Let's Figure Out a Way for Falcons Fans to Watch the Super Bowl in the Georgia Dome

After securing a spot in the Super Bowl for the first time since 1999, the city of Atlanta was plenty excited about the Falcons. The team just played the final football game in the Georgia Dome—a 44-21 stomping of the Packers in the NFC Championship Game—before heading into a crazy kaleidoscope-looking new stadium, and people got to talking: what if we all watched the game in the stadium, one last hurrah? The mayor was on board, and even the Georgia Dome, owned by the state, seemed down. But alas, it was not meant to be. The NFL has rules, dammit.

From the folks running the show at the stadium:

"We share your tremendous excitement that the Atlanta Falcons are headed to the Super Bowl. NFL rules prohibit us from using the Georgia Dome for broadcasting the game. Fans wishing to gather with other fans to watch the game can consider patronizing neighborhood businesses who will be showing the game."

The NFL is notoriously blind, forget short-sighted, when it comes to serving its fans—archaic local blackout rules, Trumpian bans on sharing video from team Twitter accounts, refusing to even make YouTube videos embeddable on other websites, etc.—so this not very surprising. But there is some precedent for the NFL allowing viewing parties, as long as they don't run afoul of copyright law. In recent years, for instance, Roger Goodell and Co. made allowances for several churches to hold viewing parties for "The Big Game."

First, the rules, via Christian Copyright Solutions:

1) Churches must show the game live on equipment they use in the course of ministry at their premises; recordings of the show are not permitted.

2) Churches cannot charge admission for the party. The NFL has stated, however, that churches may take up a donation to defray the cost of the event.

3) It's advisable for churches to call the event a "big game" party rather than a "Super Bowl" party, as both the "NFL" and "Super Bowl" are trademarked and protected intellectual property. For example, one church last year called their event a "Souper Bowl" party and asked for donations of canned soup for a local ministry.

This seems entirely doable for the Georgia Dome. Football is commonly referred to as a religion, and the Georgia Dome has a big screen it uses in the course of ministry on the premises, and I'm sure they'll be just fine eating the cost, or asking for donations in return for showing The Big Game live.

Maybe Mount Vernon Baptist and/or Friendship Baptist Church can play host, since their buildings were razed to make way for the Falcons new stadium? Or maybe the donations the Georgia Dome receives can go toward their congregations. That might be a nice little exception the NFL can make, seeing as it's been complicit in not only ripping off fanbases and lining the pockets of billionaire owners who threaten to leave, but also ripping out the hearts of fanbases of teams that actually do leave for, say, the more willing rubes of Los Angeles.

There is still the matter of that space, and the big screen, though. Copyright law contemplates small establishments showing the event, like a bar (or church!) and there is a 3,750 square foot and smaller provision that is a non starter. Also, Under copyright law, the size and number of screens plays a role in whether an exception is permitted. Basically, you can only have one TV, and it can't be larger than 55 inches.

The solution is simple. The Super Bowl will be available via livestream on the Fox Sports Go app. So, just open the Georgia Dome doors, let people sit down in a seat, and watch on their smartphones. And if the Georgia Dome big screen happens to have mirroring capabilities, and someone happens to connect his or her phone and throw the game up there, hey, what can you do? Damn hackers. If not, at least everyone can still enjoy the communal experience of humiliating the New England Patriots on sport's grandest stage.