Forget all the winter holidays. For American sports fans, it turns out, February is the “most wonderful time of the year” thanks to one MAJOR sporting event – the Super Bowl. And believe it or not – ZSR is a great place to learn more about this annual event even if you’re really only watching the half-time performance or the commercials.

Where to get started? Statista offers a great overview of Super Bowls past and present, from many different angles. Interested in viewership over time? In this chart you can find out that last year’s game between Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers was watched by over 123 million viewers in the United States, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the most watched Super Bowl in HISTORY (it doesn’t say whether this is thanks to T. Swift’s boyfriend playing for the Kansas City Chiefs but safe to say…it didn’t hurt). What about sports betting? Statista has a chart for you too ($185.61 million – that’s the amount wagered on the Super Bowl sportsbooks in Nevada in 2024 according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board).

Okay numbers and charts are cool and all, but what about the good stuff and by good stuff I mean THE ADS?! Did you know one 30-second ad on Fox, which will be carrying the big game on February 9th, costs anywhere from $7 – 8 million? Or that brands like Bosch, Coffee Mate, Duracell, and Häagen-Dazs will be showing Super Bowl ads for the first time in the event’s history? With ZSR’s subscription to premier advertising trade journals like Ad Age you can track some of the most hotly anticipated ads before the big game is played. And if you think these brands and marketing companies are all taking themselves and the Super Bowl a little too seriously you can use your New York Times subscription to see the “13 Greatest ‘S.N.L.’ Commercial Parodies”, as determined by the Times, in Saturday Night Live’s 50 year history (for what it’s worth “Mom Jeans” will forever reign supreme in this author’s heart). If all this talk about advertising, viewership, and market share piques your interest in sports business, ZSR has even more resources to help you scratch that business-research itch, including subscriptions to Sports Business Research Network and Sports Business Journal Weekly.

And before you think that only super specialized, subscription-based resources have all the good stuff on all things Super Bowl, let me introduce you to our good friends the United States Census Bureau – the nation’s leading provider of data about its people and the economy (i.e. football players and the sport’s industry!). If questions like “What are the most common first names on the [Super Bowl] rosters?”, “What state has counted the most Super Bowl babies?”, or “What colleges and conferences are most represented in the Super Bowl?” ever crossed your mind- the US Census Bureau’s Big Game Census crunches all the data to make you sound super (or oddly well) informed at your Super Bowl party.

So whether you are an Eagles fan or a Chiefs fan, or just hope both teams had fun – there is something for all football fans to research and enjoy at your library.

*Special thanks to USC Business Librarian Benjamin Hall for being the inspiration behind this post