MLE “State of the Union” is up

March 22, 2007 at 11:12 pm by ojrifkin · More posts about:Organizations, Videos

Brian Seiken’s “State of the Union” address has been uploaded and can be viewed at http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/speech.html

Comments (17)

17 Comments »

  1. Kevin Carr said (Registered April 21, 2006)

    March 23, 2007 @ 2:25 am

    Great speech, Brian. Very professional.

  2. Rhonda Evans said

    March 23, 2007 @ 7:48 am

    Brian, while good and improving with the written word, is a natural expressing himself orally. Professional job, in that he got his points across without singling anybody out by name in a negative way.

    Brian knows more about the politics of CE than most, and certainly more than me, but based on the limited knowledge I possess, it was my perception that Brian has not fully embraced MLE is a business that needs to reward its best performers, primarily in eating ability, but also in the ability to sell the product, the sport. Brian has some of the first quality, much more of the second.

    I say this, because the underlying tone of most of the broadcast reminded me of the Brian’s assertion of the need for near total equality in compensation for each of the 50 + MLE competitors. If this were the case, MLE could not maximize growth. It is my opinion that this is exactly why MLE is much more successful than the AICE, with success being measured by customer familiarity of the MLE eaters. When Koby or Sonya, or Janus, or Crazy Legs, or Pat Bertoletti, or even El Toro sells the sport, it benefits everyone in competitive eating. both in MLE and the independent eaters.

    MLE AND AICE are both wonderful organizations with differing charters, realistically. MLE is a business that helps the sport grow. The AICE is nice, big-hearted organization that promotes intereater equality for those who are in the sport for fun, and not so much for expansion and growth of the organization.

    That’s how I see it anyway, right or wrong. I don’t think I’m too far off base.

  3. the boy king said

    March 23, 2007 @ 9:23 am

    Well said, but I gotta say Rhonda, if you don’t think AICE is growing, look at the amount of contests that we are doing per year.

  4. Random said

    March 23, 2007 @ 9:23 am

    I agree with some of your comments Rhonda. However, I disagree with your assertion that the MLE is more successful than AICE. Commercially that is certainly the case, but in terms of scope, AICE takes far better care of its eaters. Also, the Sheas do this full time and make a bundle sharing little with the eaters, while Chapman supports his organization part time, while holding another job. It seems to me to be a struggle between what is right vs. what is business.

  5. beautifulbrian said

    March 23, 2007 @ 9:50 am

    Rhonda thanks for the kind words. I could not cover all issues and i apologize to everyone if i failed to mention other topics pertaining to the sport. Unfortunatly i am not a political figure so i could not engage in a “meet the press” after the speech to entertain questions from reporters. Maybe i can do my best answering them on eatfeats which has of late really come into its own for people to express their opinions being postive or negative. I failed to mention and i do realize that the Chestnuts, Sonya’s etc are the backbone and growth of MLE. I realize i was generalizing when i brought out the fact that all 50 members should be compensated in some form..Regardless, i still say it can be done. False hope is better than no hope and if members at the bottom of the pile have something to hope for, it might strive to make them a better eater. Look at Pat B. Two yrs ago he was buried at the bottom of the barrel noone knew who he was and look where he is now . I agree with you that the top names will sell the sport but you need the lower names to get the engine going. There will be more state of the union addresses until the message becomes clear. I hope to get everyone;s support on that note.

  6. Steakbellie said (Registered August 11, 2006)

    March 23, 2007 @ 11:49 am

    BB,
    GREAT job. I always find your videos entertaining AND informative.

  7. KevinRoss said

    March 23, 2007 @ 12:07 pm

    I’m not sure what you’re saying about Pat? He got to where he is now because he is really good and has the motivation to keep improving. . .it’s not like if you gave a lower ranked eater more compensation they’d rise to that level. That is up to the eaters own skill and motivation.

    But of course, as a low grade eater myself, of course I would like more respect and perks 🙂 I’m glad they made this points system because now they are actually at least trying to keep everyone’s totals, even those not in the prize money. That disturbed me before. How someone could pay money for a plane flight, hotel room, and all the effort that goes into it – then it looks like they didn’t even show up because nobody recorded their total. I think they should take it one step further and actually ANNOUNCE everyone’s totals on stage at each contest for the crowd. Starting at 15th place on up. It wouldn’t take that much time. Sometimes people’s friends and families are watching and want to know. It’s a small thing that would show a lot of respect to the midranked people. I don’t think the lower ranked eaters neccessarily deserve perks like media coverage or travel expenses, because they haven’t earned it and don’t draw the crowds – but they at least deserve recognition for their performance at an event they take the time/money to show up to (even if it isn’t a top 4 showing).

    And of course, I’m sure all the eaters feel the same way about the restaurant challenges ban. You are right that for mid to low ranked eaters, the restaurant challenges were how they could prove themselves and get glory. I think sometimes people lose sight of the fact that a decent eater who never has much of a chance of prize money, still is better than 99.9% of the population at large. And I think we deserve some sort of thing where we can feel like winners. I understand MLE not wanting us to do actual eating contests that aren’t run by them because that is a conflict of interest, but taking away the restaurant challenges seems to take away our chance to feel like a winner once in a while. I hope they soften their stance on this issue at some point.

    Truth is, I’ll continue entering MLE contests regardless if they change anything. They throw the best contests, period. There still is far more good than bad. But I think they don’t fully recognize how important the midranked eaters are. Sure, the top eaters are who people come to see. But it’d look pretty ridiculous if you had 3 people on stage at each contest, ya know?

  8. the boy king said

    March 23, 2007 @ 1:10 pm

    HA!!!
    Could you imagine the television coverage of say, The Olympics, if they sat there and announced 15th place on up? Totally ridiculous Mr. Ross.
    You think you put “time and money” into it? Come on.

    Have you been to or entered and AICE contest? Didn’t think so. You can ride along it the MLE side-car as long as you like, but if you want to drive, you only have a few options.

    Get better and get your name annouced, or quit being MLE’s bitch and do your own thing.
    You’re just a worker bee, dude.

  9. Philly Guy said

    March 23, 2007 @ 1:13 pm

    I”m not a tax master by any means, so don’t go bashing me if I’m wrong. Would MLE be able to give a small salary of maybe 5 dollars, then charge a fee of 5 dollars to compete for the year. By doing this we can change the prize money to a bonus of sorts, thus elimitating all the taxes winnings are hit with. Like I said it sounds too easy to work, but would make a lot of eaters happy
    .

  10. Gentleman Joe said

    March 23, 2007 @ 1:25 pm

    You wouldn’t have only 3 at every contest. You can round up 4-5 reporters trying to be George Plimpton in every market.

    I can understand the top 5 announced, but you are just killing & filling time beyond that. I might want to throw the 51st contestant in Miss America a bang, but I don’t want to hear announced.. the 50th runner up Miss Alabama, 49th runner up Miss Montana, etc. That’s ridiculous.

    I would go so far as to say announcing 15th place is a show of DISRESPECT. If I got announced in 15th place out of 15 a few times, i’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be back.

    ifoce does throw some of the best events. But, there have been more than a few of aice’s & independants that give them a run. Plus some of there events are much worse. The Ct rib eating contest was a school fair (with beer) The Dumplings that I won earlier the same day was much bigger & better inspite of the ifoce having Chestnut, Simpson, Janus, Shoudt,Crazylegs,BB & more.
    If you don’t believe me, i’ll find the emails of the reporter/photographer I had w/me that day to verify. I think they’d be an independant source.

  11. KevinRoss said

    March 23, 2007 @ 1:55 pm

    Let me clarify I meant to announce everyone’s totals in NON-televised contests. Of course on big TV events that would be boring. But at the non-major events that aren’t on TV, I think it would be a nice gesture. To me it’s interesting because I like comparing numbers to get an idea of where everyone was in relation to everyone else. I don’t care if someone announced me as being in last place, if that’s what I deserved. But I can see that for the average audience member, they simply wouldn’t care. But the friends/familiy of the eaters would and the eaters themselves. And it just wouldn’t take much time at all, so it wouldn’t be like when the names are read at a graduation ceremony. Now THAT is the definition of bored to tears.

    But whatever, I’m happy if they just record and post all the totals on the website. Announcing them would be a nice bonus in my mind, but I realize that probably will never happen because the consensus seems to be that it is silly.

    BTW; I’ve never been to an AICE contest, not even to watch. Y’all don’t come to the west coast, so I couldn’t if I wanted to.

    But anyway, I hope to steadily improve so that my name can be announced legit!

  12. the boy king said

    March 23, 2007 @ 2:58 pm

    http://www.competitiveeaters.com/2006events.htm

    go west young man…
    Boulder, Colorado and Riverside, California in ’06.

  13. KevinRoss said

    March 23, 2007 @ 4:57 pm

    Yeah, the zuchinni one is near me. I’ll give you that. Colorado really doesn’t count. I consider west coast to be california, arizona, new mexico, nevada. . .MAYBE Utah, oregon, or idaho. . .So really only 1 in the whole year; not enough for a west coast person. MLE doesn’t have a ton of west coast events either, but a lot more than 1 🙂 I’m really not trying to have a MLE vs. AICE war or something. . .I’m just stating the facts that AICE isn’t as spread out as MLE across the country.

  14. Gentleman Joe said

    March 23, 2007 @ 5:13 pm

    Tempe, AZ on 1/1/05 in front of the most people to ever watch a competitive eating event. (I admit Coney might approach it, IF the same amount of people could fit)

  15. Bison said

    March 24, 2007 @ 11:02 am

    Brian

    Everything you said is right on the mark.

    I support you in all fields .You have more knowledge than anyone when it comes to the business of Competitive Eating.

    Your Website started a following of many site’s including Eatfeats which is a great site also.

    We have only scratched the surface in Competitive Eating.The future looks to be very bright .

    Keep up the great work Brian

    Bison

  16. beautifulbrian said

    March 24, 2007 @ 4:27 pm

    I want to thank everyone for tuning in to the 3/22 speech. As of today 3/24 135 people have tuned in, so apparantly certain issues were on the mind of the competitive eating community . A few things i mentioned which might have been taken the wrong way . When i brought up Jarvis taking the role as the person responsible for getting everyone together , that was not exactly what i meant. After the glutton bowl everyone got to know each other and became friends. Jarvis started calling everyone just for chat and Krazy Kevin was the one that tried to arrange getting the local eaters together to dine out socially. It was successful for the first year or two then it started to fade. This is not to say that everyone all of a suddent became anti social. Charles calls me on occassion as does Tim , Don , Allen , Crazy Legs & Eric. And of course i reciprocate . But the rumor that the old school eaters hung out together once a week or once a month for that matter was widely exaggerated. If you were to check out Jarvis’s monthly invoice from his cell phone , his outgoing calls to the old school eaters or to anyone else for that matter far outweigh his incoming calls. I think if we were to compare cell invoices of Hardy, Booker, Krazy Kev , myself , Goldstein, Lerman’s outgoing calls to Jarvis , trust me Jarvis would win that category hands down!

  17. Bubba said (Registered January 8, 2006)

    March 25, 2007 @ 5:48 pm

    Another good episode Brian!

    I think you good you points across well, You sounded very professional.

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