Following the Lionesses’ Euros victory in the summer of 2022, football fans Kate Hetherington and Naomi Fitzgibbons believed that the women’s game had “won the heart of the nation”. Buoyed by increasing viewing figures, a sold-out Wembley, and the players becoming “absolute icons”, the couple decided to find a pub where they could watch the Women’s Super League (WSL). They struggled.
They arrived at a bar which had claimed online to be showing the WSL’s Chelsea vs Man United match, only to find three men’s games showing on the screens. “We had to sheepishly go in and ask them to turn on the game, which feels a bit awkward,” says Naomi. “It felt like women’s sport was not the priority, despite them advertising it.”
This frustration catalysed the creation of Set Piece Social, a business which aims to be the UK’s first venue dedicated to screening women’s and non-binary sports. “These are professionals. They deserve a place of their own, a home of their own,” Naomi says. Set Piece Social currently operates as a pop-up, showing a few women’s games a month at Hatch, an events venue in Homerton, Hackney.
While supporting stars of women’s sports, Kate says that “championing women-owned businesses and queer-owned businesses” is important to them when choosing suppliers for food and drink. She admits that “it’s a big challenge trying to build a full menu from that, as when you look across the UK, there’s only one brewery that’s actually owned by women”.
Set Piece Social doesn’t just show football, and Kate says the couple “can get into any tournament”. Kate is Australian, so naturally grew up a cricket fan, before “really getting into football” when she moved to the UK. Naomi grew up a Liverpool supporter, but when she moved to London, Liverpool wasn’t in the WSL, so she “controversially chose Chelsea instead of Arsenal” to support in the WSL.
“The 2022 Euros took women’s sport into the stratosphere. We hope a home World Cup will do the same thing for women’s rugby,” says Naomi. Kate agrees, saying it would be “amazing to have a permanent home in time to show the Rugby World Cup”.
2025 is a big year for sport: the Women’s Six Nations starts on Saturday, the Women’s Euros are this summer, and England will host the Women’s Rugby World Cup in August.
Kate adds that the key to finding a permanent home is capital investment. “We’re doing these pop ups to build a community, build a following, but also build the business plan and build the business case for Set Piece Social,” she says.
Naomi says she wants the venue to be “a place where you can come if you’re a superfan, or if you’ve never been to a football match before…. We wanted to make that environment where everybody feels comfortable.”
She says that lots of women come to their events alone and make friends – “it creates an environment where women feel safe watching sport… You might not feel as comfortable going to a pub alone as a woman to watch, particularly a men’s football game.”
By day, Kate works in renewable energy, and Naomi is a vet, but the couple have big dreams for Set Piece Social. Kate says: “We don’t want it just to be in London. We want it across the UK and even globally, if possible.” Naomi jumps in: “Any investors out there who wanna hit us up, get in touch with us.”
Bethan Moss is Hackney Post's beat reporter for Homerton and a freelance journalist. She is studying for an MA in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London and was formerly Editor-in-Chief of Varsity, the University of Cambridge's only independent newspaper.