The world of competitive hot dog eating was torn asunder on Tuesday by a divorce of almost unimaginable proportions. Major League Eating, the governing body of whatever sort of sport this is, said it had been forced to part ways with Joey Chestnut, the long-reigning champion of its marquee event, the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.
The split was made public on Tuesday the way shocking celebrity divorces often are: in the pages of The New York Post. In an interview with The New York Times, George Shea, the indefatigable host and promoter of the annual Fourth of July contest in Coney Island, sounded distraught.
Mr. Shea said he was “devastated” by the separation, which he described as the inevitable consequence of Mr. Chestnut’s decision to ink an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, a rival company that makes vegan hot dogs.
“It would be like back in the day Michael Jordan coming to Nike, who made his Air Jordans, and saying, ‘I am just going to rep Adidas too,’” Mr. Shea said. “It just can’t happen.”
Mr. Chestnut could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Impossible Foods declined to comment.
Mr. Chestnut won the contest last year for the 16th time, eating 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes in front of a crowd of cheering spectators and a wall of TV cameras that broadcast the spectacle to countries around the world, including on ESPN2 in the United States.
He shared the title with Miki Sudo, who won the women’s competition by eating 39.5 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
The hot dog eating contest began in the early 1970s, and for the past two decades it has been powered largely by the charisma of Mr. Shea, who rallies the crowd with wiener puns and thundering patriotism, and by the star power of Mr. Chestnut, whose ability to eat an enormous number of hot dogs is unmatched.
Together, the two men have turned the family-friendly summer event near the beach into must-watch midday TV.
This is not the first time the contest has had a falling-out with a high-profile eater. Takeru Kobayashi, who won the competition for six straight years before the rise of Mr. Chestnut, left the contest in 2010 after he refused to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating.
At the time, Mr. Shea shrugged off Mr. Kobayashi’s departure to the news media. But the loss of Mr. Chestnut stung. On Tuesday, Mr. Shea said his greatest wish was that Mr. Chestnut find a way to leave his new business relationship and come back to Major League Eating.
“It is like a gut punch,” Mr. Shea said. “To me this is a tradition; it is about New York; it is about the Fourth of July. But maybe that’s just me and not what this is like for everybody.”
Major League Eating hosts a number of eating events around the country. But the Fourth of July contest is its most popular. Mr. Shea said that without Mr. Chestnut it would be “a sad day,” and said that introducing him to the crowd each year was “one of the singular joys of my life.”
He said the first inkling of a problem became clear when Mr. Chestnut’s representatives approached Major League Eating earlier this year with a set of demands that surprised the organization.
One of those demands was that the organization increase Mr. Chestnut’s appearance fee, which it agreed to do. But Mr. Chestnut also wanted Major League Eating to accept deals he had already signed, including one to take part in a live Labor Day hot dog eating contest on a streaming platform, and another that included his endorsement of Impossible Foods.
Mr. Shea said the organization agreed to accept the streaming hot dog eating contest (even though it seemed like “a take on what we do”) because the event would not include the brand names of the hot dogs eaten.
But Nathan’s and Major League Eating could not countenance Mr. Chestnut’s advertising a rival hot dog brand, Mr. Shea added.
Still, he said he thought fans of the contest would feel his absence acutely.
“The fans are going to feel this way, and I feel this way: Where is Joey? What is he doing?” Mr. Shea said. “We want him there. If he can figure this out and not rep another hot dog brand, then it’s all good. He could come back tomorrow; you just can’t come representing a rival brand.”
But Mr. Shea, a consummate New York City showman, said that at the end of the day the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest was bigger than any one man.
“The contest is the institution — not me, not Joey, not anybody,” he said. “Him not being there opens up the entire contest for new champions.”
