Donald Trump & competitive eating chronology
A timeline listing the intersection of the worlds of competitive eating and the 2016 Republican presidential candidate follows:
- 1966 Fred Trump, father of Donald, has the Steeplechase demolished. The Coney Island amusement park had earlier rejected a purchase offer from the Handwerker family, founders of Nathan’s Famous.
- 2005 Sports Illustrated has a blurb
about filmmaker Michael Tollin’s plans for a fictional movie based on
Bill “El Wingador” Simmon that did not come to fruition. Tollin would
later make a documentary about the USFL spring football league in which Donald Trump was cast as the villain. - 2005-2007 The Trump Marina in Atlantic City holds a wing eating contest for females only during Super Bowl weekend.
2005 Feb 3 Wing Fling 1 Trump Marina Atlantic City, NJ 2006 Feb 4 Wing Fling 2 Trump Marina Atlantic City, NJ 2007 Feb 3 Wing Fling 3 Trump Marina Atlantic City, NJ 2007 contest video
- 2009-2012 The Trump Plaza Beach Bar in Atlantic City, NJ hosts a Nathan’s qualifier. The winners of those contests:
2009 May 23 1st 30.5 10 min “The Lovely” Juliet Lee Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier Atlantic City, NJ 2010 May 29 1st 40 10 min Bob “The Notorious B.O.B.” Shoudt Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier Atlantic City, NJ 2011 May 28 1st 27 10 min Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier – men Atlantic City, NJ 2011 May 28 1st 34 10 min Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier – women Atlantic City, NJ 2012 May 19 1st 45 10 min Tim “Eater X” Janus Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier – men Atlantic City, NJ 2012 May 19 1st 18.5 10 min Larell Marie “The Real Deal” Mele Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier – women Atlantic City, NJ - 2013 The Trump Plaza was sold to Meruelo Group for $20 million. No Nathan’s qualifiers would take place at that site after the sale.
- Dec 2015 Everybody Loves Raymond’s in San Antonio starts a “Shut Your Mouth Trump” spicy burger challenge in response to negative feelings about the candidate by the restaurant’s clientele.
- Feb 2016 Donald Trump visits Chez Vachon in Machester, NH for a campaign stop. A picture of him in front of the “Wall of Fame” for the restaurant’s poutine challenge would receive a lot of publicity. Hillary and Bill Clinton would also visit the location.
- May 2016 Burger Urge in Queensland, Australia holds a “Trump Burger” contest awarding a trip to Trump Tower in New York City won by Col “The Conqueror” MacLaurin.
- Aug 2016 Howard Lorber, chairman of Nathan’s Famous, is announced as a member of Donald Trump’s economic policy team. Lorber received a $25 million payment in 2015 after a special dividend was issued to Nathan’s stockholders.
Capewood's Collections has a post about the Joey Chestnut, Matt Stonie and Sonya Thomas trading cards produced by Allen and Ginter.
The Guardian reports that Howard Lorber, chairman of Nathan's Famous, has been announced as a member of Donald Trump's economic policy team.
Brian Seiken is offering stakes in his potential poker winnings at the Borgata Summer Poker Open this weekend.
Money magazine has an article about competitive eater earnings which includes unsourced statistics that seem strangely familiar: $88K career contest winnings for Miki Sudo, , $220K for Sonya Thomas.
Sports Illustrated on post-MLE Kobayashi
Sports Illustrated has a long article on the state of Kobayashi’s post-MLE career and the devolution of his relationship with that organizaion. He is unwilling to go near Nathan’s Coney Island store despite living in Brooklyn. The article mentions plans for a big Chicago eating contest this year that fell through. Pat Bertoletti makes a cameo:
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Business Insider has a video of Yasir Salem showing how he eats five hot dogs in less than 60 seconds.
Over five years into his competitive eating career, a "Rookie Card" for Matt Stonie can be found in boxes of 2016 Leaf Sports Heroes.
Newsday has an article about Nathan's Famous centennial which reports that net income declined 81% after making interest payments to finance a bond to pay investors a $25 per share dividend.
Core Media Group filed for bankruptcy due to the decline of its most visible property, American Idol. The company also owns Sharp Entertainment, the producer of Man v. Food
Marketwatch.com has a graph of Nathan's Famous stock price since 1999, which has increased 1936% in that time period. (At its overall peak in 2015, the price was up 26-fold.) The purse for the Nathan's finals has been $20,000 since 2007. $40,000 has been payed out annually since the addition of the women's division in 2011.
Darren Rovell of ESPN has posted a complaint about Burger King's use of the "Polish Punisher" in the ad promoting its hot dogs instead of an actual competitive eater. The "Polish Punisher" is played by actor Dave Maulbeck, and the ad has ran nationally at least 1,233 times according to ispot.tv.
Daily Corinthian has an article about the July 9 slugburger eating contest in Corinth, MS receiving funding from the Corinth Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Despite paying a $14,500 sanctioning fee to Major League Eating, the competition is not guaranteed the presence of Joey Chestnut or Matt Stonie and will not know until the week before the contest if they will compete.
The Daily Corinthian reports that the Corinth (MS) Area Convention and Visitors Bureau has approved $14,500 for the 2016 slugburger contest, an increase of $3,200 from the previous year. The majority of the funding will go towards MLE sanctioning.
The new commercial for Burger King hot dogs features an unnamed competitive eater wearing a "Polish Punisher" shirt who I did not recognize.
Nela Zisser has started a store at http://nelazisser.bigcartel.com/ selling T-shirts with her logo on it. She is soliciting questions for a Q & A video in the comments of her latest video documenting her victory in a college Thickburger contest.
A commenter posted a link to an article reporting that Corinth [MS] Area Convention and Visitors Bureau tabled a request for $11275 to fund the 2016 Slugburger eating contest. The request will be reconsidered when Main Street Corinth Director Brent Johnson meets with the board. If $11,275 was the cost of the 2015 event, 26.6% of that amount was used for the $3000 purse. update LA Beast has posted screenshots (without links) of this post to facebook and twitter.
Burger King considered holding an eating contest to promote the addition of hot dogs to its menu, but decided against the idea.
Baffin Brewing Co. in St. Clair Shores, MI has produced a chestnut cream ale named after Joey Chestnut.
Entrepreneur.com has a lists of four lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from the career of "Furious" Pete Czerwinski.
Amazon.com has an inflatable lawn display consisting of a snowman and a polar bear participating in a gingerbread man eating contest.
Adage.com announces the return of Crystal Pepsi. The soft drink will not return to stores; only winners of a sweepstakes starting December 10 will receive the product. The advocacy of Kevin "LA Beast" Strahle was cited as a reason for the comeback. update Time.com article
A picture autographed by Joey Chestnut is currently available on amazon.com as a lightning deal for $11.99. 94% of the pictures have been sold as of 12:37 pm eastern. (via Matt DeMougin)
Joey Chestnut recorded a commercial for Nextel on the Coney Island Boardwalk Wednesday.
Vocativ has a post titled: "Bloated But Loaded: Is A Competitive Eating Career Worth Stomaching?" with quotes from Joey Chestnut, Matt Stonie and Miki Sudo.
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