15 Sports Promotions That Went Horribly Wrong

By Shari Spiro

It’s a sports marketing professional’s job to build interest in the organizations and events he or she is promoting. But sometimes that interest isn’t exactly a good thing. Yes, no matter what you’ve heard, there can be such a thing as bad publicity. To make our case, we submit to you these 15 Sports Promotions That Went Horribly Wrong. Some are funny, some tragic. Some were bad luck, and others will make you wonder how the people who came up with them ever survived in the real world. Here goes!

1. EliteXC

The UFC was already established when Elite XC came along in 2006 hoping to make a splash with a network TV deal via CBS. The promotion gave the sport of MMA Gina Carano, Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, Marloes Coenen, Sarah Kaufman, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, and KJ Noons, to name a few. But it also loosened its criteria substantially when it took a chance on an Internet fighter named Kimbo Slice. Elite XC went to great lengths to protect Slice, feeding him opponents to protect an unbeaten record (against nobodies). But bad is bad, and it finally caught up with everyone when Slice fought journeyman heavyweight Seth Petruzelli and lost in an early knockout. Petruzelli later admitted that promoters asked him to keep the fight standing to make their guy look better. That lasted until he landed the first punch. Then it was pretty much out of his hands. Between betting on a loser and (basically) trying to fix the fight, Elite XC had a PR nightmare on their hands. But they wouldn’t have to deal with it long. The promotion folded after two more PPVs.

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2. McDonalds

McDonalds saw the 1984 Olympic Games as an excellent time to promote free Big Macs, fries, and soft drinks. “When the US wins, you win,” they proudly told customers. Unfortunately for their bottom line, they didn’t recall the 1980 US-led boycott of the Moscow Games, and when it came time for the US to host four years later, the Eastern bloc Communist countries returned the favor. That meant the US won medals — lots of them. And customers won something with virtually every game piece. What’s worse, when people would cash in their game pieces for free burgers, they would get more game pieces with more free stuff. While McD’s bottom line recovered nicely, you can bet some marketing folks had some explaining to do.

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3. XFL

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) head Vince McMahon conceived the idea to venture into professional football in 2000. For one year, he built hype surrounding the idea for the XFL, an “extreme” version of the game. One example: the “opening coin toss” would instead be handled by placing two players equidistant apart with a football in the center. At the blow of the whistle, they would have to make a rush for the pigskin, and whoever came out of the scrum triumphant won the option to kick or receive. Other “extreme” ideas: scantily clad cheerleaders and — well, that was about it. Same. Exact. Game. Only with annoying camera angles and less talent. Hardly worth the one year of promotion and the millions of dollars McMahon poured into it. XFL was out of business after the first season. (For those keeping score, the Los Angeles Xtreme were the first and only champions.) For more info, head over to the XFL tribute site.

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4. West Michigan Whitecaps

In 2006, someone from the West Michigan Whitecaps minor league baseball organization thought it would be a great idea to have a cash drop at Fifth Third Ballpark, the team’s home stadium. The Whitecaps had just scored a 3-0 victory over their opponents. Children from ages five to 12 lined the outfield fence as a helicopter flew overhead and dropped about $1,000 in cash. Two kids, both age seven, were trampled in the melee, though thankfully, not killed. Club representative Katie Kroft’s response to ESPN: “It’s for fun and games. … This is why we have everybody sign a waiver.”

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5. Evel Knievel

Robert Craig Knievel (aka Evel Knievel) became a household name with his infamous jump of the fountains at Caesars Palace on December 31, 1967. The total distance was 141 feet. It was to be the longest of his career, but when Knievel hit the ramp, he felt his bike decelerate and came up short on the other side, resulting in a spectacular crash. He paid for the filming of the stunt himself and was able to fetch a large amount of money for it from ABC’s Wide World of Sports. However, he also crushed his pelvis and femur and had a number of other fractures to his hip, ankles, and wrist. The crash also left him with a concussion that placed him in a coma for 29 days, according to Motorcycle Classics. For the rest of Knievel’s life, he would be uninsurable.

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6. LeBron James

On July 8, 2010, LeBron James would make one of the most ill-advised, self-important “decisions” that a pro athlete has ever made. No, it wasn’t deciding to join Cleveland’s rival team the Miami Heat, though that had something to do with it. It was instead “The Decision” to end his free agency in an hour-long event, televised on ESPN, without first telling anyone else — not coaches, teammates, fans, nobody. Now we’re not going to say James is a bad dude. He later lamented that he should have handled things differently, and we respect that. But at the time it was a pretty big D move, and it’s one that his image will never recover from in his home state of Ohio.

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7. Steve Dahl and Garry Meier of 97.9 WLUP

No list of sports promotions that went horribly wrong would be complete without including the July 12, 1979, contest between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. The game took place at Comiskey Park, and it would achieve infamy for doubling as Disco Demolition Night. Steve Dahl and Garry Meier of 97.9 WLUP radio invited everyone to bring their disco records for an epic meltdown. The White Sox organization expected about 20,000 people. Anywhere from 50,000 to 90,000 showed up, and they were all looking to say goodbye to the BeeGees forever. Disco records sailed like flying saucers onto the field even after Dahl had collected a heap in a giant box that he exploded between games of a two-night doubleheader. Before the night was through, the White Sox were forced to forfeit game two, and riot police had to be called in.

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8. WWE Over the Edge

Most of the entries on this list of sports promotions that went horribly wrong at least have the advantage of never resulting in an actual death. Not so in the case of the 1999 WWE Over the Edge pay-per-view. Owen Hart was playing a superhero-like character known as The Blue Blazer. Part of the gimmick involved him swooping down from the rafters from around 70 feet in the air. Unfortunately, an equipment malfunction early in the descent resulted in Hart plummeting to his death inside the ring. The attempt at promoting Hart’s character ended in tragedy in front of a live audience and millions watching at home.

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9. Jose and Ozzie Canseco

Jose Canseco and Ozzie Canseco look a lot alike. So much so that Jose, who was attempting an ill-fated post-baseball boxing career tried to pull a switcheroo on fans at a Celebrity Boxing matchup in Hollywood, Florida. Promoter Damon Feldman didn’t notice, but his handlers did. Ozzie never stepped into the ring, and unfortunately for Feldman, he’d already paid the former Oakland A’s slugger Jose $5,000 — a disaster for Feldman’s pocketbook and for the Canseco brothers’ reputations. (Not that they’re that concerned about it.)

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10. Umbro

Umbro is a big name in the field of sports clothing, but even the giants can make mistakes. Big ones. Like naming a shoe after the Zyklon gas used by the Nazis to kill Jewish people during World War II. An Umbro spokesperson later lamented, “We regret that there are people who are offended by the name. The naming of the shoe is purely coincidental and was not intended to communicate any connotations.” They later dropped the line altogether.

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11. Blue Collar Brawlin’

Blue Collar Brawlin’ in Fort Smith, Arkansas, was supposed to be a regional MMA event with $1 beer, but little did patrons know, Sacha Baron Cohen had arranged a graphic scene of erotic wrestling with another man inside the cage as the “main event.” He was shooting footage for his upcoming mockumentary Bruno. A drunken riot bolstered by an arena full of drunken anti-homosexual southerners ensued. Amazingly, Cohen and his wrestling partner escaped alive, but it wasn’t from lack of trying.

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12. Los Angeles Dodgers

Following the 1979 Chicago White Sox forfeit on Disco Demolition Night (see no. 7), there wasn’t another in the Major Leagues until a 1995 matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. Not coincidentally, that was the same night of the promotion known as Ball Night at Dodger Stadium. A number of fans received Dodgers baseballs for attending the game, which found the Cards leading 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth. That’s when Raul Mondesi struck out and launched into a tirade against the umpire that would end with him and manager Tommy LaSorda getting ejected from the game. Fans reacted by refunding their balls onto the field. Some reports have placed the total at more than 200. Once the balls were cleaned up, more were thrown onto the field, and at that point, the ump called it.

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13. Cleveland Indians

Alcohol has been a recurring theme with sports promotions that went horribly wrong, and 10-Cent Beer Night in 1974 was no exception. The offending party was the Cleveland Indians organization. The scene was Municipal Stadium. More than 60,000 cups of brew sold at 10 cents a pop made for a drunken melee that involved rampant streaking, fireworks, and the riot police. Before the end, fans and players from Cleveland and their opponents, the Texas Rangers, engaged in the physicality, resulting in a Major League disaster.

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14. Reebok

The short story behind the “Dan and Dave” campaign is this: Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson were tremendous track-and-field athletes, and Reebok, looking to claim market share from Nike, decided to pit them “against” one another in a friendly competition that would be played out through print and broadcast media for eight months leading up to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. America would watch the men grow up in a series of home movies from when they were kids. The country would have two titans to represent and, probably, win the gold. Except that didn’t happen. In fact, Dan O’Brien failed three times to clear his entry height of 15 feet, nine inches in the pole vault, and would not even make the Olympics. Dave Johnson would win one medal — a bronze — but that was it. Both men rebounded beautifully and O’Brien would eventually win the gold in 1996. But the “Dan and Dave” campaign? Dead in the water. Mental Floss has a nice breakdown if you’d like to know more.

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15. Hooters

When Hooters offered PGA golfer John Daly all the food and drink he could possibly consume as part of an endorsement deal in 2008, they probably should have checked to see if he was an alcoholic before drawing up the contracts. In October of that year, Daly took them up on those perks, especially the booze part, and one Saturday night, he got so hammered drunk that cops were forced to come out to Hooters and take him into custody. According to a report from ESPN, police described Daly as “extremely intoxicated and uncooperative.” Not exactly the way you want your spokesperson to advertise your business. He’s still awesome, though.

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Those are our top picks for sports promotions that went horribly wrong. What are yours? Share your thoughts below.

Tagged as: dave and dan, Evel Knievel, hooters, jose canseco, lebron james, mcdonalds, promotions, reebok, sports, wwe