The Super Bowl Saturday Dilemma: Saving $8.3B in Productivity vs. Losing $9.1B in Spending

Every February, the Super Bowl delivers record audiences, record advertising revenue – and a familiar problem for American workplaces.

The Monday after the NFL’s championship game has become synonymous with absenteeism, lateness, and lost productivity, prompting years of debate about whether the Super Bowl still belongs on a Sunday.

To examine what would actually change if the game were moved to Saturday, Sportsbook Review analysed historical consumer spending, TV ratings, workforce productivity and public safety data, alongside a new proprietary survey of more than 5,000 NFL fans on how a Saturday Super Bowl would affect their behaviour, mood and celebrations.

What we found reveals a simple truth: moving the Super Bowl doesn’t eliminate costs: it shifts them.

🔑 Key findings

• Super Bowl 2026 is set to be a $20+ billion consumer event, with spending extending far beyond food and drink into home upgrades and apparel.
• The Monday after the Super Bowl costs U.S. businesses an estimated $8.3 billion in lost productivity, making it one of the most disruptive workdays on the calendar.
• Nearly two-thirds of NFL fans (63.2%) support making Super Bowl Monday a national holiday, underscoring how disruptive the current schedule has become.
• Moving the Super Bowl to Saturday could reduce consumer spending by 20–45%, potentially wiping out $9.1 billion in Super Bowl–related economic activity.
• If the Super Bowl were moved to Saturday, more than 4 in 10 fans say they would celebrate more, and for fans willing to change their plan, nearly 60% they would consume more alcohol.
• Host cities could lose more than $100 million if fans shorten trips from a full weekend to a single night, with Super Bowl weekends attracting ~17.8% more tourists.

Super Bowl Monday: A productivity problem hiding in plain sight

Every year, the Super Bowl leaves behind the same hangover (and it has nothing to do with beer. Okay, it has a little to do with beer.)

By Monday morning, millions of Americans are either missing from work, arriving late, or operating at reduced capacity. Employers expect it. Employees plan around it. The economy absorbs it.

The emotional weight of the game plays a major role. According to our survey, 77.3% of fans said that their team’s result would affect their mood in some way the next day. For the die hard fans, 1.5% say a win or loss can make or ruin their entire week, further more, 12.7% of fans says it either completely or significantly affects their day.

The LA Chargers (5.6%) are the fans most likely to let a Super Bowl loss ruin their week, followed by the Dallas Cowboys (3.6%) and Philadelphia Eagles (2.9%).

A whopping 17.7% of Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans said a win or loss would completely or significantly change the Monday afterwards, followed by fans from the New Orleans Saints (14.7%) and Eagles (14.5%).

Carolina Panthers fans are the least bothered, with 34.9% saying it simply wouldn’t affect their mood the next day.

Generally, when a sporting event carries that level of emotional impact, productivity doesn’t rebound quickly. In total, roughly one in five U.S. workers is affected by the Super Bowl in some way.

When absenteeism, lateness, and distraction are combined, businesses lose an estimated $8.3 billion in productivity during Super Bowl week alone:

An estimated 21.9 million Americans say they will be working on Super Bowl Sunday but still plan to watch at least part of the game during work hours.

Furthermore, the distraction lingers: 33% expect to be less productive overall and nearly one-third of workers admit to using company time to talk about the Super Bowl.

Increasingly, workplaces have to plan around it. Nearly three in five managers say they proactively ask employees about their Super Bowl plans, while 55% of workers say they feel comfortable requesting the Monday off – effectively turning Super Bowl Monday into an unofficial holiday.

Given the reality we lay out above, it’s no surprise fans are calling for change. Nearly two thirds of NFL fans support making the Monday after the Super Bowl a national holiday.

Here's a look at the top five fan bases most keen on making Super Bowl Monday a public holiday, led by a city that knows a thing or two about throwing big bashes:

Super Bowl Saturday would change how fans celebrate (and how much they would spend)

Beyond letting people sleep off the Monday after Super Bowl, another schedule shift keeps resurfacing: moving the game to Saturday.

The build up to Super Bowl already is a celebration in itself. A 2020 study reveals that Americans spent $1.2 billion on beer in the two weeks leading to Super Bowl, compared to $568 million on distilled spirits and $652 million on wine.

The Super Bowl drives beer sales about 20% above average nationally, with chicken wing sales rising by 87% and sports bars seeing a 70%+ increase in ticket sales.

A Saturday Super Bowl wouldn’t just fundamentally change fan behaviour: it would intensify it.

While roughly half of NFL fans say a Saturday Super Bowl wouldn’t change their plans, those who would adjust their behaviour are likely to overwhelmingly lean into bigger celebrations. Among this group, over half (52.5%) say they would revel more than usual.

Here's the breakdown of the top five fan bases who are most likely to ramp up the Super Bowl fun:

The shift would also make the game more accessible. Our survey showed that more than three in five fans say a Saturday kickoff would make it easier for their household to watch the full event, including children and partners who tap out early on a school night.

A productivity win, but consumer spending and economic drop-offs

Moving the Super Bowl to Saturday could reclaim more than $8 billion a year in lost workforce productivity, but that gain comes with real economic trade-offs.

Sunday remains the most valuable day in the U.S. consumer calendar. According to Nielsen, around 125 million Americans turn on their television each Sunday night, with overall viewership averaging roughly 16% higher than Saturdays. That same Sunday effect underpins how Americans plan Super Bowl spending.

In 2026, consumers are projected to spend more than $20 billion around the Super Bowl on food, drink, televisions, furniture and team apparel — purchases that are closely tied to the game being played on a Sunday, when households organize gatherings and spending around a single shared event.

Super Bowl consumer betting patterns

Historical comparisons help explain what changes when that timing shifts. Looking at major U.S. holidays such as Independence Day and Halloween – events that similarly combine at-home viewing, food, alcohol and retail purchases – consumer spending consistently falls when celebrations land on Saturdays instead of Sundays. In those years, spending has declined by 19.8% at the low end to 45.3% at the high end, depending on category.

Applied to the Super Bowl, the implication is substantial. With $20.02 billion in projected consumer spending for Super Bowl 2026, moving the game to Saturday puts up to $9.1 billion in total spending at risk, based on the upper end of the historical Saturday-vs-spending Sunday gap.

That risk would fall disproportionately on hospitality. More than 80% of Super Bowl spending – $16.34 billion – is tied to food and drink, meaning up to $7.4 billion in hospitality spending alone could be jeopardized if the game were no longer played on a Sunday.

In 2024, bar and restaurant sales were 16% higher on Super Bowl Sunday than on a normal day, up from 10% above average in 2023. That uplift exists precisely because the game falls on a Sunday, traditionally the quietest night of the week.

Move the game to Saturday, and that incremental boost is largely absorbed rather than added. Saturdays already represent peak hospitality demand, with 68.2% of drinkers consuming alcohol on Saturdays compared with just 28.4% on Sundays. The result isn’t less celebration, but less additional spending, as a rare high-performing Sunday is folded into an already busy Saturday.

Host cities would feel the effects as well. Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas produced record-breaking hotel performance, with host cities typically seeing around 17.8% more tourists over Super Bowl weekend. That surge depends on fans staying through Sunday night. If the game were played on Saturday, many trips would shorten – and based on stadium capacity and visitor spending, host cities would stand to lose more than $100 million.

These figures reflect the gap in per-visitor spending when Super Bowl trips are shortened from a full weekend – covering tickets, hotels, food, transport and airfare – to a single-night Saturday stay, applied across a host city’s stadium capacity.

With average Super Bowl ticket prices rising from around $4,000 in 2017 to more than $9,000 in 2024, and 2026 tickets already starting near $6,900, trimming even one hotel night becomes an easy decision for travelling fans.

Sources

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/01/the-monday-after-the-super-bowl-could-cost-employers-3-billion-heres-why.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-monday-could-cost-companies-roughly-4-billion/

https://www.challengergray.com/blog/do-we-need-a-super-bowl-monday-holiday-now-more-than-ever/

https://www.challengergray.com/blog/super-bowl-2020-could-cost-employers-51b/

https://www.challengergray.com/blog/employers-should-expect-productivity-loss-monday-after-2022-super-bowl/

https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/business/super-bowl-2024-how-much-work-productivity-suffers-the-week-after-the-big-game/

http://www.pianko.org/aws/GMA/pt/sd/news_article/554867/_PARENT/layout_details/false

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-mucinex-campaign-highlights-millions-of-americans-participating-in-supersickmonday-300591136.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-monday-could-cost-companies-roughly-4-billion/

https://www.ukg.com/company/newsroom/record-188-million-us-employees-may-miss-work-super-bowl-monday-runaway-absence-sunday-night-also-likely

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250204817960/en/Its-a-New-Record-Estimated-22.6-Million-U.S.-Employees-Plan-to-Miss-Work-Super-Bowl-Monday

https://www.nbcpalmsprings.com/2025/02/10/super-bowl-monday-absences-hit-record-high-as-over-20-million-call-out-sick

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/americans-billion-dollars-beer-super-bowl

https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/super-bowl-food-stats

https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/featured/super-bowl-prediction-3-in-10-consumers-will-visit-bars-and-restaurants-to-watch-says-cga-report/

https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/independence-day/independence-day-data-center

https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/nrf-consumer-survey-finds-halloween-spending-to-reach-record-13-1-billion

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2024/02/on-trade-beer-sales-soar-during-super-bowl/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5898433/

https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/super-bowl/super-bowl-data-center

https://www.tickpick.com/blog/history-of-super-bowl-ticket-prices/

https://gametime.co/nfl-football/2026-super-bowl-tickets/2-8-2026-santa-clara-ca-levis-stadium/events/67a57608e87a0befadf15304

https://seatgeek.com/super-bowl-tickets/2-8-2026-santa-clara-california-levi-s-stadium/nfl/17382581

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/sports/average-fan-spends-about-9k-on-super-bowl-trip/

https://str.com/data-insights-blog/las-vegas-hotels-broke-continental-us-record-saturday-and-sunday-adr

https://www.hvs.com/article/9789-the-continued-recovery-of-the-new-orleans-lodging-market