Takeru Kobayashi Contract Dispute
On June 28, 2010, Takeru Kobayashi announced he would not compete in the Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog eating competition due to a labor impasse with Major League Eating over the stipulation that he could only compete in contests sanctioned by MLE. For the nine previous years, Kobayashi agreed to sign the same contract presented to him by MLE. Kobayashi, a six-time Nathan's winner, was in attendance at the contest, watching from the crowd. When he ran onto the stage after the contest, he was forcibly taken into custody by police. Major League Eating elected not to press charges. A Brooklyn judge later vacated all charges against him. The incident led to Nathan's removing Kobayashi's photo from their Wall of Fame.
On July 4, 2011 the owner of the Rooftop Garden Bar and Penthouse Lounge in New York City arranged a hot dog eating event featuring Takeru Kobayashi at the same time as the annual Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in an effort to get publicity. The official count of hot dogs eaten by Kobayashi was 69, a new world record. This number has been disputed inconclusively. Business Insider reported that Kobayashi had eaten 65 hot dogs and not 69 as he had claimed . Gothamist did a follow up story reporting that they couldn't validate either number due to the difficulty of counting hot dogs being eaten at that speed. Joey Chestnut, the former world record holder told reporters "I think even Kobayashi would agree that the record still stands at 68. And if he wants to compete with me on the Fourth of July, he knows what he has to do - sign a simple contract and man up." On September 5, 2011, Kobayashi competed in another hot dog contest in which he consumed 49 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
On June 30th 2012 Kobayashi revealed the MLE contract he was required to sign in order to compete in Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog eating competition. The year-long contract limited him to $40,000 and took away any rights to endorse or engage in anything outside of what MLE mandated.
On July 4th 2012 Kobayashi competed in a non-MLE sanctioned hot dog eating competition after the Nathan's Fourth of July hot dog eating competition and at the end of the competition the count was 68.5. It was later revealed that there was a miscount in plates and he had actually only ate 58.5 (Compared to Joey Chestnut who consumed 68). .
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