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Chicago Tribune
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Doc10's Anthony Kaufman on why documentary film are imperiled — and why they'll survive
The 10th edition of Doc10, Chicago's annual long weekend of nonfiction filmmaking from well, everywhere, opens with something from here: 'Move Ya Body: The Birth of House,' a Sundance Film Festival premiere earlier this year. It examines a dubious origin story with a delayed happy ending, about Comiskey Park's notorious, literally inflammatory Disco Demolition night in 1979 and how a Major League Baseball-sponsored joke turned into a riot — and lit the fuse for the global phenomenon of South Side Chicago house music. A 10-film showcase can do only so much, yet Doc10 does a lot each year, taking the pulse of our world as seen through the cameras of mavericks on a mission. In this year's crop, one film was shot under fire in Ukraine after the Russian invasion ('2000 Meters to Andriivka'), while another follows the nerve-wracking trail of a whistleblower targeted for assassination ('Antidote'). Closer to home, you'll find a cautionary tale of a Florida woman who's both perpetrator and, in her eyes, victim ('The Perfect Neighbor'). Doc10's home base remains the Davis Theater in Lincoln Square and, for two screenings on May 4, the Gene Siskel Film Center. Preceding the main lineup, several free community screenings pop up this week around Chicago. Doc10 is presented once again by the nonprofit documentary funding and producing organization Chicago Media Project. And head programmer Anthony Kaufman is responsible for what you'll be seeing. The New York City native is also a senior programmer at the Chicago International Film Festival; an adjunct professor at DePaul University specializing in documentary film; and a longtime film critic and journalist, focusing on nonfiction work. In recent years, Kaufman, 53, has written for Indiewire and other outlets about the stiff headwinds nonfiction filmmakers face. Netflix, Hulu and others now favor a fatty, low-protein diet of true crime and celebrity profile quickies. In the public sector, meantime, the Trump administration has targeted the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for elimination. 'It's hard, and maybe not sustainable,' Kaufman told me in our conversation the other day, on his back patio near Northwestern University. He's married to associate professor Ariel Rogers, who teaches in the Northwestern School of Communication's Radio/Television/Film department. On the other hand, Kaufman says: 'It's never been sustainable. Yet these filmmakers somehow find a way.' The following has been edited for clarity and length. Q: At a pretty bizarre time in American life and politics, and with stories of global conflicts with no endings in sight, what can the documentary genre give us? A: One thing documentaries can do, I think, especially documentaries about current crises, is give us the long view. Or the deep view, the one we're not getting from sound bites, or YouTube videos, or the administration's statements. When you see a film like '2000 Meters to Andriivka' that puts you on the front line, in Ukraine, you understand what's happening. You understand the stakes. You get a deeper, more substantive view that is not manipulate-able by propaganda. In this case, the filmmaker (Mstyslav Chernov, who will introduce the May 4 screening at the Siskel Film Center) was on the front lines with the soldiers, in the middle of firefights, risking his life. With Doc10, over the last decade, we've built an audience that's passionate about so many issues. And they're eager to hear the filmmakers come and talk about them. Q: Is it my imagination, or are we living in a moment when every single day, there's another five potential subjects for a full-length documentary, crying out to be made? A: That's how it feels, all right. There's a major event that happens, like the Luigi Mangione assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and two weeks later, you see the documentary on Hulu. Maybe terrible and certainly sensational, but there it is. Q. Of the 10 documentaries you picked this year, who's working in more unconventional storytelling form? A: I'd say two, in different ways. One is 'Mistress Dispeller,' made by the Chinese American filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, who we're bringing in (for the May 4 screening). In the film, she goes to China and tells the story of these people who are hired to break up husbands cheating on their wives with their mistresses. Nothing is fiction, nothing is staged, but the film puts us in real time with the mistress dispeller, working with this husband and wife. She's been hired by the wife to bring her husband back, to convince him to end this affair. And she's also working on the mistress to convince her to leave this married man. So it feels like a drama, a fiction film. The other one is called 'Ghost Boy,' by the director of 'Room 237,' Rodney Ascher, who works with a really innovative use of reenactments. It's about a 12-year-old who fell into a coma for three years and woke up with 'locked-in syndrome.' He couldn't communicate with the outside world, but he was fully conscious. And with these surreal visual reenactments, the film puts you in his headspace during that time. It's using fictional storytelling techniques to tell this guy's story. Q: When a documentary hits a moment right, is it just lucky timing or something more? A: It can be both. You remember 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?', the Morgan Neville doc (from 2018, a huge hit) about Fred Rogers? That could've been made any time, or released any time, but it came out in the middle of the first Trump administration, at a point when America really needed the reminder that goodness and compassion were good things. Through sheer coincidence of timing, it was exactly the right moment. This year, it may be 'The Perfect Neighbor' (picked up for streaming rights by Netflix) that does something similar. It cuts to the bone of the current racial conflicts and questions, battles, really, over diversity, equity and inclusion, but in an indirect way. Q: What are documentary filmmakers up against now that they weren't a few years ago, in terms of getting their work out into the world? A: Filmmakers and documentary producers I've talked to started to worry about shifts a year or two ago. Before that shift, it was a kind of golden age, when a lot of streamers put a lot of money into documentaries. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon. It was a kind of golden age, right during COVID. Then the streaming companies realized what was doing well, according to their algorithms. True crime and celebrities. That's what got the eyeballs. And now, virtually all of the attention is on that. And everything else, they leave out. This has not helped documentary filmmakers who don't want to make a movie about Katy Perry in space. So that's been a struggle. And now we have the gutting of the NEA and the NEH, which a lot of filmmakers and funders relied on for making their work. The threat to public media, to PBS, is a threat to both the financing and the release of documentary filmmaking. It'll be catastrophic for independent documentaries and independent media, period, across the country. Q: As someone whose life's work is so tied to this art form, do you ever give up hope? A: The whole ecosystem is changing, and it's hard. And maybe not sustainable. But I take heart from two things. One is, it's never been sustainable (laughs). And the second thing is: Artists create, no matter what. Someone told me — maybe it's a famous quote, I'm not sure — that optimism is a political tool. (Futurist Alex Steffen said something like it: 'Choosing and voicing optimism is a powerful political action.') I think we need to take heart from that. It's disadvantageous for us to absorb defeatism. Think of all the great art, the great films, that came out of crisis and political oppression. Film and art find a way. And documentary filmmakers are not a privileged bunch. They've never needed much. Unlike the fiction film industry, which is far more capital intensive, documentary filmmakers are, by nature, scrappy and determined and not really pressured by the market. They tell stories because they feel like they have to. And as you said, every day, there's another incredible documentary subject, waiting for the right filmmaker. We'll see what we see, a year or two from now.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
White Sox lose first series of season Sunday — the first of many to come — as runs dry up
CHICAGO — When the rain came Sunday to the South Side, it was late but not unexpected. Predicted showers for the rubber match of the Angels-White Sox series held off until the bottom of the seventh inning, but when the downpour came, it happened quickly. With wind and hail coming down, the Rate Field grounds crew couldn't get the tarp unfurled in time because it got stuck, and the result was a patchwork quilt of smaller tarps and a very wet field. We're getting close to the finished product. The White Sox have a lot of tarps. — Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) March 30, 2025 Groundskeeper Roger Bossard, the famed 'Sodfather,' said he's seen a lot in his days manning a tarp, but nothing like this. 'I've had some trying times in my career, eight inches of snow before opening day, stuff like that,' he told CHSN's Brooke Fletcher in the rare dugout interview with the groundskeeper. 'This one takes the cake. I don't ever remember hail while I was pulling the tarp, and I used close to four tons of drying compound. I'm so proud of the crew, we all hung together and everything turned out well.' Hard as it is to believe, Bossard later claimed the rain — which really didn't last that long, comparatively — was a weather event of historical proportions and he's worked here since 1967. Bossard: "I have to be honest with you. Disco Demolition is No. 1 on my hit list of course. This is probably No. 2. I've never run into where I had 3 inches of water on the infield and then got it ready. I'm proud of my crew and the job they did." — Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) March 30, 2025 After a nearly three-hour rain delay, the field was dry enough and the White Sox and Angels resumed action. The aftermath was familiar: Sox hitters stranded some runners, a reliever gave up a homer and the Angels won, 3-2. Unlike last season, the Sox at least spent a few days without a losing record. Advertisement Four tons of drying compound to play 2 1/2 innings and lose a game? The team's RSN isn't being carried by Comcast yet, so they're already short on dough. I don't know how bad this will dent the budget, but I think the 2005 reunion later this summer is going to have a cash bar. If that turn of events happened last season — a tarp malfunction followed immediately by a late-inning loss — the takes would've pelted the Sox like the persistent hail that so vexed Bossard's crew. You know, #LOLSox and all that. But it's a new season on the South Side, a fresh start for a team in desperate need of a total makeover, so no one was ribbing them too hard. After all, the Sox proved the haters wrong by winning their first game of the season, 8-1, before ceding to said haters by losing the next two with almost no offense to speak of. Still, they only lost each game by a run, so is it too early to start whipping votes for Will Venable for manager of the year? Can the Sox pitch their way to meeting my bold prediction of 56 wins, equaling Mark Buehrle's jersey number in the year of his statue unveiling? Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox. Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox. Venable and his boss, general manager Chris Getz, can certainly be pleased with the results from their starting pitchers in the first series. Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon each had scoreless outings (six and five innings, respectively) and Sunday's starter, Davis Martin, gave up two unearned runs in six innings. Veteran journeyman Martín Pérez starts in Monday's matinee against the Minnesota Twins and then the rotation's wild card, Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, starts Tuesday night. The pitching in the minors is the strength of the organization, and while big lefties Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith, along with hitters like Kyle Teel or Colson Montgomery, are more interesting to follow for Sox fans these days, don't sleep on this early series with the Twins. If the Sox are hoping to avoid total embarrassment at the big-league level, beating a divisional rival every once in a while would help. Advertisement Last year, the Sox went 10-42 against the AL Central, helping the Royals and Tigers make the playoffs as wild cards. The Twins won 12 of 13 against them, but still finished in fourth. Heck, the White Sox won only eight series in 2024, but how many times did they have a chance like Sunday? When the rain began, I was in the press box researching how many times the Sox lost the rubber game last year, mostly because I wasn't sure how many times they actually won one of the first two games of a series. As it turned out, it happened 17 times and the Sox went 5-12 in such games. That .294 winning percentage was actually better than the .253 that comes with a 41-121 record. OK, I promise I'll stop bringing up 2024! Soon. It was my first time at the park this season, so I spent a lot of time walking around before the game, doing important work like cataloguing the price of concessions, taking pictures of T-shirts and trying food. The vibes were good — except for the people booing former Sox disappointment Yoán Moncada — and it was a typical Sox Sunday crowd, busy but not packed, with the longest line coming at the concourse's balloon animal artist. An announced crowd of 19,951 showed up, which was an improvement of more than 2,000 from the team's first Sunday game last year. Overall, the first series drew about 7,500 fewer people over three games. The Opening Day crowd of 31,403 was the franchise's lowest since 1999 (not including the 2020-21 seasons), which portends a tough season at the gate. It'll be tough for the fans to get as angry about the team as they were the past few years, but malaise is a different story. The Sox are trying to combat this with another strong promotional calendar for its 125th anniversary season, and without recognizable names — the team only sells jerseys of three current players at the park: Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi — and winning baseball, free stuff will have to be a major draw. The Sox say brighter days are ahead, but first, a deluge of losses is on the way and I'm afraid the Sox will likely have as much success fighting that storm as Bossard's grounds crew did on Sunday. (Photo of Kyren Paris celebrating his home run in the eighth inning: David Banks / Imagn Images)
Chicago Tribune
23-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Winning isn't everything, as Chicago White Sox fans have learned in 125 years. But you can still have fun.
A large photograph of former President Barack Obama with former Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams and several players and employees still graces the walls of the team's spring training facility at Camelback Ranch. It seems like a lifetime ago to many Sox fans, but 20 years ago, their heroes ruled the baseball world and Obama, with a No. 1 Sox jersey, was the leader of the free world. It might have been the greatest season in the 125-year history of the Sox, a franchise associated with the game's darkest scandal and one that often plays in the shadows of the crosstown Cubs. It's a season in sharp contrast to last year's 121-loss campaign, the worst in modern-day history. As the Sox celebrate their 125th season in 2025, they can look back at moments grand and ghastly, from the 1919 Black Sox to the Go-Go Sox of 1959, from Disco Demolition in 1979 to Winning Ugly in 1983. It's not easy being a Sox fan, as original owner Charles Comiskey offered in his ghost-written autobiography, 'Commy,' when revealing the risks of putting a team here when the American League began in 1901. 'It had been predicted that the South Side would prove a morgue for any league team,' he wrote. 'As South Siders had never given any evidence of taking kindly to the national pastime.' The Sox won the World Series in their sixth season in 1906, beating the hated Cubs in a six-game series and earning praise as the 'Hitless Wonders' for their paltry .230 average. Four years later, they moved into a new ballpark at the corner of 35th Street and Shields Avenue, described as the 'Baseball Palace of the World' that would later be named after Comiskey. If it seemed like the Sox would be a team to reckon with for decades, that was only natural. Instead, they would only win two more World Series — 1917 and 2005 — leaving their hard-bitten fans disappointed more often than not. But those hard times made the good years that much sweeter. A season could be memorable without a pennant. Dick Allen 'saved' the franchise in 1972, turning his reputation around in an MVP season that included his memorable 'Chili Dog home run' against the hated New York Yankees. The Sox won 87 games and finished in second place, 5 ½ games out of first that season. But who cared? A man with a plan was at work and a proud fan group could hold their heads high again. 1977's South Side Hit Men won the hearts of fans despite a glaring lack of pitching and defense, the pillars of winning baseball. They simply outslugged everyone, setting off the exploding scoreboard, taking curtain calls and sending the crowd into a frenzy with the silly, but catchy, lullaby, 'Na, Na, Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Goodbye,' after an opposing pitcher was removed. They wound up 90-72 and in third place, 12 games out of first. But who cared? As long as Harry Caray was hanging out of the TV booth, Nancy Faust was on the organ and players such as Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble were aiming for the roof, everyone was happy. It happened again 13 years later in 1990, the final year of the old ballpark, when a young, scrappy team led by Carlton Fisk and Jack McDowell won 94 games and challenged the mighty Oakland A's all summer long. That team finished second, nine games back. But who cared? The Sox sent the ballpark off with a party that went on and on. Tears were shed after the final out, as players walked around the outfield, saluting fans with sunlight gleaming through the arches. Time moved on, and the White Sox got a new ballpark across the street, a shiny ballmall with an upper deck so steep vendors were designated as honorary sherpas. Under many names, including its latest iteration — Rate Field — it would never be as beloved as old Comiskey Park. Even now, current boss Jerry Reinsdorf is trying to get a newer, shinier park in the South Loop with the help of other people's money. Many fear Reinsdorf — or his heirs — will ultimately sell to a billionaire with no Chicago ties who will move the team to another town, ending a longtime South Side tradition and leaving fans without a local team to root for besides the Cubs. Not that that would ever happen. The teams change and the old ballpark is history, but Sox fans haven't changed. 1 of 13 Gus Doukas, 20, Gene Bak, Leo Tonkl, 21, and Bill Loewe, 20, all of Chicago, entertain themselves as they wait to purchase tickets at Comiskey Park on Oct. 1, 1959, for Game 1 of the World Series between the White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers. (Tom Kinahan/Chicago Tribune) They are the same people whose parents and grandparents came to Comiskey to watch Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio turn a double play. Or see Frank Thomas smack a double into the gap or Mark Buerhle confound hitters while working quickly, the way God meant baseball to be played. You didn't have to be a superstar to earn the respect of Sox fans. You just had to work hard and be accountable. Former Tribune writer Bill Granger wrote that the Sox, unlike the Cubs, were always the 'workingman's team' and Comiskey Park was the one place where people gathered to 'put aside the cudgels of hatred, put aside the bleakness of everyday life, put aside everything petty to move in their separate ways to seats to watch serious baseball. Everyday life — sometimes low and mean and as back-breaking as digging a ditch — took a time out on those lingering summer Sunday afternoons and on those bright Wednesday nights of hope and cheer.' Sox history is dotted with colorful nicknames such as 'No Neck,' 'Pudge' and 'Yermínator.' It includes short stories such as the shirtless father and son who attacked an opposing coach, mysterious bullets that hit fans in the left field bleachers, Nolan Ryan's noogie to Robin Ventura, Tony Phillips punching a Milwaukee Brewers fan, and the greatest moment in Cubs-Sox history: the brawl that began when Cubs catcher Michael Barrett clocked catcher A.J. Pierzynski after a collision at home. Characters were plenty — from Minnie Miñoso to Ozzie Guillén — and legacies were built and stayed strong. Groundskeeper Roger 'Sodfather' Bossard followed in his father's footsteps. His worst nightmare happened when the field was torn up in a Disco Demolition promotion gone awry, but he still has a black-and-white photo of the carnage in his office. There were controversies, of course, from the White Flag trade in 1997 to the LaRoche family drama, where Adam LaRoche retired because the team stopped letting his young son, Drake, have a locker in the clubhouse. Caray and Jimmy Piersall became a legendary duo without a filter, earning the wrath of manager Tony La Russa and the love of Sox Nation. Caray left for the Cubs booth when Reinsdorf called him 'scum' while celebrating the Sox's 1983 division title and later apologized for the language, though not the thought. Former owner Bill Veeck, the greatest salesman in baseball history, boycotted the ballpark in his final years after co-owner Eddie Einhorn slighted Veeck by saying he and Reinsdorf would turn the team into a 'high-class organization.' Sox fans now chant 'Sell the Team' to the owner who once replaced Andy the Clown with mascots Ribbie and Roobarb, who let broadcaster Jason Benetti leave the team he loved for a job in Detroit, and who foisted boorish and fan-unfriendly Terry Bevington on them with a team that was capable of winning with even a mediocre manager. From messages on the 'Soxogram,' to the various caps and uniforms, to bleachers showers and fireworks, watching games was never run of the mill. Even during the 121-loss disaster of 2024, the Sox made themselves heard. This might not be the season Sox fans have dreamed about, but if they can somehow find the spirit of those teams from 1972, 1977, 1990 and other memorable seasons, no one will care. Winning isn't everything, as Sox fans have learned the hard way. But you can still have fun at the old ballpark.
Chicago Tribune
12-02-2025
- Automotive
- Chicago Tribune
From a Chicago Bulls fan winning $1M to a putt for a Porsche: How in-game contests keep sports fans engaged
LINCOLN, Neb. — Like he had done many times before, Travis Weber went to Pinnacle Bank Arena with his uncle last month to watch a Nebraska men's basketball game. The game against USC was no ordinary outing for the 42-year-old from Lincoln. Far from it. He went home the winner of a 2025 Porsche Macan valued at $75,000. All he had to do was putt a golf ball the length of the court through a tiny slot at the bottom of a board. Video of his slow-rolling putt, all 94 feet of it, and his Tiger Woods fist pump went viral. Every night across the country, fans vie for prizes in contests staged during breaks in the action at sporting events big and small. In basketball, it might be half-court shots or length-of-the-court putts. In football, it might be throwing a ball at a target or kicking a field goal. In hockey, it might be taking a shot from center ice. The vast majority of these real-people efforts come and go with polite applause from the crowd, an amusing distraction while the real athletes are getting a rest. Some of them are a lot more fun than that, with explosions of joy and disbelief that something great just happened — and it has been that way for a long time. Jim Kahler, director of the Sports & Entertainment Management Program at Cleveland State University, said in-game contests have been part of the fan experience since the mid-20th century. Bill Veeck was famous for the wacky ways he engaged fans as a minor- and major-league baseball owner — you may remember his 1979 Disco Demolition debacle at a Chicago White Sox game — and Kahler said the late NBA Commissioner David Stern encouraged franchises to emphasize entertainment as much as the game itself. 'Those breaks at halftime and quarter breaks and two-minute timeouts became valuable inventory,' said Kahler, who previously was chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 'You could tie it to the growth of sponsorship. You've got more and more sponsors than ever before. Teams are smart enough to sell those spots. The sponsor and the team have to figure out something that's interactive and engage with the fans in a way the fans appreciate. 'Then it kind of became the arms race of who can come up with the better idea.' The chances of winning Of course, there is risk involved with offering prizes worth tens of thousands of dollars. About a half-dozen companies in the United States assume that risk for sponsors and make good on payoffs to contest winners. Bob Hamman, who founded Dallas-based SCA Promotions in 1986, and his son and company vice president Chris Hamman base their fees on the odds they set for each contest. For example, Bob Hamman said, there's a 50% chance a person picked at random will make a free throw. That drops to 14% for a 3-pointer and 2% for a half-court shot. For Weber's putt at Nebraska, Pennsylvania-based Interactive Promotions Group wrote the insurance policy to mitigate Porsche of Omaha's risk of having to give away the $75,000 Macan. IPG CEO and co-founder Greg Esterhai said the chances of a random fan making a 94-foot putt into a 3-by-3-inch slot are 1 in 100. IPG set the premium at $16,200 to cover a total of eight attempts — one contestant per game for eight games. Esterhai said the claim for Weber's Porsche was approved after IPG reviewed video of the putt and verified conditions were met, such as Weber never having played golf professionally and not having been allowed a practice attempt. At UMass, there was a recent dispute over payment for a $10,000 half-court shot, with the school announcing last week it would pay off the winner after the insurance company covering the prize was said to have reneged because the contestant's foot was over the line. Esterhai said that IPG insures about $2 million in prizes for thousands of in-game contests each year and that there are about 250 winners, but only one or two take home a prize valued at $75,000 or more. Asked if he roots for contestants to win, Bob Hamman paused. 'Well, not really,' he said, laughing. 'But generally speaking, we know there has to be winners. If there are no winners, we have no business.' The joy of winning Chris Hamman said a watershed moment for in-game contests occurred in 1993, when Chicago Bulls fan Don Calhoun's overhand throw from the opposite free-throw line swished through the hoop 80 feet away for $1 million. The insurance company balked at paying because Calhoun had walked on to play basketball at two junior colleges a few years earlier and played in a handful of games. That was disqualifying, according to the insurance company. The Bulls — reportedly with Michael Jordan's involvement — and sponsors ended up making good on the payoff. Porsche of Omaha has conducted the putting contest for four years at Nebraska basketball games. Weber said a Nebraska athletics employee tapped him on the shoulder a couple of minutes before tipoff to ask if he wanted to be the putter during a break in the first half. Weber readily accepted. He owns and operates a home inspection business and is an occasional golfer. Putting, he said, is the strength of his game. Weber said his strategy was to aim straight at the target. Fortunately, he pushed the putt a bit right and it began to break to the left about 6 or 7 feet from the slot and went through. Weber said Tuesday he expects to take delivery of his Porsche in a couple of weeks. Naturally, he chose Huskers red as the color. 'I had never been selected for a contest ever,' he said. 'I wanted to do the free throw, half-court shot thing. Never got to. I guess this was something I'm actually good at, putting, so that helped my odds a little bit.' Some numbers associated with these in-game contests: 1993 The year Bulls fan Don Calhoun swished a shot of about 80 feet, from the opposite free-throw line, to win $1 million. The Bulls and sponsors paid Calhoun after the insurance company reneged, saying he was disqualified because he had played in a handful of junior college basketball games. Calhoun's million-dollar shot is considered the moment in-game contests took off in popularity. 1 in 2 Chances a random fan will make a free throw, according to contest insurer SCA Promotions. 1 in 7 Chances a random fan will make a 3-point shot, according to SCA. 1 in 50 Chances a random fan will make a half-court shot, according to contest insurer Interactive Promotions Group. SCA Promotions sets the chances at 1 in 49. 1 in 100 Chances a random fan will make a length-of-the-court putt (94 feet) into a 3-by-3-inch slot, according to IPG and SCA. 1 in 200 Chances a random hockey fan will make a shot from center ice into a 4-inch slot at the bottom of a board covering the goal 89 feet away, according to SCA. $1,000 Estimated insurance premium for SCA to cover the risk of having to give away $10,000 in a half-court shooting contest, according to SCA vice president Chris Hamman. The premium would cover five attempts by five different contestants. $16,200 Insurance premium paid to IPG to cover the risk of Porsche of Omaha having to give away a $75,000 Porsche Macan to Travis Weber, who made a 94-foot putt into a 3-by-3-inch slot in Nebraska's Putt for a Porsche contest. The premium covered eight attempts by different contestants over eight games.
The Independent
11-02-2025
- Automotive
- The Independent
Long putts, halfcourt shots and other in-game contests keep fans engaged and raise the fun factor
Like he had done many times before, Travis Weber went to Pinnacle Bank Arena with his uncle last month to watch a Nebraska men's basketball game. The game against Southern California was no ordinary outing for the 42-year-old from Lincoln. Far from it. He went home the winner of a 2025 Porsche Macan valued at $75,000. All he had to do was putt a golf ball the length of the court through a tiny slot at the bottom of a board. Video of his slow-rolling putt, all 94 feet of it, and his Tiger Woods fist pump went viral. Every night across the country, fans vie for prizes in contests staged during breaks in the action at sporting events big and small. In basketball, it might be halfcourt shots or length-of-the-court putts. In football, it might be throwing a ball at a target or kicking a field goal. In hockey, it might be taking a shot from center ice. The vast majority of these real people efforts come and go with polite applause from the crowd, an amusing distraction while the real athletes are getting a rest. Some of them are a lot more fun than that, with explosions of joy and disbelief that something great just happened — and it's been that way for a long time. Jim Kahler, director of the Sports & Entertainment Management Program at Cleveland State University, said in-game contests have been part of the fan experience since the mid-20th century. Bill Veeck was famous for the wacky ways he engaged fans as a minor and major league baseball owner — you may remember his 1979 Disco Demolition debacle at a Chicago White Sox game — and Kahler said the late NBA Commissioner David Stern encouraged franchises to emphasize entertainment as much as the game itself. 'Those breaks at halftime and quarter breaks and two-minute timeouts became valuable inventory,' said Kahler, who previously was chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 'You could tie it to the growth of sponsorship," Kahler said. "You've got more and more sponsors than ever before. Teams are smart enough to sell those spots. The sponsor and the team have to figure out something that's interactive and engage with the fans in a way the fans appreciate. Then it kind of became the arms race of who can come up with the better idea.' The chances of winning Of course, there is risk involved with offering prizes worth tens of thousands of dollars. About a half-dozen companies in the United States assume that risk for sponsors and make good on payoffs to contest winners. Bob Hamman, who founded Dallas-based SCA Promotions in 1986, and his son and company vice president Chris Hamman base their fees on the odds they set for each contest. For example, Bob Hamman said, there's a 50% chance a person picked at random will make a free throw. That drops to 14% for a 3-pointer and 2% for a halfcourt shot. For Weber's putt at Nebraska, Pennsylvania-based Interactive Promotions Group wrote the insurance policy to mitigate Porsche of Omaha's risk of having to give away the $75,000 Macan. IPG CEO and co-founder Greg Esterhai said the chances of a random fan making a 94-foot putt into a 3-inch by 3-inch slot are 1 in 100. IPG set the premium at $16,200 to cover a total of eight putting attempts — one contestant per game for eight games. Esterhai said the claim for Weber's Porsche was approved after IPG reviewed video of the putt and verified conditions were met, such as Weber never having played golf professionally and not having been allowed a practice attempt. At UMass, there was a recent dispute over payment for a $10,000 halfcourt shot, with the school announcing last week it would pay off the winner after the insurance company covering the prize was said to have reneged because the contestant's foot was over the line. Esterhai said IPG insures about $2 million in prizes for thousands of in-game contests each year and that there are about 250 winners, but only one or two take home a prize valued at $75,000 or more. Asked if he roots for contestants to win, Bob Hamman paused. 'Well, not really,' he said, laughing. 'But generally speaking, we know there has to be winners. If there are no winners, we have no business.' The joy of winning Chris Hamman said a watershed moment for in-game contests occurred in 1993, when Chicago Bulls fan Don Calhoun's overhand throw from the opposite free-throw line swished through the hoop 80 feet away for $1 million. The insurance company balked at paying because Calhoun had walked on to play basketball at two junior colleges a few years earlier and played in a handful of games. That was disqualifying, according to the insurance company. The Bulls — reportedly with Michael Jordan's involvement — and sponsors ended up making good on the payoff. Porsche of Omaha has conducted the putting contest for four years at Nebraska basketball games. Weber said a Nebraska Athletics employee tapped him on the shoulder a couple minutes before tipoff to ask if he wanted to be the putter during a break in the first half. Weber readily accepted. He owns and operates a home inspection business and is an occasional golfer. Putting, he said, is the strength of his game. Weber said his strategy was to aim straight at the target. Fortunately, he pushed the putt a bit right and it began to break to the left about 6 or 7 feet from the slot and went through. Weber said Tuesday he expects to take delivery of his Porsche in a couple of weeks. Naturally, he chose Husker red as the color. 'I had never been selected for a contest ever,' he said. 'I wanted to do the free throw, halfcourt shot thing. Never got to. I guess this was something I'm actually good at, putting, so that helped my odds a little bit." ___
