NFL DOMINATES NATIONAL & LOCAL TV RATINGS

NFL Monday Night Football finished the regular season with impressive showings on ABC-TV. The St. Louis-Tampa Bay game on December 18 was the top-rated TV show that week, and the Dallas-Tennessee MNF finale on December 25 was No. 3 the following week behind two Millionaire shows…And now for the local news: Despite most games being played during the day, NFL games on either CBS, FOX or ABC were the highest-rated television show of the week in 29 NFL cities 66 percent of the time this past regular season.

WANT TO BOOST OFFICE MORALE? LET ‘EM DISCUSS SUPER BOWL!

Generally, office managers like employees to fill up at the water cooler, then get right back to work. But when it comes to Super Bowl, say management experts, it may be good business to let workers linger around the cooler the day after the game. The reason? Office morale. Increased office morale. "If they’re talking around the water cooler about the game, that enhances morale," says Georgia State University management professor RODGER W. GRIFFETH. "There’s a certain amount of that that should be encouraged." Even high-profile executive-search firms think day-after Super Bowl office chatter helps productivity. "Companies should promote it," says JOHN A. CHALLENGER, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an international outplacement firm. "We need more of these events that give people a chance to talk about more than just work. The stronger relationships are formed among people who work together, the happier the work environment."

SUPER BOWL A HOLIDAY? THE BEER INSTITUTE THINKS SO

The Beer Institute agrees – Super Bowl Sunday has become an American holiday just like the "official" others. The trade association for the American brewing industry has determined that 43 percent of annual beer sales occur around six American holidays – and a football game that basically has become one. The seven days are Super Bowl Sunday, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

NFL SETS PAID ATTENDANCE RECORD THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR

The National Football League set an all-time regular-season paid attendance record in 2000 for the third year in a row, averaging more than 66,000 fans per game for the first time ever. Regular-season attendance in 2000 was 16,387,289 for an average of 66,078, compared to 16,206,640 and 65,349 in 1999. The 16,387,289 tickets sold to the NFL’s 248 regular-season games represented paid attendance at more than 90 percent of capacity. The top five paid attendance marks for a full season have occurred in the past six years.