Super Bowl Party Advise Sought

[Milkman]

OK, so, after a dream season like this, I have to host a Super Bowl party to celebrate the Pats season. Your advice is requested:

1. How many guests are too many? I want to watch and enjoy the GAME without feeling like I have to entertain - but I want to share and enjoy this special occasion with friends. How many should I invite?

2. Other than enjoying the game, what are some fun contests or betting you'd suggest for the party?

Thanks

 

[Redcell]

OK, so, after a dream season like this, I have to host a Super Bowl party to celebrate the Pats season. Your advice is requested:

1. How many guests are too many? I want to watch and enjoy the GAME without feeling like I have to entertain - but I want to share and enjoy this special occasion with friends. How many should I invite?

2. Other than enjoying the game, what are some fun contests or betting you'd suggest for the party?

Thanks

Not sure about number 1, but the more the merrier. Everyone should know that the game is the center of attention and just let them know where everything is and to help themselves. Schedule any food that needs to be cooked for before the game and at half time.

For number 2, get a white board or something and let people list who they think is going to win, then by how much, then over/under and total points categories. Get something for each category that would be a fun prize to win (like a nice bottle of wine, a sports souvenir, a nice case of beer, whatever. If you let the kids in on it, obviously you'll want to have something more appropriate. You could even have a kids and adult category.

Just my two cents.

Cheers!

 

[LurkingLinebacker]

I don't know how I feel about the number of people you should have. Personally, I'd rather have a few good friends who know football well than a bunch of friends who don't know much of anything (the folks more interested in the commercials). Too many people who don't truly have a vested interest in a game can be annoying and distracting. Call me a little antisocial, but when it comes to sports I love, that's how I want it.

For number two, I'd make a drinking game out of the scoring going on during the game.... but I'm in college... where it's easier to drink for no real reason and where there will be people rooting against the Patriots**. Touchdowns/F?safeties involve chugging, turnovers and whatnot, you can just make up anything on any play. Then again, I'd rather not get hammered for the game.

**I will most likely be watching the SB with Giants fans, but at least they aren't annoying.

 

[MRBLAZE]

This year is special, don't cheapen it with drunken tom foolery or having to entertain the masses. Spend it with your closest family, not the local pals. I am one who loves SB parties by the way, but for a year like this I'm going to be watching it with my immediate family and no one else.

Sure I'll still pig out, do that kind of stuff, but I don't want to have to play host and certainly not going anywhere else but plopped down on my couch in my own home! :rocker:

 

[neuronet]

Yes, I disagree with the "more the merrier" sentiment. You end up with chicks talking about Heath Ledger and crap. For me this game is a sacred moment, to be watched with my family in NH, so I bought a plane ticket to NH. Friends don't really get it. My wife gets it, so I'm letting her come with me.

I have been getting more and more emotional as the season goes on (I don't think anything can top the screaming that went on at my house during the Ravens game). I only trust a few people to understand it.

In other words, don't listen to me I'm a bloody basket case over this game and am likely to throw someone in my basement where it can put the llotion in the basket if they piss me off....

 

[neuronet]

This year is special, don't cheapen it with drunken tom foolery or having to entertain the masses. Spend it with your closest family, not the local pals. I am one who loves SB parties by the way, but for a year like this I'm going to be watching it with my immediate family and no one else.
:

Exactly what I was trying to say, but I somehow made it creepy...

This is not just any game. This is history. This is forever. This is the presidential election coupled with the resurrection.

OK, maybe not the election. Plus, this game isn't a fiction. So OK again I made it creepy. I hope I live to see the game I may have a bloody heart attack!!!

 

[miDeuce]

This is not just any game. This is history.

I couldn't agree more. Everyone gets so caught up in the discussion of Tom Brady's foot and Nick Hardwick's crying and all the other distractions, many forget that what we are currently watching SPORTS HISTORY that will be remembered FOREVER.

 

[pheenix11]

I don't think I could watch it with a bunch of people who don't care as much as I do. If the Pats weren't playing I wouldn't care either. But I just hate it when I am watching and nervous as hell and there are people around me acting like idiots.

One thing I have learned however is this: When I actually attend the game I am not nervous. I was antsy as hell during the Jags game but last week at the AFCCG I was very relaxed. Maybe because I'm there I somehow feel like I can help them by yelling or something? I don't know. But watching on TV can be torturous during a close game.

I will never forget that Ravens game. I was out of mind my pacing around the living room reacting to every second. I have never been that nervous or into a game before. I realized then just how bad I wanted 19-0.

 

[Flying Fungi]

strippers

cigars

a lot of really good meat

beer

bourbon

big f'n tv/display

strippers

a coupla hoobies

roll wit it yo

 

[MightyFooda]

I agree with the general thought here. Only invite REAL Pats fans, or at least fans of the game. Nothing is more annoying than trying to watch the game and "get into it" than someone talking about some innane topic. So that means 75% of the women you know can't go. Or at least put on a tv in another room and put "Pretty Woman" or "Beaches" on. They will not be able to resist and will be out of your hair.
Make sure you have a good enough TV and HD. You don't want to be the guy that hosted a Superbowl party with a 20" sanyo, If you have the big game at your house you better have a big time TV. If you don't have at a
32" HDTV with 1080 dpi, along with an actual HD signal, then find out who does and have it at their house. Remember, put the game before your pride.
Don't serve food that will put you on the crapper and that will make you miss abig moment.
If you don't want it broken, put it in the bedroom. No one is roudier than a football fan watching the game, and if you have several friends over it will be that much worse. You don't need to being worrying about whether uncle ned is going to use the crystal bowl your mother in law gave you at your wedding as a football wo reenact a big play, you want to be focused on the game!
No giant fans, if they are losing they will make sure you don't enoy the game. I won't even say what would happen if they won(fortunetly that's scientifically impossible).
Make sure everyseat has a view of the game. You don't need people roaming around like a heard of Buffalo trying to get a view of the game.
Lastly, DON'T LET THEM BRING THEIR KIDS!! Nothing ruins a game more than other peoples kids. Your kids you can threaten, beat, etc, you don't need a drunken dad saying"don't you talk that way to ma boy!" and threatening to beat while lil Jimmy is running a razor blade across you're brand new Vizio (just by the damn TV, maybe it will get LDT to stop crying).
Well, I hope you have a good party.:rocker:

 

[SoonerPatriot]

I've watched the last three SBs the Pats have been involved in by myself with the wife either out shopping or at the opposite end of the house.

There aren't a lot of Pats fans around here and I tend to get a little animated during the games anyway, something I don't feel comfortable doing in a sports bar for a game of this magnitude.

So IMO, 1 guest (unless it's a legit Pats fan) is too many.

 

[tuckeverlasting]

this game is of mega, mega, mega importance. something deserving our total attention. my advice would be the less distractions, the better. this may be the last i speak of it.

 

[godef]

If you're any kind of serious fan, than more than just a handful of guests will be too many. You'll get too distracted otherwise. Super Bowl Parties ar eebst put on when someone else's team is playing. Only invite your football buddies who you know will intently watch the game.

 

[nhpatsfan]

couldn't agree more with the people who say keep it small. If the weather forecast stays above 20 and I can shake this damn flu, we'll do an afternoon tailgate in the yard - bbq, chili, beer - all the fixings. It'll spare us from watching the pregame. But come dark, everyone leaves and we can watch the game with the attention it deserves.

 

[Truck]

OK, so, after a dream season like this, I have to host a Super Bowl party to celebrate the Pats season. Your advice is requested:

1. How many guests are too many? I want to watch and enjoy the GAME without feeling like I have to entertain - but I want to share and enjoy this special occasion with friends. How many should I invite?

2. Other than enjoying the game, what are some fun contests or betting you'd suggest for the party?

Thanks

1. 8-10 people total; that you really know is a good crowd. after that, and you end up entertaining strangers, or people you don't care for. less than that and its a bit quiet

2. Any game involving alcohol. Pre-game: play a cash game (so that you can end abruptly) of poker

3. Make sure the food is excellent. If someone is a great chicken/steak cook, let em go at it pregame. Otherwise, go to only the best pizza/wing/etc places. No dominos

 

[Fanfrom1960]

3. Make sure the food is excellent. If someone is a great chicken/steak cook, let em go at it pregame. Otherwise, go to only the best pizza/wing/etc places. No dominos

Thank you. Someone, no offense to them, but still, in a thread for a previous game someone said they were getting Papa John's. Tried that once, and no, no, no!

In CA, or AZ, etc, you can have munchies, wings , etc. during the game and have something in the oven for after (we did lasagna one year). Back east, games start so late that a I guess this is not practical. I've also had to deal with people who invite themselves (hey, I hear you're having a super bowl party, I really like those kinds of thing). Pretty hard to say no, and they show up and don't know a first down from a touchdown.

 

[CrazyDave]

Try taking the phone off the hook. That's what I do for big games.

 

[patchick]

I go to a big superbowl party most years, and it actually works fine for the hardcores among us. The key is planning and layout. Can you put the food and drinks in a location away from the tv where it's easy for a group to gather and chat, while watching the game out of the corners of their eyes (to catch commercials, naturally)? Or perhaps place a little tv on the kitchen counter for those folks? Can you set up a separate rec area for the kids, preferably VERY separate (e.g. basement) so grownups can hear the tv? If so, then everybody can have a good time while the hardcores pore over every replay.

IMO it's actually easier to have a dozen people who aren't deeply into the game entertaining one another in the kitchen and playroom vs. 2 people who aren't deeply into the game asking "what happened???" after every play. And having a big group cheering wildly after a long TD really adds to the atmosphere of the big game.