Super Bowl Saturday?

[The Brain]

Super Bowl Sunday is probably the biggest nights in both sports and television in the US. After nearly half a century it has become an institution. It’s one of the biggest party days of the year and many treat it like a holiday. I know everyone is accustomed to Super Bowl Sunday and it is an American tradition but wouldn’t most people enjoy it more if it were Super Bowl Saturday?

I know a lot of people are going to think it’s a bad idea because Saturday is a terrible day for television. That may be true for regular network shows but the Super Bowl is certainly big enough to overcome that. People are looking for something to do on a Saturday. Put the Super Bowl on Saturday and that’s what they’ll do. I doubt moving the Super Bowl to Saturday will cost the network any viewers at all.

For me personally I always enjoy an event or a night out a lot more when I know I don’t have to work the next day. I can stay out as late as I want totally carefree knowing I have the next day to sleep in and rest. By the time the Super Bowl is ending it’s about 10:00 pm eastern time. Most people have to get up early for work the next day so usually by the fourth quarter, which should be the most exciting part of the day, people are looking at their watches and thinking about getting home, especially if kids are involved. Depending on the score the party may end before the game does. Imagine the fourth quarter starting at 9:30 or so and not having to worry about the time. You don’t have work the next day and the kids don’t have school. You don’t care what time the game ends and on the drive home you know you can get into bed and not worry about that alarm clock waking you up in the morning. Even though the Super Bowl is a fun day, it is a long day. Having that extra day off the next day would be refreshing.

Obviously not everyone is off work on a Sunday but I think moving the Super Bowl to Saturday would benefit most people. What do you think?

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I would welcome a Super Bowl Saturday. Putting the Super Bowl on a Saturday night would feel like an earth-shattering change, and Saturday night is a lousy night for television most of the time.

You'll have to scroll to HBO or Cinemax (if they're not showing softcore porn) to find anything that feels like an "event," because more often than not, Saturday night is premiere night for new movies on HBO and Cinemax. And if I'm not mistaken, HBO and Showtime will show boxing matches (sometimes they're replays from pay per view bouts) every now and then.

Also, I'm not the type of person, who is into the nightlife. The allure of South Beach doesn't do anything for me, so I wouldn't mind staying indoors, and watching a Super Bowl on Saturday night.

Realistically? I can't see the NFL taking a chance on something like this. Super Bowl Sunday is an annual tradition that a lot of sports fans and look forward to for various reasons. Die hard football fans want to see the big game, friends and family gather around with each other, and everyone stuffs their faces with large spreads of pizza, tacos, chicken wings, and various other types of junk food.

On top of that, I'm not into clubs, or going out and partying, but you can't say the same thing about millions of other people. Saturday night is the night to hang out and have fun, so the NFL would take a HUGE risk in losing a lot of viewers, because you can't count on so many people packing themselves into a bar or an Applebees to watch the game.

I like the idea of a Super Bowl on a Saturday night, and I wouldn't hesitate to give it a chance. But if we're talking about this from a realistic point of view, I can't see it working out, because you're upsetting the natural order of things for a risky roll of the dice.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

This is something I would welcome for two reasons. One, Super Bowl Sunday is the second most gluttonous day of the year behind Thanksgiving and probably rivals St. Patty's Day in terms of the number of Americans that use it as an excuse to get completely shit-faced. Thus, I support the move because it would leave people Sunday to nurse food comas and hangovers. Two, and this is admittedly biased, I fucking hate college football's stranglehold on Saturdays. The NFL is becoming ever more popular in the US if these latest playoff ratings tell us anything, and I think it's time that the NFL rids itself of Thursday night football and just shows games all day Saturday and Sunday instead. When the NFL's contract with DirecTV expires at the end of this year, I hope they tell DirecTV to go fuck themselves and instead earn at least five times the amount of revenue by selling national broadcasting rights among America's four major networks.

 

[Akhilleus]

I think that yes maybe you are right that it would be better if it was on Saturday, but I think it's way too big of a risk at this point to change the day. And another thing, the day of Sunday is always the day for football. It's when all the games usually take place. It wouldn't make sense for the biggest game of the year not to take place on Sunday.

 

[Slash-LN]

The party aspect of it means nothing to me but it would be nice for a lot of people who do have parties and stuff.

Like the OP said there may be people who who work on Sunday but there are probably more who work on Monday.

It would be good for the kids who have to go to school the next day and may not get to stay up for the whole game. My mom always let us stay up and watch the game but I know there are plenty of parents who don't. And sure the kids can see highlights the next day and everything but it's not the same as watching it in the moment.

It would be weird like CQB241. When you think of football day you traditionally think of Sunday.

That being said we already have Monday and Thursday night games during the week and Saturday games during the playoffs so I'm sure people could adjust.

You can also consider the Sunday church crowd who may miss part of the game due to Sunday night services. That happened to me one year when I was a kid and for whatever reason my mom decided I couldn't miss church to watch the Super Bowl that one year. I was not impressed.

I'm guessing there are Saturday night churches too. I'm not trying to exclude them or say they aren't as important. I'm just assuming that Sunday is the more dominate church day.

So between the majority of people not having to worry about work the next day, kids not having to worry about school the next day and a good portion of people who go to church who may miss part of the game I'd say Saturday wouldn't be too bad at all.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Realistically? I can't see the NFL taking a chance on something like this. Super Bowl Sunday is an annual tradition that a lot of sports fans and look forward to for various reasons. Die hard football fans want to see the big game, friends and family gather around with each other, and everyone stuffs their faces with large spreads of pizza, tacos, chicken wings, and various other types of junk food.

On top of that, I'm not into clubs, or going out and partying, but you can't say the same thing about millions of other people. Saturday night is the night to hang out and have fun, so the NFL would take a HUGE risk in losing a lot of viewers, because you can't count on so many people packing themselves into a bar or an Applebees to watch the game.

I like the idea of a Super Bowl on a Saturday night, and I wouldn't hesitate to give it a chance. But if we're talking about this from a realistic point of view, I can't see it working out, because you're upsetting the natural order of things for a risky roll of the dice.

All of this would not be effected by a move to Saturday. A) Family can gather on a Saturday as well, B) People who like to party, drink, and/or go to bars on the weekends will, and I mean will, use a Saturday Super Bowl as an excuse to do that excessively. If they can't find a good bar they'll have a party at a friends house. This is the same stuff that happens on Sundays, but having it on a Saturday will allow people to not care how much they drink or party on Super Bowl Saturday. A friend of mine has arranged our Super Bowl party this year at a bar, and now I have to be concerned with not letting myself go too much because I have to work in the morning. I think you're underestimating the power of the Super Bowl really.

That said, realistically they're not going to change something that clearly works. People fear change. And while I think it wouldn't be a problem for people to adapt this this pretty quickly, the first year I'm sure there might be an uproar.

On a related note, sites have already written up reports of this possibly happening this year. Simply because the weather is not something that can be predicted very accurately up until a week or so out, they've already considered playing the game on Saturday in case a huge storm is going to hit NY on Sunday. But yes, I would imagine it would have to be pretty bad for them to change the day of the game.