NEW YORK--

Over the last 10 years, competitive eating has evolved from middle school cafeterias and county fair events, to highly-competitive mainstream events. While not everyone agrees that competitive eating is a legitimate sport, there is little doubt that it’s growing in popularity and businesses, and eaters are cashing in.

The most famous event, Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Championship, reportedly attracted 40,000 spectators last summer when Joey Chestnut consumed 66 dogs (with buns) in 12 minutes.

This "super bowl" of competitive eating has taken place on Coney Island, N.Y., for at least 40 years and the event has grown tremendously in the last five years, according to Nathan’s Famous CEO Eric Gatoff. 

“During the early days of the contest, all we wanted to do was get our name on Page Six," he said. But the frank fest has greatly expanded Nathan's business of selling its products to supermarkets and the food service industry.

“This event and its broadcasting on ESPN has helped us expand," he said. "We now have 18,000 locations that sell Nathan’s products, and as the event becomes more popular, more people have heard of our product."

"The value of these public events greatly exceeds the dollars we spend putting on the event," Gatoff said.

Two brothers also saw a business opportunity in the eating fest and in 1997 founded the International Federation of Competitive Eating [IFOCE]. George Shea, along with his brother Richard, started the federation, which now has five full-time employees. The federation supervises, regulates and develops eating competitions in the U.S. and the world.

“When the Nathan’s event took off, we realized it needed a governing body -- we are a league and franchise,” Shea said.  The IFOCE currently has more than 50 eaters under contract, and 10,000 people who are actively signed up to receive information on competitions.  

“We treat this as a real business franchise: we have safety regulations, everyone is over 18," Shea said. "Yes, this is kind of funny and silly, but at the end of the day there can be a lot of money involved.”

Shea, who serves as the emcee of the hot dog chow down, said Nathan’s got $100 million of media last year with $40 million coming from domestic TV alone.

“It’s a powerful return," Shea said. "The average cost of an event would be that of a quarter or half page ad in most newspapers, and the [companies] get tons of coverage. It has become a business, and essentially we’ve created a sporting franchise that is free media for our clients.”

The IFOCE also hosts the Krystal Square Off, a hamburger eating contests in Chattanooga, Tenn., along with 80 other events annually around the nation. “There is always a comedic element to these events, but it’s real and dramatic, which gives it a life and makes it more dynamic than it would be otherwise,” Shea said.

The January OnTopic series covers the business of sports. Click here to read more from this month’s coverage.

True to the business world, when one organization establishes itself in a sector another will follow. In 2004 Arnie Chapman established the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters [ACE].

Chapman, along with other eaters, wasn’t happy with IFOCE’s contract and the limitations it placed on them. “We aren’t against contracts. We are against the idea of someone signing a contract that gives them no rights at all,” Chapman said.

ACE hosts about 20-25 events a year, including qualifying events. A key difference between ACE events and IFOCE events is that ACE follows “picnic-style rules” and only allows food to be eaten the way it is normally.

“It’s nasty allowing that sort of mutilation," Chapman said. "You should eat [food] the way it was intended."

Chapman, a 46-year-old better known in the eating world as “Chowhound,” holds the record for downing the most pickles. He ate 2.94 pounds of sweet hard sour pickles in 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

“Sometimes I don’t know what I am thinking, it’s such an unforgiving food, ” Chapman said. Chapman won the Nathan's contest in 1991 by eating 11.5 dogs in six minutes, which today seems like a meager amount.

"It's like any other sport -- it's a promotion, that's why we are hired," Chapman said. "It is money well spent for the companies that host eating events. If you look at the cost of advertising in a 10-12,000 circulation newspaper and then look at what we charge it is money well spent -- all you have to do is get past the idea of mass consumption."

Chapman recommends that if restaurants or companies wants to brand its name with an eating event, they have to stick to the competition for many years to mark the landscape. 

Crazy Legs Conti, who is ranked 11th in the world, is involved in an eating-related event at least once a week, but he isn't making a lot money from it. 

"A top-five eater is probably earning $20,000, but for someone like me I am breaking even when you include the cost of travel and the cost of buying all the guys drinks in the bar afterward," Conti said.

Conti said he's seen a lot of changes in the pro-eating world since he started following it in the late 1990s, and that he sees more corporate sponsorship in eating. 

"The business model of major league eating extends to many different tangents, it is part entertainment, part PR and part altruistic, and will continue to see where it goes in 2008," Conti said

While it might seem like all fun and games, some dietitians argue competitive eating is a dangerous pastime. 

The healthy response to eating that much food is to throw up, said Milton Stokes a registered dietitian.

“But competitive eaters train, they use low-calories, high-volume food, like water or cabbage, to allow their body to hold that amount of food,” Stokes said.

Others are concerned with the image mass food consumption conveys to viewers, particularly young ones.

"We have people eating too much already, then they see thin people eating so many hot dogs and think to themselves, 'What I am eating can't be so bad?'" said Tara Gidus, a registered dietitian and national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "It's sending messages that aren’t good in our obese society, particularly  for kids. It's just not something I see a real need for." 

But Crazy Legs Conti doesn't plan on curbing his eating. 

"I've still gotta eat," he said.