SURVEY SAYS: How Will You Spend Super Bowl Sunday?

February 2, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Whether or not one ever turns on a football game during the regular season, one can hardly overlook the reality that this weekend many of the nation's (world's?) television sets will be tuned to the Super Bowl...even if it is just to see the commercials.

This week, we asked readers how they planned to spend Super Bowl Sunday.

Well, if the game is as close – and hotly contested – as this week’s survey responses, it should be a really good game.   Ultimately, there were more planning to “Scream for the Steelers” ( 28.57% ) than there were planning to “Soar with the Seahawks” ( 22.08% ).   Not necessarily because they were actually FOR the individual teams – frequently it was an “against” vote.   For example:

  • Will be half-heartedly cheering for the Steelers. Go Patriots!
  • I have to root for the Steelers for two reasons:   1) Ben Roethlisberger was my fantasy football quarterback this season and I owe him some loyalty, and 2) Pittsburgh is more like Detroit than Seattle is.  
  • I’m a Green Bay Packer fan, and if they can’t be there, I wish the best for Mike Holmgren and his team!!   Go Seahawks!
  • Being an avid Broncos fan, I will be rooting against the team that beat them in the AFC championship game.   I guess that makes me a Seahawks fan for a day.
  • Most 49er fans in Northern California should be Soaring with the Seahawks.   We don’t want Pittsburgh to get “One for the Thumb” as the 49ers have four Super Bowl tittles…along with the Steelers.  
  • Being from Washington State, I will certainly be watching the game.   I will admit I have not watched a game the entire year, and could care less about football.   However, we thought the Seahawks would make it to the Super bowl right about the same time as pigs fly.  
  • I’ll be watching the game, and more importantl,y watching the pieces of paper with 100 boxes on them.   I hate the Steelers, but I still want the AFC to win.

There were, of course, more “enthusiastic” fans:  

  • It has taken us 30 years to get the chance to say ‘B’. (soar with the seahawks)
  • SOAR WITH THE SEAHAWKS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!RAIN RUSTS STEEL!!!
  • Normally I would (c) (watch for the commercials), but since our Seahawks are in the Super Bowl, it will definitely be (b).
  • Hopefully (b) as the Seahawks are very special to us in Seattle, but I’ll be skate skiing in Mazama, Washington, on February 5th.   Mazama is in the Northwest wilderness near the Canadian boarder, and TV reception is hard to come by.   Neither the cabin I’m staying in nor the Country Inn nearby has TV reception.   So I am trying to find a TV in the area that will be receiving the Super Bowl game.  
  • I live and breathe Black and Gold, but I will be holding my breath for this game – just like I did during the playoffs.   As exciting as this is, it’s also extremely nerve-wracking.   I am prepared to be totally exhausted at the end of the game.   Go STEELERS!!!
  • Scream for the Steelers.   And, I mean – quite literally – SCREAM.   While wearing my Jack Lambert jersey and waving my Terrible Towel.   I’ll also be wearing my Franco Harris jersey on Saturday.   I did this throughout the season and playoffs.   It’s my personal good luck charm.   I’ll also be wearing my Bettis jersey to work on Friday for a little extra boost.   My office chair is currently “wearing” my other Jack Lambert jersey.   The one on my chair is white, in honor of the “home” Steelers wearing their “away” jerseys for the Super Bowl.   Can you say Steelers Freak?
  • Go Steelers!!!   Of course, I also have to watch to see who wins our office pool (grid based on scores at end of each quarter).

Roughly 16% were tuning in just for the commercials (in fairness, a respectable number of those rooting for the Steelers and/or Seahawks also planned to check out the commercials – as one reader noted, “I’m a Steeler’s Fan, but those commercials are what we talk about around the water cooler on Monday”-  but twice as many, and a plurality of this week’s respondents ( 34% ), said they were planning to find something more entertaining to do, including the following assortment:

  • As a Cleveland Brown’s fan, it will be too painful to watch our #1 rival Pittsburgh Steelers, so I think I will wash my pet goldfish instead!
  • I will find something more entertaining to do on a Sunday afternoon, such as gathering all my documents and trying to begin preparing my 2005 Federal and State Income Taxes.
  • I couldn’t care less.   The commercials would be the neatest, but I’ll catch those on the Web…using the link I expect to be provided by PLANSPONSOR in its Monday NewsDash.
  • Channel surf aimlessly like most Patriots fans who don’t know what to do with ourselves since we’re not partying in Detroit
  • Attend a business meeting. Oh joy!
  • I’m planning to tune in just long enough to catch Mick and the boys
  • Tune into something more entertaining, but I will tune in for the half-time and final score to see if I won the office pool.

All in all, however, the most popular alternative cited was “shopping”.   As one reader noted , “During the Super Bowl is the best time to go grocery shopping – the stores are nearly empty!”

Other favorites:

  • Since my client is headquartered in Seattle…I’m hoping the Seahawks will soar!!   
  • If I am watching football, it means the car is dead, cable is out, the remote control is lost, I broke my leg and/or the computer is on the fritz.   It would also mean the house burned down because all the board games and card games were unavailable.  

And then there was last year’s Editor’s Choice, who noted, “Last year I won ‘Editor’s Choice’ (a title my co-workers and I prize highly) by submitting the following:   “As a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, I will spend most of the day Sunday on my knees, praying that Brett Favre doesn’t retire.”   Oh, what a difference a year and a 4-12 record makes. 29 interceptions and one fired head coach later, this is my submission for this year:   “As a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, I will spend most of the day Sunday on my knees, praying that Aaron Rodgers, rookie QB, likes to play in cold weather.”  

But this year’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who said, “Both a & b – we don’t care who wins, we just want to see a good game!”

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey!

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