Watching The Superbowl in South Africa

Lost amidst whether South Africa is safe, my amazing travels through the Rainbow Nation, or that one trip to Japan, are the little things about living in another country. Sometimes you miss watching the sports from home like Football. American football that is. Mine, and the majority of Americans’ favorite sport to watch. In South Africa however, football is the game played with the foot. It comes as no surprise that one of the first things most expats miss (especially American ones) is good old fashioned American sports. Somehow America decided to say screw the rest of the world, and invent sports that have captivated the American population but shunned the rest of the world.

Case in point, soccer makes American football look like a high school sport in terms of a world popularity. Cricket, the world’s second most popular sport, has more fans than baseball and football combined. We Americans are completely fine with this however, and we’ll gladly keep our American football and watch the World Cup, sprinkled with a few MLS games on occasion.

 

The 56th annual Super Bowl will take place on Feb 14, 2022 and air live in South Africa at 01:00 on ESPN (DStv 218) and ESPN2 (DStv 219).

Updated 2022: I’ve reached out to the Hard Rock Cafe in Nelson Mandela Square to see if they’ll show the superbowl again this year but have not received any response. If anyone in Johannesburg and/or Cape Town know of any venues showing the game, please leave a comment below!

Cape Town 2022: If you’re in Cape Town, there will be a get together at The Dry Dock Taverna. All details on the Facebook page, https://facebook.com/events/614059629355275/ 

 

American Football in South Africa


Unfortunately for football fans in SA, this is the resounding opinion of the population.
Unfortunately for football fans in SA, this is the resounding opinion of the population.
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The Ultimate Travel And Vacation Itinerary Planning Spreadsheet

This is without question, a non-topic in this country. Unlike when I lived in Germany where there are plenty of NFL fans, most people know nothing about the sport. The people that do know what it is, will just bandwagon complain about how rugby is more manly because it doesn’t use pads. The whole rugby vs football is a whole other debate that I’ll comment on some other time but as for the culture in SA, don’t plan on going to the bar Sunday afternoon and expect to catch any NFL games on. No chance. Rugby, Cricket, and Soccer dominate the landscape and morning conversations here.

Nevertheless, the friends that I have made here are always curious to talk to me about football. While they don’t know much about the sport, they are especially curious to understand it better. I, of course, would happily oblige since they reciprocate the favor attempting to explain the impossible sport of Cricket to me.

 

Where to watch the Superbowl?


Since the game kicks off at 1am Johannesburg time, most bars are closed. However, the Hard Rock Cafe in Nelson Mandela Square is open and shows the game on all its TVs. As it is an American company, I’d reckon this will continue for the foreseeable future!

There is one bar in Cape Town, The Foreign Exchange, that showed this game at this ungodly hour in 2014. So there is hope!

 

How to watch the Superbowl in South Africa?


The one year in my life that I decide to leave the states, my team, the Seattle Seahawks HAD to make the Superbowl. And the Superbowl was played in NYC of all places! It killed me not to be there. In the end, it’s probably a good thing as I would have likely blown $1,500 on a ticket, which I could instead use to travel around Africa or seemingly drink at every wine farm in Cape Town.

DSTV's superbowl listing.
DSTV’s superbowl listing.

Nevertheless, a few thousand miles, a 7 hour time zone difference, and a 1:30am kickoff would not stop me from watching this game. There are two ways to do this:

 

DSTV

SA’s main cable provider, shows the Superbowl throughout the country this year in HD live at 1:30am. It seems they will do this again in 2015 and years to come. The only, and major downside to this, is they will not show the commercials. Something about watching the most American broadcast of the year mixed with random South African commercials just feels strange to me. Nevertheless, if commercials are not important, this is the way to go because the HD quality will make it feel like home.

My superbowl setup. Laptop streaming + HDMI. Quality was surprisingly acceptable.

 

First Row Sports:

FirstRow sports, god bless them, is an essential to any American sports fan living abroad. You can watch anything college football and basketball, NFL, NBA, Olympics, and everything else live from your computer. Coupled with an HDMI cable, this is easily transferred to the computer. Downside to this? A fast internet connection is absolutely necessary and streaming anything will not yield the HD quality one might be used to when watching sports. More than likely, this option will also allow you to view the Superbowl commercials.

 

EDIT 2017: Reddit NFL Live Streams

The good folks on Reddit always seem to find the best solutions for just about anything. Reddit users post live action streams for anyone to use which is a great second option if First Row Sports is not working. This is not just for the Superbowl either, as links to live streams are posted for every game during the regular season. Hook up an HDMI cable to the TV or stream using Google Chromecast. This method is by far my most preferred method now.

 

Superbowl XLVIII – Joburg


If it were any other team aside from the Seahawks playing, I wouldn’t have sacrificed my entire next day but this is the least I could do to support my team. After putting the word out, we managed to muster two South Africans to join us for the early morning spectacle. We bought some American Superbowl necessities like wings from KFC (not recommended), chips, dip, and beers as well as cuisine from our adopted new home like biltong and chili bites. Nandos would also be absolutely clutch superbowl food.

Making the superbowl happen at 1am.
Making the Superbowl happen at 1am.

Sometimes when you live abroad, you just gotta make things feel as at home as possible. 1:30am comes along, and I’m already two redbulls deep so I won’t fall asleep and the game begins! Anyone who watched this game knows the outcome as the Seahawks destroyed the Broncos. I ended staying up until 5am, completely ruining the next day, but totally worth it seeing my team win the big one. Getting a little bit of American in didn’t hurt either .

 

Superbowl XLIX?


It was quite tough not being able to watch 2014’s Superbowl the way I’m used to but I survived. Now . . . if I’m still in SA for next year’s Superbowl and the Seahawks make it again? Not sure if I can stomach that. However, there is always the option of trying to get into Rugby, and I have a few games I’m planning on going to in the very near future that I will surely write about. Rugby is not football but sometimes you have to make compromises living away from home 🙁

If anyone knows of a better way to watch the Superbowl in Johannesburg or South Africa in general, please post a comment!

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      • Hey Johnny, I have created a Facebook event for our Party. It took a while for us to get a venue!

        facebook.com/events/614059629355275/

        Please share far and wide if you can.

        It will be hosted at The Dry Dock (
        2 Industry Street, Paarden Eiland Cape Town, Western Cape 7420). All the details are on the Facebook post.

        If you need anything else, just give me a shout!

        Cheers Mate

        • Hey mate, that sounds amazing! I’d definitely join if i was in Cape Town but I will update this blog post to show case your event!

  1. Hey Johnny, we are looking into hosting one ourselves in Cape Town, but not sure how much interest there will be.

    Pop me a mail and let’s chat.

    Cheers
    JRJ

    • Thanks for the update Daniela! I know for a fact in the next two weeks, hundreds of people will be reading this post a day so hope they find their way to the Hard Rock!

    • Hey Jen, Don’t want to disappoint you but with how cricket obsessed South Africa is, Baseball in Joburg might be a long (very) shot! Many of my SA friends were keen on learning more about American football but I had 0 takers on baseball unfortunately 🙁

      If you do discover a place, please do share! I’m very curious.

      • Just called hard Rock and they are indeed showing it. Baring the restaurant closing down in the future, it looks like hard Rock Cafe will be the spot for people to watch the superbowl I’m Johannesburg for the foreseeable future!

      • Johnny – I just called them and they said they are not showing? I’m assuming this employee who answered just didn’t know about it? If so, I’ll be there!

        MP

        • Hi Mason, you’re right. I just spoke with hard Rock and they have not confirmed whether they will host yet. They said they will have an answer later today. Will keep everyone updated here. Thanks!

        • Hi Mason, just got the confirmation d that the hard Rock Cafe in Nelson Mandela Square will be showing the superbowl this Sunday! . Enjoy everyone!!

    • HARD ROCK CAFE JOHANNESBURG WILL BE SCREENING THE SUPER BOWL EVERY YEAR FOR ALL LOVERS OF THE SPORT!

      Hope to see you on the 8th February 2016- 1.30AM

      Regards
      HRC Team

  2. I’m assuming there’s going to be massive amounts of people streaming from this website for the superbowl. Did you guys experience any lag or technical issues last year?? Great info by the way, very helpful!