Super Bowl Challenge: Stadium vs. HD TV

As the first “cold-weather Super Bowl” approaches, thousands of tickets remain unsold. At least some fans are waiting for the weatherman to tell them just how chilling the “fan experience” might be before paying more than $1,000 per ticket for a winter’s night in the New Jersey grandstands. For the National Football League, the problem runs deeper than freezing temperatures: Attending a football game has become an exceptionally poor value in comparison with viewing it on a giant high-definition screen from the comfort of your couch.

I’m well acquainted with just how painful the fan experience can be. On a frigid night in November, I attended the Patriots-Broncos game at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. It was just before halftime when the battery in my iPod Shuffle ran out and the already low quality of my experience declined dramatically. For the better part of two quarters, this New England fan suffered through a performance that featured three lost fumbles, leading to a 24—0 deficit to the visiting team led by Peyton Manning. A wind chill below zero made things worse. And now my radio was dead.