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 | CNBC VIDEO |
 | Busting Super Bowl mythology Feb. 2: There are a lot of maxims repeated about the game. How many of them are actually true? “On the Money” anchor Melissa Francis reports. CNBC |
Myth No. 7: Buckle up on Super Sunday
The auto repair industry loves the Super Bowl because Americans are more likely to crash their cars after the game’s final gun.
Fact or fiction: Four years ago, researchers at the University of Toronto examined this bloody piece of Super Bowl lore. They determined that automobile accidents indeed climb more than 40 percent in the hours after the Super Bowl — with the biggest increase coming in cities and towns closest to the home of the losing team.
The study pointed to alcohol consumption, fatigue and inattention as the primary causes. Researchers compared Super Bowl Sunday with adjacent Sundays when weather was the same and found a 41 percent jump in fatal accidents in the four hours or more after the game along with a 48 percent rise in non-fatal accidents.
The numbers mirror common warnings from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
“We encourage people not to drive after getting into heated conversations, so that would kind of play into this,” said Fairley Mahlum, director of communications for the AAA Foundation. “Some people express their anger in different ways. If you’re kind of excitable and you tend to get really angry by losing in a sport, it’s probably not best to go out and drive.”
Answer: Fact
Myth No. 8: 10 million barrels of beer on the wall
No other holiday or sporting event inspires Americans to drink as much beer as the Super Bowl. That day, we drain 10.5 million barrels of beer.
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David Zalubowski / AP Fuzzy math will give you a buzz. Are you going to drink 1.45 cases of beer Sunday? |
Fact or fiction: People in wholesale beer circles have often read the “10.5 million barrels” line. Some say it comes from fuzzy — if not foamy — math. For starters, they can’t measure single-day consumption. Moreover, if you assume that one-third of the American population drinks beer while watching the game, 10.5 million barrels of beer would equate to 1.45 cases of beer per person, according to the Beer Institute, which represents the industry before Congress and state legislatures.
“I’m guessing somebody has taken Beer Institute shipping numbers and is doing extrapolations — if the average days is X and the volume goes up by Y, we can assume people are consuming this much on this day,” said Nike Lake, vice president of business development for ACNielsen. “To be honest, I don’t know how you get to that number.”
What ACNielsen does know is “the Super Bowl is a good event in the ‘off season’ (cold months) to drive volume,” Lake said. “But in comparison to other holidays, it is relatively small.”
Answer: Fiction
Myth No. 9: I'm going to Disney World!
The Super Bowl is the best time to avoid crowds at Disney World because the park clears out — especially when the game is played in Florida.
Fact or fiction: The folks at Disney World, based in Orlando, a little more than three hours north of Miami, are coy about this, but they allow you to read between the lines to find the truth.
Does the Super Bowl sap attendance on game day?
“We think it’s always good when more tourists and visitors come to Florida,” said Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for Disney World.
He declined to talk about specific numbers relating to attendance. But he offered a strong clue: “You can kind of infer from that how we feel about the Super Bowl. You can extrapolate from that.”
At Disneyland, in Southern California, theme park officials have been far more direct about any rumored drop in attendance after kickoff.
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“That’s just not true,” Disneyland spokesman John McClintock told the Los Angeles Times in 1999. “We get asked that every year. Super Bowl Sunday is not much slower than any other Sunday in January.”
Answer: Fiction
Myth No. 10: I bet this one's a fact
Calls to gambling-addiction hotlines increase immediately after the Super Bowl.
Fact or fiction: The U.S. gaming industry, which pulled in revenues of $84.8 billion in 2005, certainly gets a bounce during Super Bowl Sunday. From Las Vegas sports books to friendly wagers at your neighbor’s party, the money is flowing.
And the next day, the phones are ringing at Gamblers Anonymous (888-GA-HELPS).
“We don’t really track anything, but we definitely get more phone calls,” said Karen H. a spokeswoman for Gamblers Anonymous. (To protect her own anonymity, she will not give her last name in interviews).
The bulk of calls aren’t necessary coming from the losing team’s city, Karen H added.
“They would be from people who had a problem with the Super Bowl and maybe want to get help,” she said. “There’s only one requirement for membership and that’s the desire to stop gambling.”
Answer: Fact- Discuss Story On Newsvine
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