Imagine a world where the Super Bowl is on a Saturday.
Seriously, after the possibility of this year’s big game being moved to Saturday because of extreme weather, I started thinking: Why isn’t the NFL’s premier event on a Saturday in the first place?
Aside from bumping the pre-Super Bowl UFC card (the UFC doesn’t want to compete for viewers with the Super Bowl anyways) and stealing virtually every men’s hoops fan for the evening, what are the repercussions?
An estimated 1 percent of all adult workers consider playing hooky on “hangover monday,” and while that doesn’t seem significant, companies are cracking down in response.
Why not give the fans a day to sleep in and sober up?
This Sunday, fans on the East Coast will likely stay up past 10:30 p.m. catching the end.
And with the Pro Bowl filling the awkward “bye” week, teams would still have nearly two weeks to study film and nurse their championship game injuries.
I can’t picture a scenario in which the NFL couldn’t make it work given its vast leverage.
So what’s holding the league back? Certainly the monetary aspect, given that fans from all across the country fly into town Friday and leave Monday. But fans who are willing to miss work Monday are just as willing to miss work Friday for the big game.
For a league that focuses solely on the money, this would be a giant step in the right direction of pleasing the fans.
While it might not be the ideal economic situation for the first few years of an adjustment period, corporate America and the league’s millions of fans will thank you.
Avoid “lost-productivity Monday” and switch the Super Bowl to Saturday night.
Reach the assistant sports editor at Benjamin.Margiott@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @BenMargiott
