More Americans are tuning in to the Super Bowl than ever, but where they’re watching is changing. 

In recent years, sports bars have observed a decline in the number of customers that are dining in during the big game. Instead, fans are opting to order their food to-go and entertain from home. 

According to the National Restaurant Association, off-premises traffic, meaning orders consumed outside of a restaurant, already accounted for 61% of all restaurant traffic before the pandemic. It’s since increased to 74%. On-premises traffic has gone in the other direction, dropping from 39% to 26%.

This isn’t entirely bad news for sports bars. Profit margins are actually better on to-go orders than they are when customers dine-in, namely because it takes less labor to produce and sell a takeout order. The underlying issue is that these orders are usually done by kickoff, says Scott SirLouis, chief operating officer of FSC Franchise, which owns 280 Beef ‘O’ Brady’s family sports restaurants across the country. 

“Nobody’s coming in, you know, in the middle of the second quarter to get a to-go order. So, we want to stay busy during and after the game as well,” SirLouis said. 

The shift toward takeout also presents intangible challenges for businesses that have long focused on creating lively environments that fans can enjoy together. 

“Our brand is built around our fans. We encourage kinda that high-five atmosphere of celebrating wins, and we’ve become that community place where people gather to celebrate life moments,” said Jen Ulmer, chief marketing officer of Glory Days Grill, which operates 40 restaurants on the east coast. 

Building that place gets tougher as to-go counters get more crowded, making it harder for sports bars to stand out in a competitive takeout scene. Many restaurant operators blame COVID for reducing dine-in crowds, but other factors have been keeping customers at home since before the pandemic. 

The cost of large TVs has declined steeply in the last decade. In 2015, an entry level 65-inch Samsung TV went for $2,499. By 2020, that number dropped to just $749.99, making sports bar-like big screens more accessible to consumers. 

“It can rival the sort of experience you would get going out to a bar and being in a crowd to watch the game,” SirLouis said.

Rising demand for takeout is changing how most sports bars operate on the biggest day of the NFL season. “It becomes much more of an assembly line production facility type of operation than a traditional restaurant at that point,” SirLouis said. 

And a busy assembly line at that. Last year Beef ‘O’ Brady’s cranked out roughly 30,000 pounds of chicken – that’s 150,000 wings. 

Glory Days grill sold 15,000 pounds of chicken wings last Super Bowl. Ulmer says encouraging customers to pre-order their food was key to getting those orders out as quickly as possible. 

“That really helps smooth the day of Super Bowl for our staff and managers, because they know exactly what they need to prep for when guests pre-order their items and their platters with us,” Ulmer said.

The takeout trend is showing no signs of slowing down since it’s especially popular with younger customers who prioritize convenience, says Karl Gaukstern, a managing partner at North Carolina-based Kickback Jack’s.

“They don’t mind spending extra money to have a third party delivery pick up the food while they can be with their friends or their significant others who they want to be with,” Gaukstern said. 

This is forcing sports bars to get creative. Glory Days sells Super Sunday watch party tickets for $35 that include unlimited food and drink specials, while Beef ‘O’ Brady’s offers guests free wings for a year if they correctly guess the halftime score in a restaurant. 

Promos like these and quick service can help boost foot traffic, but operators are more focused on adapting to a changing business model. 

“The corresponding business is not dine-in, the bulk of it is in off-premise,” SirLouis said. “Any business we get during the game itself is upside.”