Awful Announcing has an interview with Paul Page about covering the Nathan's Famous finals for ESPN for 13 years. Erik Denmark did a post about the 2008 Time Magazine picture of Barack Obama watching the Nathan's finals that Page mentioned in the interview.

May 30, 2024 at 11:41 pm by ojrifkin · More posts about:ESPN, Nathan's History | Permalink * Comments (5)

5 Comments »

  1. Anonymous said

    May 31, 2024 @ 3:53 pm

    I have one question about Nathan’s the one poster always brings up the company was sold to a China ownership. Why did Nathan’s sell to a foreign company opposed to an American owned? It’s a very good question. I probably will get weird responses butt really why sell an American brand to the Chinese? I guess it’s up to them but why continue to do the Independence Day hot dog contest? Do it on another day like Chinese new year hot dog contest. That way it makes sense. I’m going to write a letter to Nathan’s ownership. Thanks for any smart feedback

  2. ojrifkin said (Registered July 27, 2005)

    May 31, 2024 @ 8:08 pm

    I might do a longer post later, but here is a quick history of the Nathan’s/Smithfield/China relationship

    2013: WH Group of China takes over Smithfield Foods
    https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/05/29/187029237/smithfield-foods-to-be-sold-to-chinese-firm-for-4-72-billion

    2014: John Morrell Food Group, a division of Smithfield Foods, becomes the meatpacker and retail distributor for Nathan’s Famous
    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-morrell-food-group-begins-partnership-with-nathans-famous-251230391.html

    Smithfield / WH Group and Nathan’s remain distinct enterprises with different stock market listings

    https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WHGRF/
    https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NATH/

  3. Anonymous said

    May 31, 2024 @ 8:23 pm

    Thank you OJ

  4. Anonymous said

    June 1, 2024 @ 1:23 am

    OJ, are you ok health-wise? It looks like you created a YouTube channel to make sure that your competitive eating video archives are not “lost” or something…

    I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but this kind of behavior is something that someone with a terminal illness might exhibit. I’m trying to connect the dots to one of your comments from a few weeks ago or you said that you might stop maintaining the page after July 4, 2024…

    I hope all is well, and that I am just reading into things way too much.

  5. Anonymous said

    June 1, 2024 @ 5:20 pm

    @3:53

    That’s not really how companies grow. Regardless of who owns Nathan’s, they still have a major market in the US, and the contest, with its tradition of being held on the 4th, is a great advertisement for it. How would switching the benefits the brand?

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