Ex-hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi held in US

[Maggy J]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_...a/10504627.stm

Former hot dog speed-eating champion Takeru Kobayashi has been arrested at this year's event in New York.
The six-time champion, who did not compete in this year's event, was arrested as he tried to get on the stage after the competition.
Mr Kobayashi had refused to sign a contract with the speed-eating body Major League Eating and was barred from the event at Coney Island.

Well well I was just thinking this was sour grapes until I read.

Mr Kobayashi, nicknamed "The Tsunami", had written on his Japanese-languange blog that he didn't want to sign a contract that would prevent him from entering speed eating competitions run by other federations.

Which seems perfectly fair to me.

However how much money are such competitions actually worth?Can one make a living through them?

All seems very odd to me.

[Kymmy]

I think the question should by "on what charge was he arrested" which by the sound of it would have been trespassing as he was barred from the event and as Coney Island is private ground..

[Niles Crane]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_...a/10504627.stm


Well well I was just thinking this was sour grapes until I read.

Which seems perfectly fair to me.

However how much money are such competitions actually worth?Can one make a living through them?

All seems very odd to me.

I caught the very end of this competition on ESPN America yesterday, as i was flicking through channels. So as they have TV deals with such channels, i guess there must be a fair amount of money in it. There there'd seemed to be a pretty large attendance too.

[Charlie_Bubble]

People will watch anything if there is some kind of competitive element involved!