Posted on 02/01/2008 5:12:40 AM PST by steve-b
For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church and their friends have gathered in the church's fellowship hall to watch the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting on the TV, plenty of food -- and prayer.
But this year, Immanuel's Super Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their homes.
Immanuel is among a number of churches in the Washington area and elsewhere that have been forced to use a new playbook to satisfy the NFL, which said that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You posted: Maybe I am a bit confused here, but I don’t see how Churches and the Super Bowl go together.
Maybe they are not mutually exclusive, but it’s not exactly a religous message I think - and should a church be where people gather together to watch the Super Bowl?
***
Our church doesn’t have Sunday evening services. There is a youth group meeting, but no evening worship service. Our fellowship hall is used for all sorts of activities, most of which are religious, some of which are not, some of which are mixed (Men’s BBQ fundraiser, etc.). I don’t see anything inherently wrong in coming to the church to watch the game, although we don’t do it at our church.
I guess the advertizers on the 6 hours of hype and 5 hours of game and post game have nothing to say about a smaller audience...
Dumb, really dumb.
I agree. And I'd argue that the NFL is shooting itself in the foot on this because I bet that there would be more people attend a church potluck/Super Bowl event (therefore more eyeballs viewing the $2.7 million commercials) than would individually watch from home.
As long as there is no commerce going on, there is no problem.
Probably most of these events are not being held in the regular sanctuary of the church (although it would be at ours), but more likely in a meeting or fellowship hall. For larger churches, social events like this are good ways to try and get to know new members of the congregation. As far as ridiculous stunts like the Janet Jackson event, well, if there had not been so much coverage about it after the event, most people would never have seen it. We were having a Super Bowl party at my house when it happened, but nobody watches the half-time as closely as the game. We barely noticed it and weren't even sure we saw what we thought we saw. I think church members would likely pray for her in a situation like that (I know they would at our church). Yeah, some would get upset, but they're going to get upset no matter where they saw it.
I don't think events like these are any different than a church having a fish fry on Friday nights during lent, or anything like that. There is a time for worship and also a time for fellowship within the church body.
There’s the rub. Eyeballs don’t count in the ratings. TV sets do.
And at a church gathering the ads would have a greater effect because, presumably, the viewers wouldn’t be drinking.
If you can watch it on a big-screen in a bar you can watch it on a big-screen in a church. The NFL needs to pay a price for this.
There’s the other rub. The insidious marriage of pro sports and booze. Why do you think bars are exempt?
And maybe that’s the reason they ban it at churches. The advertisers (lots of beer companies) don’t want the Super Bowl watched at a church...no Bud consumed during the watching.
Figures. Bars good. Churches bad.
And that’s why I, something of a leader in my church, would not likely attend a Super Bowl viewing at church, if they had one. I enjoy a beer or two (ok, maybe more) during the game.
Maybe some of the undercover cops lurking around your church (or favorite bar) will have to come out in the open, eh?
It doesn't hurt the NFL, it "hurts" other businesses that have paid for Superbowl broadcast rights.
I have an employee who is also a bartender. At their bar, they have food, drinks and Superbowl on large screen for $60 per person.
I don't know how much they pay to be able to broadcast the game. But you must know that the bar would be pissed if a church next door was broadcasting it free with a large sign out front WATCH SUPERBOWL FREE HERE.
My Fraternal org got notified last year that our annual SuperBowl party was against the law and we were warned not to repeat it. In response to questioning it the gentleman who called indicated it was illegal in the home also if there were more than 6 related or any unrelated people and the screen could not be over 42 inches. I suspect now that some of it was smoke but the NFL person was pretty intimidating.
Re: In response to questioning it the gentleman who called indicated it was illegal in the home also if there were more than 6 related or any unrelated people and the screen could not be over 42 inches
This only makes me feel better about riding on Sunday instead of watching a vastly overrated game.
Do you think sports bars with big screens and lots of seats pay the same amount for TV as you do at home?
The bars already have paid for the right to display the Super Bowl and other games to a patronage.
Ever listen to the standard disclaimer during a broadcast? It’s for the private viewing of a home audience unless one has another arrangement with the NFL. A bunch of people gathered in a church is hardly a private home audience.
That said the NFL is incredibly boorish about it.
Bean-counters and lawyers at work.
A lot of people won’t see the ads this year. Maybe half of the people who came to our fraternal org. Superbowl party for the last few years are not normally football fans but liked the party. They won’t turn it on at home. Maybe the advertising is exclusive.
One got jumped on by the Disney legal team for painting Disney characters. They were ordered to pay a royalty or paint the characters over. So they painted them over.
The new mural used Sanrio characters (Hello Kitty and such) since Sanrio was so pleased with the idea of having their characters on the wall, they even sent one of their artists to supervise the painting. The kids and their parents voted to move their annual outing from Tokyo Disneyland to Sanrio's Puroland amusement park. Last I heard, they never went back.
I wonder how much Disney's greed cost them?
The NFL treats those words like “Jehovah” was treated by the Jews.
(prepare for your stoning)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_hlMK7tCks
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