$25,000 Cash Waiting for Steve Bartman
Infamous Cub fan Steve Bartman failed to show up at the National Show despite the offer by the promoters and SportsBuy.com to pay Steve $25,000 for a single autograph. For the 24 hours prior to the 1 pm deadline, a briefcase filled with 250 $100 bills was on display. This gave gawkers, not to mention friends of Steve, ample opportunity to confirm the veracity of the offer with their own eyes.
By the time 1 pm came around, several hundred people were there waiting for Steve’s arrival. A 10 minute, then 5 minute and finally 1 minute countdown came and went after the briefcase was closed and taken away by the armed guards who had been watching the money.
One of the people who had been hoping for Steve to show up was the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) who would have been the recipient of the net proceeds of the sale of Steve’s autograph, which the promoters had estimated could sell in excess of $100,000.
The good news is that many people in attendance donated money to the JDFR anyway and the National Show organized a raffle benefiting the JDFR. They are a very worthy organization and we encourage all to support them. Please visit their site for more information.
We received quite a bit of emails concerning the promotion. Most (though not all) was in support of Steve feeling that he should show up and take our money. We agree. Our promotion was aimed to promote the National Show, get us some press for SportsBuy, and do something good for Chicago charities via the donation of net proceeds. We sorry if anyone was offended and the end result was that as promotions go it was quite a success.
Update:
Matthew Efron as Steve Bartman
No this isn’t the real Steve Bartman but someone dressed as him for Halloween. The sender did not tell us if people threw beer at him or if he was escorted out of the party.
August 1, 2008 at 3:28 am |
Why don’t you donate the $25,000 grand now…?
August 2, 2008 at 10:25 am |
“Why don’t you donate the $25,000 grand now…?”
We had the JDFR charity at the signing where they collected donations from us and others in attendance. The organizers of the National Show arranged a raffle sale during the Bartman event and all monies raised from those sales also went to the JDFR. The director at the event expressed his pleasure at the exposure and donations they garnered from the event. You are right that they are deserving and that is why we’ve included a direct link from this post to their site and plan to include them in future promotions. Of course if Steve had shown, much more money would have been raised but all-in-all it was pretty good for all.
August 3, 2008 at 12:42 pm |
If you truly expected Steve Bartman to participate in your sham wouldn’t it have made sense to communicate directly with him or his advisor? Why wasn’t JDRF mentioned in your original press release? I know for a fact from a media sourse that Steve’s advisor challenged you guys to make a donation to JDRF equal to the value of the publicity generated by your stunt. I’m glad they got something but but don’t take credit for including them. I don’t see that you guys wrote a check!!!
August 4, 2008 at 4:52 pm |
Hi Greg:
“If you truly expected Steve Bartman to participate in your sham wouldn’t it have made sense to communicate directly with him or his advisor?”
The whole point is that no one really knew where he was or at least with any certainty. The idea (which worked) was to use the media to spread the word. Some thought he was in Florida others said back in Chicago but most said that they had no idea. We figured if even a couple of people picked up the story that the word would get to him. $25,000 for a few minutes work seemed like it would be compelling enough to get him there.
“Why wasn’t JDRF mentioned in your original press release? I know for a fact from a media sourse that Steve’s advisor challenged you guys to make a donation to JDRF equal to the value of the publicity generated by your stunt.”
JDRF wasn’t part of the initial plan. As said above, we thought $25k cash would be enough to entice him. JDRF was added to sweeten the pot for Steve to show. Not only would he get money but so would this charity. The key was that he had to show up which is what we wanted all along. Of the hundreds of emails that came to us and the National Show, the one that you must be referring to cryptically told us to be ready to pay if he showed up. We were. There was a suitcase of cash just waiting for him.
“I’m glad they got something but but don’t take credit for including them. I don’t see that you guys wrote a check!!!”
The National Show put the JDRF table front and center at the promotion and mentioned them several times. They also organized the above mentioned raffle. As far as writing a check, where do you think the suitcase of cash came from? It would have gone to Steve and a lot more would probably have been generated from the auctioning of the photo.
Let’s not blow this out of proportion. Both we and the National Show got some nice exposure. It would only have been a “sham” if it wasn’t a legitimate offer. Up until the time he didn’t show we were thinking he would in fact make it. That email you referred to as well as hearing that he was back in Chicago made us think that we would be there and it would have been great if he did. While some media outlets picked up the story, many were in a wait and see mode to see if he showed. Most people that we and the National Show organizers heard from were supportive of Steve.
Would we do this type of promotion again? Probably not. Other than an offer for Jimmy Hoffa or DB Cooper, there isn’t anyone else who people were so curious about what had happened to them. Also, like Steve, they probably wouldn’t show up either. The fact that the National Show was in Chicago and people continued to talk about the incident so many years later were the elements that brought it all together. But the part that didn’t work was that he didn’t show up. We got 10% of what we would have otherwise gotten if he had come, picked up the money and signed something.
I’m going to turn off comments now. The promotion is over. You made some good points that I felt was worthy of clarifying but it’s time for us to move on.
September 2, 2009 at 1:07 pm |
I’m producing a film for ESPN’s upcoming “30/30″ documentary series. Do you have any footage of the event?