the guys at the mental_floss blog have written a piece on Five Ballpark Promotions That Went Wrong, and with the exception of the Dodger Stadium’s all-you-can-eat seats, I can’t imagine how any of these promotions were approved.

I’d have to say that “Disco Demolition Night” is my favorite on the list. Sadly, it didn’t involve the destruction of any disco balls, though that may have produced a better outcome for the ballpark. Here’s an excerpt from the article.

What went wrong: Believe it or not, a lot of people wanted to see disco records destroyed. 50,000 people showed up at the gates and many who were turned away at the gate tried to climb the walls of the stadium to get in. The crowd, who were reportedly heavily under the influence, soon realized that records could double as Frisbees, which naturally led to fans throwing firecrackers and drinks. When the demolition moment came, the explosion was bigger than expected and ended up ripping a hole in the outfield grass. Thousands of fans ran onto the field to join the mayhem, burning banners and throwing objects. The batting cages were even destroyed in the riot.

How would that promotion even come up in a brainstorm?

“Well Jim, we definitely need to improve our numbers, we need something that will bring out the fans in droves! How about… we tell everyone that if they bring in a vinyl record to be destroyed, they can get their ticket for 98 cents?”

1. What relevance does a “disco record” have to baseball. 2. What the hell is the point of destroying thousands of these so-called “disco records”?

Another favorite on the list was the genius who decided that dropping a thousand dollars out of a helicopter would be something that would succeed outside of an episode of Family Guy.

Check out the article here.