Fans Want To Move The Super Bowl To Saturday — But It Probably Won’t Happen

The Super Bowl and Sunday have become about as connected as Thanksgiving and Thursday, but why does it have to be that way?

After all, there are plenty of compelling reasons to switch it to another night … particularly Saturday. But as with most corporate decisions, it all boils down to profits.

Chasing an elusive goal

If you woke up tired, bloated, and maybe a little hungover on Monday but still had to drag yourself to work, you’re not alone. This is a common phenomenon on the day after the Super Bowl, and experts predicted ahead of this year’s game that close to 19 million people would call out of work yesterday.

While some schools — especially in the home cities of the teams playing in the big game — sometimes delay classes to give fans a chance to watch the whole game and sleep in the next day, there’s a clear grassroots effort to move the game to a more convenient time slot.

A recent online petition to play next year’s Super Bowl on Saturday has become one of change.org’s most highly engaged campaigns to date.

Blaming the fans

Even though the scores of football fans who want to see the change insist that they would tune in on Saturday, the NFL, advertisers, and networks don’t seem to believe them.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the concept in 2018, claiming that the reason the league hasn’t moved the game back a day is because of the very audience that has called on it to do so.

“The audiences on Sunday night are so much larger,” he said. “Fans want to have the best opportunity to be able to see the game and we want to give that to them, so Sunday night is a better night.”

Chris Agee February 14th, 2023

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