Is Your Church Super Bowl Party Legal?

By Raul Rivera

One of the largest outreach events for churches across the country happens to fall on arguably the largest Sunday of the year (at least for avid sports fans) - you guessed it - Super Bowl^® Sunday. 

Many churches will open their doors to church members, community members and their family and friends to watch the big game. This is an opportunity for those who might not otherwise enter through the doors of a church to do just that.

However, before hosting your church's Super Bowl^® party, there are some important copyright matters you need to consider. But first, let me give you the back story as to why this is important.

NFL orders church to cancel Super Bowl^® party

In 2007, a church in Indianapolis received a cease-and-desist letter from the NFL ordering the church to cancel its Super Bowl^® party. The NFL’s reasoning behind the letter was that the church’s act of projecting the game on a big screen was in violation of the league’s copyright infringement policy.

Before your church host its annual Super Bowl^® party, there are some important copyright matters you need to know.

This incident gave the NFL a lot of unwanted attention from the media and several lawmakers. As a result, the NFL amended its policy to allow churches and religious organizations to show the big game so long as they follow specific guidelines.

Guidelines that must be followed

If your church chooses to host a party showing the big game, then here are some guidelines you will need to follow:

1. The game must be shown in a space your church owns or in its customary place of worship, and you can only show the game using equipment that your church regularly uses. Additionally, you can only show the game live. You may not record the game and then show at another time. It is important to note that your church cannot rent space to watch the game even if your church rents space for worship services.
2. Your church may not charge an admission fee. You may, however, accept or collect donations to help pay for any cost associated with hosting the party.
3. Lastly, to help avoid the risk of copyright infringement laws, it will be best if your church avoids using any logos associated with the NFL, the Super Bowl^®, and any of the participating teams. To avoid any potential copyright issues, some churches will choose to get creative and refer to their big game party as a “Souper Bowl Party” and will ask everyone attending to bring a can of soup to later donate to a local food pantry in the community. Using your creativity in this regard can allow you to not only enjoy a time of fellowship during the game, but it can also help serve a good cause as well.

Copyright and other tough laws

I imagine that as a pastor and church leader you never thought this would be something you need to know about. But the truth of the matter is that there are many more laws pertaining to your church and how it operates that really matter. The issue is that most pastors and church leaders are unaware that such laws exist.

That is why we attempt to hit on as many of these topics and tough laws at our Ultimate Church Structure Conferences. I want to challenge you, whether you have been to our conference multiple times or not at all, to register for you and at least one other person in your ministry to come to one of our conferences. There is not much I am able to promise, but I promise you will not regret doing so.

Handpicked articles for you:

• “What Your Church Needs to Know About Copyright Infringement”
• “What Every Pastor Must Know About Publishing a Book”
• “How Pastors Misuse Church Credit Cards & What To Do About It”

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