Home Team Advantage Kevin L

SEWER SOCIOLOGY

Home team advantage Kevin L. Enfinger and Patrick L. Stevens 2014 pitted the Seattle Seahawks against the Denver ~ sew´·er so·ci·ol´o·gy, the science of Broncos and was the most- society, social institutions, and social watched television program relationships viewed through the eyes of a in history with 115.3 million sewer; specifically, the systematic study of viewers. This year Super Bowl the development, structure, interaction, and XLIX pitted the New England collective sewer use of organized groups of Patriots against the Seattle human beings. Seahawks and set yet another record of 120.8 million viewers during the Patriot’s dramatic Most sewer flows are characterized by fourth quarter comeback. repeatable diurnal patterns that vary So how did the Super across weekdays, weekends, and holidays. Bowl Sunday routines vary in Differences in land use also are apparent, South Boston during the two and distractions and disruptions of daily life Super Bowls? The figures often can be observed. below show sewer use from a weekday flows of the year are seen in residential area in portion of South Boston. residential neighborhoods. his month, we take a look at Super Typical weekdays are shown in green, and A second observation is seen in how Bowl viewing habits in South typical Sundays are shown in blue. Super quickly sewer use drops after the kickoff Boston through the eyes of a Bowl Sundays in 2014 and 2015 are — about 6:30 p.m. — in 2015; the data sewer. shown in red in figures a and b, respectively. suggest that residents were glued to their TThe residents of South Boston Note that in 2014, sewer use on Super televisions watching their home team. traditionally are known as sports aficionados Bowl Sunday was relatively normal during Conversely, after kickoff in 2014, sewer use with devoted loyalty to their hometown the afternoon. However, in 2015 sewer remained relatively higher as less attention teams. Therefore, we thought it would be use was much higher than normal and was paid to the game. interesting to examine the Super Bowl peaked shortly after noon as local residents Sunday routines of South Boston residents prepared for parties and the game. Kevin L. Enfinger is a region engineer, on two Super Bowl Sundays — one with, Experienced sewer sociologists and Patrick L. Stevens is vice president of and one without, the hometown New recognize this pattern as similar to engineering at ADS Environmental Services, England Patriots. Super Bowl XLVIII in Thanksgiving Day, during which the highest a division of ADS LLC (Huntsville, Ala.).

Residential sewer use in South Boston during Super Bowl XLVIII and Super Bowl XLIX