Sling TV’s $5 Day Pass: The Ultimate Solution for Sports Fans

Watching sports is becoming more difficult each year, with traditional cable and satellite slowly fading away to endless streaming subscriptions. If you want to watch a few specific NCAA college football games, an NFL game or two, or other sports but don’t want to commit to anything fully, Sling TV has a solution.

These days, a lot of people no longer have cable and constantly jump between different streaming services to access live TV channels. Sound familiar? Did you know there’s a better way, even if it’s not technically a “cheaper” route?

I’m talking about paying $4.99 for a “Day Pass” to Sling TV, which gets you some of the most important sports channels.

A Trial You Won’t Forget to Cancel

For those unaware, Sling TV is a popular live TV streaming service similar to YouTube TV. It provides access to live TV over the internet. While it’s usually pretty expensive, the company now has a few new options.

In a bold move to change how people access TV after cutting the cord, Sling TV has a new $4.99 “Day Pass,” offering full access to its catalog of content for 24 hours. That’s endless live and on-demand TV spanning several channels, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, TNT, Disney Channel, CNN, Fox, A&E, and others. And, if you want it for the entire weekend, it’ll be $10 instead.

More importantly, this isn’t a subscription of any kind. It’s not a trial, either. You pay a one-time $5 fee and get full access to television for 24 hours. You’re not signing up for yet another trial that you’ll inevitably forget to cancel, only to realize you’ve paid $16.99 a month for half a year. There are no contracts, no trial, and no fuss. Pay a few bucks, watch a game, and continue on with your life.

That’s something I can appreciate, and I bet you will too.

A Cheap Way to Watch NFL Games or Big College Sporting Events

I miss the old days when watching the NFL wasn’t so difficult. For the 2025-26 NFL season, you’ll need access to 10 different streaming services or channels to see the games. Yes, I said 10. Some of those include your regular networks, along with Amazon Prime Video, ESPN+, Netflix, the Peacock streaming service, and more.

Even if you still have traditional cable, it’s a chore. And for everyone else, there’s the NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube for $480. Yikes. Thankfully, Sling is another alternative. If you only watch a few games each season when your team is in primetime, or you’re an NCAA Football fan, you don’t need to pay for a year of a random streaming service.

A prime example is the first weekend of October. There are several big NCAAF and NFL games that weekend, including Texas vs Florida, Miami vs Florida St., and Wisconsin vs Michigan. On the NFL side, we have the Eagles vs Broncos, Ravens vs Texans, and the Lions vs Bengals. Many of these games have championship and playoff implications, all on the same weekend.

Instead of paying for an entire month of YouTube TV, the Sunday Ticket, or something like Dish, Cox Cable, or DirecTV, just spend $10 and get access to Sling TV for 72 hours. Better yet, if one of those games isn’t on the lineup provided by Sling, you can add the “Sports Pack” for only $1 extra a day.

Maybe you only want to watch a big rivalry game where your Alma Mater takes on a specific school—a day pass is perfect.

Perfect for Get-togethers or the Holidays

The last point I want to make about why I think Sling TV’s new Day Pass, Weekend Pass, or 7-day Week Passes are a genius idea revolves around the holidays. I have many friends and relatives who no longer have regular cable or access to live TV of any kind. Instead, it’s all Netflix, Disney+, or HBO Max.

When special holidays roll around, and you have friends or family in town, buying a day or weekend pass to Sling TV is a solid way to keep guests entertained.

For example, there are three NFL games this year on Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 27th), and three more on December 25th. Whether you’re hosting or visiting family without live TV, you can spend $5 to catch all the action. However, keep in mind that the Christmas games are on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but Thanksgiving will be the perfect day to try Sling TV’s Day Pass.

Sure, $5 a day or $10 for a weekend isn’t very affordable when you can get an entire month for $46 through Sling, or a little more from services like YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream. However, we all have a little subscription fatigue, and I’m sure many of you don’t want to pay for another service.

As a result, I think these single-serve passes might actually be a great way to let sports fans see the content they want on occasion. So, if you’re trying to game-plan for upcoming sporting events, consider Sling TV.