bigger all the time, but sometimes you need to take a step back and just have something that's really cool for the world.

"If I've created that great experience for everybody, that's enough for me."