Would the Super Bowl get a larger TV audience, be more friendly to fans, especially kids if it were played other then Sunday Night. Would restaurants, bars etc benefit more if the game was played at a different time?
I think they could show the Super Bowl at 3 a.m., and the fan base wouldn't be much reduced. The parties would be going on.
Somehow the NFL and TV have turned Super Sunday into the holiest day of the year. That so many people tell me that they watch for the commercials is quite a commentary on American culture, but there are enough fanatic football teams to assure that the game will be watched whenever it's on.
When I was a kid the World Series got almost as much attention (relative to the population and TV/radio technology of those years), but MLB managed to ruin a good thing with too many teams and selling out to TV (and the weird times the games are played). Baseball just doesn't have that one game super magnetism that makes the Super Bowl as special as it is.
As for me, if the Super Bowl goes past 9 p.m, I'll be watching "Downton Abbey" on PBS.