By Holly Dutton
This year’s Super Bowl, with its first ever brother vs. brother head coaches and an East Coast Baltimore Ravens pitted against the West Coast San Francisco 49’ers, is building to be a great one.
And the biggest question on most spectators minds besides who will win? Where to watch it, of course.
A survey by franchisor Century 21 Real Estate found that the overwhelming majority of Americans consider the home to be the best place to tune into the Big Game.
A number of factors contribute to making the party a success, including the comforts of home, good food and, of course, a big screen television.
The survey found that nearly nine in ten Americans who plan to watch the game (88 percent) agree home is the best place to catch the action.
In fact, 84 percent indicated they will watch the game this year in their home, a friend’s home or a family member’s home as opposed to other venues including bars and restaurants.
“For millions of Americans who tune in, it’s not just about the game and the commercials, it’s about getting together with friends and family in the home,ˮ said Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer of Century 21.
“This game represents the last great American campfire and we thought it’d be fun to take a look at the role the home plays in what has become an iconic cultural event.ˮ
The Century 21 survey found that 66 percent of those who plan to watch the game at their own home or someone else’s said a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere is the leading reason why they opted to watch the game there.
In fact, the most popular benefit of watching the game at home instead of a bar is the ability to easily find a comfy seat, with 58 percent of U.S. adults citing this as a benefit.
Not far behind was the advantage of not having a huge crowd blocking the view of the television, which drew 48 percent of the vote.
With the uber-popular trend of “man caves” in more suburban settings, where are Manhattan’s elite retreating to?
According to brokers, there are plenty of options available — that come with a hefty price tag.
Mickey Conlon, a senior vice president and associate broker with CORE, said one of his listings, an apartment at 340 East 64th Street in Lenox Hill, has something better than a man cave.
“There’s an entire man wing in the house,” he said. In addition to a billiards room, the five-bedroom 5-bath apartment has its own media room with refreshment bar.
Conlon, who is often featured on HGTV’s popular Selling New York, said “times are changing” in regard to the newest trends in luxury home features.
Prospective buyers are looking to completely separate their entertainment from other rooms of the house, instead of combining a living room area with a TV.
And it’s not just the wealthy — anyone with an extra small space is looking to transform it.
“What we’re seeing is a marked difference in how people use spaces in smaller apartments,” said Conlon. “The home office, that windowless room that could be an oversized walk-in closet or makeshift bedroom — we have had more and more people looking at spaces and asking about where the electrics in the room are, because they want to turn that into a media room.”
And it’s not just the extra space inside the apartment that’s being tapped as a possible media center — buyers and developers are starting to see an added value to underground space.
“We have had listings with subterranean spaces, which used to have less value because, legally, they couldn’t be bedrooms, and the issues with circulation and ventilation,” said Conlon. “Now what we’re seeing is developers tapping into that space which would have been regulated to storage.”
In addition to turning the spaces into elaborate home theaters, underground areas are being transformed into whole entertainment zones — including billiards rooms and wine cellars.
Looking for the perfect pad to catch the biggest game of the year? We’ve gathered some perfect apartments to host a Super Bowl party — the only catch is the cost.
An UES duplex townhouse loft listed by Stribling & Associates at $4.75 million comes with its own Located at 157 East 84th Street, the home has 10 to 14 ft. ceilings upstairs.
The lower entertainment level offers a custom-built teak bar and wine room, recreation room and lounge as well as the movie theater complete with professional projector and screen, theater seating and theatrical sound equipment.
Arie Abadi and Cyrus Eyn at Platinum Properties have a 50 ft. wide Tribeca home on their books that’s the perfect venue for a double-wide Superbowl soiree.
Apartment 4 at 88 Franklin Street has what can only be called a cavernous open living room, library, family room and kitchen that’s perfect for hosting a huge Superbowl huddle.
The 4,000 s/f fourth floor home is listed at $7,995,000.
On the other side of the East River, The Edge building on the Williamsburg waterfront has two screening rooms — but no crashers here — they’re for residents only.
The high-rise building features over 40,000 s/f of amenity space including two screening rooms, lounges, and a party room available for resident-only reservation.
