Super bust

Brian Wilson

I grew up about 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia and up until moving to Wisconsin was always a fan of that city’s sports teams including the Eagles.

While I have long-since switched allegiance to the Packers, I still cheer for the Eagles whenever the two teams aren’t facing each other. When they do, I just avoid talking to my family members for the days before and after.

Like many people, watching the Super Bowl is a social event for my family, even for the family members who pay more attention to the commercials than the game.

At the start of the 4th quarter in Sunday’s Super Bowl game, there were about 30 people in the room watching the game, socializing and having a good time. The dozen or so children were busy doing their own things and everyone was having fun.

Like a light switch or the blowing of a curfew whistle, at a certain point early in the quarter parents looked at their watches and began to pack up their children and dishes and headed home. The room rapidly emptied.

Despite the game being far from over (and the referees giving Kansas City the win), people headed home knowing that they had work and school early the next morning.

By the time Kansas City kicked their last field goal and the Eagles attempted a last-ditch scoring drive, there were just three of us left in the room.

I have to imagine that the scene in the Super Bowl party I was at, was replayed in thousands of homes and taverns across the country. The good time, was artificially cut short because the NFL stubbornly clings to a Sunday evening time slot.

In recent years there has been a growing push to have the Monday after the Super Bowl be declared a national holiday. This would benefit some people, but have its own headaches as many people’s workplaces do not follow national holidays and there is a very real economic impact on businesses on already established holidays.

A better, and less costly to implement option would be to move the game from Sunday evening to Saturday evening. This would allow people to stay to watch the game and to stick around to socialize afterward.

It would also be good for business. According to an annual study done by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., the financial impact on workplaces is just under $5 billion dollars a year from lost productivity on the Monday following the Super Bowl.

This figure is based on the number of absences that occur that day and doesn’t take into account such things as the impact on education as both students and their teachers are sluggish due to a later than normal Sunday night or any workplace mistakes being made because of groggy workers.

While traditionalists will point out that professional football has always been played on Sunday, it is also routinely played on Monday night, Thursday night and throughout the playoffs on Saturdays.

A Saturday evening game would eliminate the negative impacts on workplaces currently experienced with the Sunday night games. In addition, it would give an opportunity for people to stay out later providing a major economic boost to taverns, restaurants and other venues. This in turn would result in increased tax revenues from sales taxes paid.

The NFL continually works to make the Super Bowl a bigger, and longer event. If it wasn’t held on what for many people is a school or work night, it would be far easier for people to join in and keep the fun going.

With the NFL owners not afraid to come to governments with their hands out to get support for their stadium projects, state governments should be putting pressure on the NFL to move the Super Bowl to Saturday.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.