How to Host a Football Watch Party
Football season is a great time to gather your loved ones and watch your favorite team fight for their next win. Hosting a football watch party can be simple and fun, and there are plenty of ways to get creative with your decorations and food. You can have a great time with your friends and family while impressing them with your party planning abilities.
Whether you’re looking to invite a few friends or everyone you know, there are a few things to keep in mind as you’re planning your big event. FunFlicks® has put together a guide for some football watch party ideas to create a fun watch party that will leave your friends and family wanting more.
1. Make a Game Plan
The key to any successful party is efficient planning. Begin by letting people know about your football viewing party to get a headcount of attendees. This will help you determine how much seating, food and drinks you need, and it gives your friends and family time to make additional arrangements. Depending on the day you decide to host, some people may need to leave work early, find care for their children or adjust their schedule.
Once you get the word out, you can get the ball rolling with everything else you need.
Find Your Home Field
Decide where you’re hosting your event and if it should take place inside or outdoors. Even if you plan to watch inside, you may want to check the weather to determine if you can cook on the grill, play games or chat outside during commercial breaks or halftime.
If you have your party at home, you’ll need to wipe down your tv, make sure all of your speakers are working, clear your coffee table and do anything else to prepare your place for your loved ones. It would also be a great idea to clean the bathroom and prepare extra supplies for everyone who may need them.
Set up the Stands
You’ll want to ensure everyone has a good view of the screen. If you have more people coming than seats on your couch, you’ll need to make some accommodations. If you’re hosting outside, you can ask everyone to bring their own lawn chairs or blankets to stretch in the yard. Inside, find some plastic or metal folding chairs or bring in your dining table seats. Keep in mind that any game will take a few hours, and big games like championships take even longer, so you want to make sure everyone stays comfortable.
Tackle the Equipment
Setting up your television for an indoor watch party is no different from any other night. However, setting up outside can take a bit of time. Football season is a great time to gather friends for an outdoor football event. You’ll likely need a few extension cables a place to secure your television. Depending on the time of day you start the watch party, you may need an umbrella or awning to block the glare from the sun.
However, there is an easier way to plan an outdoor watch party. Instead of moving your indoor setup to the great outdoors, you can rent equipment from a rental company. You could opt for a large inflatable screen that will impress your guests and transform your backyard into a drive-in with all your closest friends. You’ll get to experience a larger screen and fantastic sound, and you won’t have to worry about setting up or tearing down when the party is over.
2. Find Game-Changing Decorations
A great party can become even better with fun decorations that enhance the theme. Your guests will appreciate the time you spent putting it together, and they will love seeing the different decorations. Creating your own streamers and signs is also a great way to get kids involved in the activity and make them excited for the event.
Fun football party ideas include:
- Team support: Use fastener-free wall adhesives and jerseys to create team-themed wall decorations and find napkins, streamers, balloons and paper plates in your team’s colors.
- Fan zones: Designate a place for children or excited adults to blow whistles, hold foam fingers or knock cowbells during a touchdown.
- Themed food: Spend an afternoon with your family making football cupcakes, decorating a cake with your team’s colors or making a giant football pizza.
- Playing games: You can set up corn hole outside to play during commercials and halftime or set up a dartboard if you’re partying indoors.
Spending time with your friends and family will be more than enough fun, but it’s nice to have other options. If you’re hosting outside, consider starting a fire to keep everyone warm or encourage kids to make s’mores. Keeping everyone entertained is easy if you have plenty of things to do.
Defend the Valuables
Football watch parties are tons of fun, but guests can get loud and excited when their favorite player completes an incredible play or your team scores a touchdown. You can protect your valuables and furniture while keeping with your theme. For instance, you can protect your table with a tablecloth of your team’s colors. You can also use coasters and chair covers to protect your coffee table and seats.
Move anything breakable that guests could bump into or drop. Move sentimental pictures, small figures or anything else you want to keep safe into a bedroom, spare room or office where no one from your party will enter.
3. Feed Your Football Fans
One of the best parts of any event is the food. Chowing down during a football game is a recipe for a great time. You don’t have to prepare a full meal, but some finger food is perfect for matching your theme. Load your kitchen with fan food favorites like chicken tenders or buffalo wings, hotdogs or pizzas and your drink of choice. Be sure to have plenty of water, but you might offer additional beverages for the adults as well.
Prepare a concession stand of popcorn and pretzels and stock up on ice cream sandwiches or cups for the kiddos. You could prepare football chocolate-covered pretzels with white chocolate drizzle or have some candy ring pops handy to act as champion rings for more kid-friendly fun. When you do your party with FunFlicks, we’ll bring an authentic popcorn machine to deliver you delicious snacks throughout the night.
Take advantage of your grill or fire pit for your outdoor party as you discuss strategies and watch replays. Ask your friends to bring a dish and have a potluck of everyone’s favorite food. Offer some chips to munch on and encourage people to bring their favorite dips.
Take Your Watch Party to the Next Level
FunFlicks® is a rental service that offers projectors and screens for all types of events. Whether you decide to host your football watch party inside or a movie night outside, we have the equipment you need and professional staff who will take the stress of setting up and tearing it down out of your hands.
FunFlicks® will provide a full service for your outdoor event and bring the equipment you need to any location, including schools, parks, apartments and your backyard. With a professional rental service, you can focus on preparing your food and welcoming your guests instead of setting up the space.
Plan your next big event with FunFlicks® and transform every party into a professional event that will impress all of your friends. Don’t take our word for it — check out what people from across the country are saying about us and how we took their event to the next level for half of everyone else’s price.
Event Rentals for Your Football Watch Party
FunFlicks® Inflatable Movie Screen Rentals
FunFlicks® inflatable movie screens are professional quality at an affordable price. There's a size for everyone, whether you're throwing a massive film festival with thousands in attendance or a small birthday with family at your house. To make sure everything runs smoothly, a local FunFlicks® event technician will arrive at your location on time, set up the screen, oversee the technology, and pack it all away at the end of the screening. Booming high-definition sound, crystal-clear laser projection, and a larger-than-life display are all included when you book an event with us.
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12'x7' Display
100 Guests
20 Cars
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16'x9' Display
250 Guests
50 Cars
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20'x12' Display
500 Guests
75 Cars
Elite 32'
26'x15' Display
750 Guests
100 Cars
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30'x17' Display
1500 Guests
150 Cars
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40'x22' Display
3000 Guests
250 Cars
FunFlicks® LED Screen Rentals
FunFlicks LED screens are perfect for day or night display in almost any environment. Utilizing electroluminescent technology, our LED screens generate light effectively at any time of day. Each panel is rated IP65, meaning they are both rain and dustproof. Day or night, rain or shine, you get to decide when the magic happens. All of our mobile LED trailers have onboard generators for portable power. Therefore, no power supply is needed. Similar to our inflatable screens, our fleet of LED screens comes in a variety of dimensions for a variety of crowd sizes. Local event technicians across the country are available to bring our LED trailers anywhere for you to enjoy video games, live sports, movies, advertisements, or almost everything else!
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75 Guests
15 Cars
12'x7' LED Trailer
100 Guests
20 Cars
15'x8' LED Trailer
250 Guests
50 Cars
17'x10' LED Trailer
500 Guests
75 Cars
23'x13' LED Trailer
750 Guests
100 Cars
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