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The 610 WIP Wing Bowl 17 page has added links to photos and videos of the qualifying stunts. ClarkieGirl73 has a blog entry about her friend Larry Norris’ successful stunt this morning in which he ate 5 pounds of bacon in 8 minutes and 30 seconds. The Philly.com Wing Bowl page has not been updated with any information about qualification attempts for the upcoming Wing Bowl.
The Wing Bowl 17 logo, which looks like the Phillies logo, has been also been added to the 610WIP page.
Angelo Cataldi has updated his website with information about Wing Bowl 17 which announces his intention to reopen the contest to professionals in 2010. Any previous participation in a professional eating contest will make a contestant ineligible for the upcoming Wing Bowl.
The biggest change is that, for one year only, we are declaring ineligible any contestant who has ever competed in a professionally sanctioned eating contest. This means all members of the Major League Eating organization (formerly IFOCE) are not welcome to participate, including our reigning two-time champion, Joey Chestnut. All of the other great pro eaters of the past – Sonya Thomas, Patrick Bertoletti, Don “Moses†Lerman, and even five-time champ El Wingador – are out for Wing Bowl 17.
We made this decision for one reason: We want to find the absolute best new eater in the Delaware Valley, and we believe opening it up to the Average Joes out there will attract some contestants who have never before tried competitive eating. Next year, our Wing Bowl 17 champion will have to defend his title against the best eaters in the world.
Peter Mucha of Philly.com reports that Angelo Cataldi announced on his radio show this morning that the 2009 Wing Bowl will not allow “professional” and / or non-local competitive eaters:
Spurred by the 25,000 fans who attended last year, “this year we have decided to do something dramatic about Wing Bowl,” Cataldi said to cohost Al Morganti, “This year, Al, we are going back to the roots of Wing Bowl.”
“We got rid of all the pros that came in from out of town,” said Morganti, who came up with Wing Bowl so frustrated Eagles fans could have some fun during Super Bowl week. “We decided to make it all Philadelphia and go neighborhood.”
The residency area for locals is not defined in the article.
Tickets will go on sale at ComcastTix.com at 10 am December 15.
The grand prize will be a 2009 Mini Cooper Clubman and the members of the top entourage will receive a vacation prize.
Philadelphia Magazine ranks the inaugural Wing Bowl in 1993 at #97 in its list of the top 100 Philadelphia moments.
update (From Sean Gordon comment) 610WIP.com has a page about Wing Bowl 17 with the official rules. There will be 8 Wing Off qualifiers in the Philadelphia area. Even though Wing Bowl 17 is billed as “going back to the neighborhoods”, the only residency restriction in the rules is that entrants must live in the United States:
The contest is open to all WIP listeners who are 21 years of age or older and reside in the United States. Employees of WIP, its corporate parents, affiliated entities, its affiliated advertising agencies, participating sponsors/promotional partners, other radio stations in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and the members of their immediate families are ineligible to participate or win.
Wing Bowl 17 is an amateur eating event with no professional eaters. Any member of professional eating organizations, including but not limited to IFOCE & AICE, are also not eligible to participate in the contest.
It will be interesting to see if former professional eating organization members will be allowed to compete.
Tickets for the upcoming Wing Bowl can be pre-ordered at WingBowlTickets.com. The most expensive ticket is $125 and the cheapest ticket available is $25. The WIP and philly.com do not appear to have made any announcements when tickets will officially go on sale
According to a comment made this morning, Micah “Wing Kong” Collins was told that “professionals” would not be allowed to compete in Wing Bowl 17 when he called 610 WIP to inquire about qualifying for that contest. In February, Angelo Cataldi said that he would like to limit entry to the 2009 Wing Bowl to amateurs. WIP appears to have followed through with that restriction.
Cataldi apparently defines “professional eater” as someone who has been associated with a professional eating organization regardless of the level of success obtained in eating contests. If that definition is used to limit entry into Wing Bowl 17, “Gentleman” Jerry Coughlan will probably be the favorite if there is any legitimacy to his top five finishes the previous two Wing Bowls.
In other Wing Bowl news, a press release announces that mail-order chicken wings endorsed by Bill “El Wingador” Simmons will be available at RastelliAtHome.com
A live blog is currently being conducted for tonight’s screening of the 2005 Wing Bowl documentary “Swallow Your Pride”. At least two (and possibly three) of the six protagonists of the film are in attendance.
The Wing Bowl 13 documentary “Swallow Your Pride” will be screened in Philadelphia during the First Person Arts Festival on November 14. El Wingador will attend and serve wings with his wing sauce.
The new poll asks who you think will be eligible for the upcoming Wing Bowl. When Angelo Cataldi last mentioned the Wing Bowl on his blog in March, he said he hoped to prohibit entry to competitors associated with professional eating organization.
(From Deadspin) The July 2008 edition of Penthouse will have an article about the Wing Bowl which can be read online (pictures are basically safe for work). The article focuses more on peripheral activities than on the eating competition.
The best composite of Wing Bowl attendees is this: They’re the men who get kicked out of sporting events—the boorish, drunken slobs who curse too loudly, start fights too easily, harass women too aggressively, and make watching a game uncomfortable for 90 percent of the other spectators. Even in Philadelphia, whose fans have a nationally known reputation for classlessness, this crowd is vile. Philly fans earned their rep for, among other offenses, throwing snowballs at Santa Claus in 1968, cheering when Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin lay motionless on the turf with a neck injury in 1999, and behaving so poorly at the old Veterans Stadium that the city was forced to assign a judge to the Vet on Eagles game days.
Sports Illustrated recently made its entire archive free. Some competitive eating articles from the last 5 years follow:
In a blog entry from February 18, Angelo Cataldi responds to a request to have a Delaware Valley residency requirement for the 2009 Wing Bowl with another proposed restriction:
Our thought right now – 11 months away from the next Wing Bowl – is to have an event that is strictly for amateurs in 2009. Anyone who is or has been associated with a professional-eating organization would be ineligible. I hope – if we can get this plan approved – that it will address many of the concerns about the competition in Wing Bowl 17.
Voting for the first round of the Philadelphia City Paper’s “Philly Madness” has concluded, and the Wing Bowl has lost to The Philadelphia International Cycling Championship by a margin of 43% to 57%.
The Philadelphia City Paper is running a tournament of Philadelphia related items called “Philly Madness”. The Wing Bowl is currently losing (game 30) to The Philadelphia International Cycling Championship 53% – 47%
Megamunch has a backstage video of Wing Bowl 16 he recorded in the corridors of the Wachovia Center.
There are over 60 youtube videos labeled with “Wing Bowl 16” This link will bring them up.
A website about the Wing Bowl 13 documentary “Swallow Your Pride” has been set up at http://www.swallowyourpridefilm.com/ The site has a trailer and a page with “eater cards” about the six competitors featured in the film.
Megamunch has written a blog entry about Wing Bowl 16 and his attempts at pre-contest tailgating. He was forced to migrate between 4 different parking lots before entering the Wachovia Center to be a part of “Big” Brian Subich’s entourage. Megamunch has a captioned gallery of his trip.
“Humble” Bob Shoudt has also posted his report about his participation in Wing Bowl 16. Like other eaters, he has questions about the counting and ranking of his first round results:
At the end of the 14 minutes, I had eaten 108 wings. I was nervous that would not be enough as these wings were much faster then the cold rocks I had last year.
We waited for a while and then a guy came around and told us if we were in the 2nd round or not. I was told no, so I picked up my stuff. My judge came by and asked where I was sitting for the 2nd round. I said I wasn’t, I didn’t make it. He said “Those guys must have eaten a _ _ _ _ load of wings (refering to the other eaters). I asked him how he scored me. He said 17 and 18s on each plate (5 full plates). I was satisfied that I did not make it as that put me at 17+17+17+17+18 – worst case = 86 plus 6 on the last plate = 92 total. I assumed 92 would not be enough. When they announced that 70 was the 10th place total, I thought they they had just made a mistake. Nope. Next year…
Rich “Big Rig” Brooking attempts 32 inch pizza challenge in Charlotte
“Super Burger” constructed after reading about “Super Burger” kit on eatfeats via the New York Times Freakonomics blog.
Contest report and tips from Krispy Kreme Challenge participant
Juliet Lee updates her WriteNow page
Jill Stoler is down
Article about Jillian McCleaf, winner of top Wingette (no pictures)
Pat Bertoletti has a myspace blog entry about his trip to Philadelphia to compete in Wing Bowl 16. He arrived in Philadelphia the morning of the contest at 3:15 am.
Juris Shibayama answers 10 questions on IFOCE.com
U of Penn student newspaper report about the Wing Bowl
Cornell Sun report from Wing Bowl 16
philadelphia.about.com Wing Bowl 16 gallery, has pictures of Juris Shibayama, Erik Denmark, Wing Kong, Humble Bob, Wing Tut, US Male, Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti and others
Gallery of Hamtrack, MI paczki eating contest
Takuya Yamamoto thinks the root beer he drank in the USA is Coke with a “drug-ish kind of taste”
Bodybuilder Isabelle Turell eats a 1 pound burger and then a half pound ostrich burger
The new poll asks how you would describe the judging of the Wing Bowl.
Angelo Cataldi’s blog has a wrap up of Wing Bowl 16 which closes with the possibility of excluding “pros” from Wing Bowl 17:
We all acknowledge that it would be awesome for a local contestant to win Wing Bowl, but we are carefully governed by the FCC when it comes to all on-air contests. Wing Bowl is open to all contestants, everywhere. With the quality of prizes offered, there’s not much chance that the guys who are best at competitive eating are going to stay away from it.
How can we stop the trend? Well, the best way is to develop another local eater like El Wingador or Heavy Kevvy. So far we haven’t been able to do that, though US Male and Gentleman Gerry have placed in the top five the past two years. Our other possibility is to rewrite the rules to exclude the pros. Do we want to do this for Wing Bowl 17? I’m not sure yet. My first impression is, it’s a step down for Wing Bowl as soon as we eliminate the best eaters available.
AICE would probably dispute the claim that “Wing Bowl is open to all contestants, everywhere”.
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