Sixteen-time champion Joey Chestnut has been banned from Nathan’s Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest in a beef over sponsorship. It appears the oldsters at Main League Consuming, which oversees the competition, didn’t suppose his reported cope with Unattainable Meals was kosher.
“We’re devastated to study that Joey Chestnut has chosen to signify a rival model that sells plant-based scorching canine quite than competing within the 2024 Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest,” MLE mentioned in an announcement.
Chestnut has gained the coveted Mustard Belt — handed out to the one that eats essentially the most scorching canine every July 4 — for eight years working and in 16 of the previous 17 years. The one break in his reign got here in 2015, when Matt Stonie took the title.
Not having Chestnut at this 12 months’s occasion can be a giant blow. He ate 62 scorching canine and buns eventually 12 months’s occasion. The runner-up solely bought to 49. It sounds just like the powers that be perceive this.
“MLE and Nathan’s went to nice lengths in current months to accommodate Joey and his administration group, agreeing to the looks price and permitting Joey to compete in a rival unbranded scorching canine consuming contest on Labor Day,” the assertion continues. “For practically 20 years we have now labored beneath the identical primary scorching canine exclusivity provisions. Nonetheless, it appears that evidently Joey and his managers have prioritized a brand new partnership with a special scorching canine model over our long-time relationship.”
Chestnut makes an estimated $250,000 to $500,000 per 12 months in aggressive consuming challenges and through sponsorship offers. He additionally has his personal line of condiments for decent canine, brats, sausages, wings and sandwiches.
ESPN platforms have aired the Nathan’s Well-known Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest since 2004. In 2022, ESPN signed a new deal with the Worldwide Federation of Aggressive Consuming to proceed the printed partnership by 2029. In 2023, the lads’s competitors aired on ESPN2 and streamed on the ESPN app.
