Six Reasons Why Watching Football at Home Is Better than Going to the Stadium

For football fans, there’s nothing like the excitement of watching your favorite team sweat it out on the field with bone-crunching blocks, gravity-defying catches and, at times, the graceful elegance of an end zone dance. Watching it unfold in person is an experience that some fans view as a requirement for appreciating the game, but the stadium experience isn’t for everyone. In fact, some could argue that today’s home theater provides the ideal way to enjoy a football game — free from the hustle and bustle of the stadium and with the best seat in the house: yours.

There are plenty of reasons why watching football at home is better than attending in person. Here are just six of them:

1.  Audio/video quality. Unless you’ve got loads of money to spend on field-level seats or corporate boxes, your view of the action at the stadium will look more like a flea circus than a football game, even with the help of binoculars — assuming you’re even allowed to bring these in past security. Watching on a quality home theater system while listening in surround sound gives you an experience that’s hard to beat. With high-definition video, you see every play perfectly, including the wince of a quarterback as the ball narrowly misses his target. High-quality speakers (or a sound bar with wireless surrounds) allow you to hear things like plays being called on and off the field, play-by-play commentary and the grunt of the gridiron combatants as they battle it out, all in full surround sound. You don’t stand a chance at hearing or seeing that level of detail at the stadium.

2.  Multiple angles. To capture the action on-screen in a way that makes the most of technology like 4K Ultra video, NFL broadcasters have upped their own game with a wide array of video cameras: sideline still cams, above-the-field drone cams, sky cams and end zone cams — another way that the in-home experience goes above and beyond what you can get at the game with just one angle at your stadium seat.

3.  The power of choice, price and what’s in your fridge. Long lines, limited options and high prices. Show of hands — who’s lining up for this? The nationwide average for the most basic and smallest of adult beverages at professional stadiums is nearly $8! What’s more, your beverage brand options at the stadium may be limited based on vendors and sponsorships, while you can enjoy any number of alternative drinks at home. You can also create a varying buffet of chips, dips, cheese, popcorn, sliders, nachos and more — and for much more agreeable prices — when you enjoy the game at home. Tip: Link a wireless speaker to your home entertainment system to broadcast audio of the game in the kitchen. That way, if the custom nachos are taking extra long to pile up to the right height, you won’t miss a single audible. So stock your fridge with what you want, wait for no man and enjoy to your heart’s content.

4.  Quality time with friends and family. Watching football is a great way to bring people together, and there’s no question that hearing yourself talk to an aunt or uncle you haven’t seen in years is way easier at home than in a decibel-shattering stadium. Plus you can have anyone you want over to watch the game without having to purchase a group of tickets at $100+ apiece so you can all sit together. And, with your remote in hand, you can turn the volume up or down at any time, depending on how much you’d like to hear those around you in relation to the game.

5.  Comfort. Between the cost of gas, the stress of getting to the stadium and the price for parking (not to mention the potential for bad weather), keeping your car at home is a no-brainer — and a comfortable armchair or sofa beats a hard plastic saucer with limited leg space hands-down! In addition, at home you don’t have to contend with grumpy seat-holders next to you who moan when you ask permission to squeeze past during a much-needed restroom break (after an $8 beverage or two). You also don’t have to dress for the elements — whether it be sunscreen, a parka or a snowsuit.

6.  Control. Let’s face it: it’s impossible to have much control over anything that happens at a football stadium. Sure, those mismatched socks that you wore during the playoff push in the late ’80s might help influence a successful two-point conversion, but mitigating fans’ reactions is a different thing entirely. It’s hard to pay attention to the game when you have 50,000 fans shouting, talking, obstructing your view or adding other distractions. Yes, it could be argued that those are some of the reasons for attending a live football game. But if you want to know what you’re in for (other than the outcome of the game), there’s no place like home. You can use your remote to pause and play action at will, lower and raise the volume (useful if you want to drown out over-excited guests), even link the sound in multiple rooms if you enable wireless speakers with a system like Yamaha MusicCast. In your home theater, you can make the game come to life in ways that the stadium experience could never compete with.

So the next time you’re considering putting in the time and effort to attend a pro football game in person, remember that your living room is only steps away and might well offer you more excitement and a better experience at a lower cost, both physically and financially. Plus the money you save could instead be put into a surround sound system that would make you the Sunday destination of choice for all of your family and friends!

Click here for more information about Yamaha AV products.