Facebook is gearing up for the 50th Super Bowl with a brand new way to interact with the game. Late Wednesday night, Facebook announced the new Sports Stadium feature that will give sports fans information and statistics, a venue to discuss with each other sports fans and a chance to read commentary from sports journalists covering the games.

Facebook's Sports Stadium is the newest sports hub for fans on Facebook to fully engage in the game they are watching while interacting with their friends and other fans, CNet reports.

A Place for Friends to Discuss Sports

"People already turn to Facebook to celebrate, commiserate, and talk trash with their friends and other fans," Steve Kafka, a Facebook product manager, wrote in a blog statement. "Now we've built a place devoted to sports so you can get the feeling you're watching the game with your friends even when you aren't together." 

Facebook has more than a billion users that log onto the social network each day. Facebook still wants to continue to attract more users and to keep them engaged. The social network continues to grow with 1.55 billion people logging in at least once a month in the quarter that ended Sept. 30.

More Time Online Means More Time for Ads

If Facebook can convince users to stay online during the whole game looking at stats and other fans, it provides the social network with even more time to show them advertisements. Ads are the way that Facebook makes money.

Facebook has been trying to get users to talk about events that are going on. It will prompt users to talk about events that are trending and hinting that they should post a status update or thoughts about it.

Sports Stadium is a separate screen that will allow a full sports experience for Facebook users. It is very similar to what NBC did with Twitter during the 2012 Olympic Games to compile all of the tweets that were sent during the Olympics onto one page.

Facebook Sports Stadium will first be available to iOS device owners starting Thursday. More devices will be supported in the coming weeks, Kafka said.