Come for riots and demolitions, stay for Will Ferrell: Promotions gone bad
In honour of #WhatAboutKaren, we look at some other sports promotions that went awry
Karen Kuldys thought she was $1 million richer Thursday.
- CFL fan Karen Kuldys thought she'd won $1m, but there was a flag on the play
- Hey Karen, what about some free tickets, groceries and air miles?
But in the grand tradition of sports promotions, something went wrong.
Here are some of the best:
Disco demolition night
The year was 1979 and the White Sox were struggling. Owner Bill Veeck wanted to put more butts in the seats. The team was averaging around 15,000 fans per game, well under Comiskey Park's capacity of 44,492.
Thus, disco demolition night was born. It was a doubleheader where fans could bring their old disco records and local disc jockey Steve Dahl would blow them all up in between the two games.
As it turned out, lots of people hated disco. The park was sold out with thousands more fans milling around outside.
After Dahl tore a massive hole in centre field with the explosion, fans began rushing the field and looting dugouts. The sheer chaos forced the White Sox to forgeit the second game.
If you give away baseballs, what do you expect?
The L.A. Dodgers were also forced to forfeit when a 1995 baseball giveaway proved ill-conceived.
In the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, balls started being thrown on the field before order was restored.
But in the ninth, with the Dodgers down 2-1, L.A. outfielder Raul Mondesi was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. That sparked a deluge of baseballs that chased the players from the field. Again order was restored, but when another balls was thrown after the game resumed, umpires quickly called a forfeit.
Cheap beer sounds like a good idea...
In 1974, Cleveland thought it could fill seats by offering 10-cent beers.
Shockingly, when people drink, they sometimes get angry and fight other people who are drinking and angry.
More recently, the Blue Jays looked to goose attendance with Toonie Tuesdays — $2 upper-deck tickets.
While beer consumption wasn't the intent, the cheap tickets left a lot of room in fans' budgets for alcohol purchases.
On one, fateful Toonie Tuesday, over 100 angry fans were ejected. The team then banned alcohol sales from the $2 sections, before ending the promotion entirely.
Run, Ashley!
Teams often lose control of fans during promotions. Take this 2007 Argonauts promotion, for example. All Ashley has to do is run through the banner.
Sure, she's blind-folded, but come on, Ashley!
Freight train incoming
Other times, teams lose control of their players.
Imagine getting tackled by LeBron. Not sure that's worth $75, 000. But hey, it's a good story once you recover.
Missed opportunity
Speaking of half-court shots, this fan would've won $50,000 for making a layup, free throw, three-pointer and half-court shot.
He hit the the first two, then went straight to half-court where he swished his shot. Sounds great, right?
Too bad he forgot about the three-pointer. It cost him the prize. At least he had the crowd behind him.
Will Ferrell gets booed
Fans in New Orleans were mortified when comedian Will Ferrell came out at half-time to attempt a half-court shot and instead pegged a cheerleader in the face.
The fans, who had no idea the whole thing was staged, assumed the Anchorman star was drunk when he was helped off the court.
It's probably the only time in Will Ferrell's life that he was booed.