SAL1 Charleston RiverDogs

BOBBLECTION Promotion Returns to Charleston on August 28

Published on August 6, 2012 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston RiverDogs News Release


CHARLESTON, SC - Forget the Gallop Polls. CNN and Fox News can stay home. It doesn't matter one iota what the professional, suit-wearing prognosticators say as all they need to do is focus their attention on BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢.

The Charleston RiverDogs' ownership group, The Goldklang Group, now recognized as a national barometer for presidential election outcomes, is at it again as BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ 2012 comes to Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park on Aug. 28.

Now we'll see if the 2012 promotion is as accurate.

The bobbles, only a tad stiffer than their human counterparts, will plead their case to be crowned BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ 2012 winners, thereby making it easier for those who make big money predicting the presidential outcome.

From August 6-30, fans will cast their votes in 10 different ballpark polls as part of BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ 2012. This year's event features the largest polling sample to date as the five Goldklang Group teams (Charleston RiverDogs, Ft. Myers Miracle, Hudson Valley Renegades, Pittsfield Suns and St. Paul Saints) will be joined by the Asheville Tourists, Hickory Crawdads, and Lakewood BlueClaws of the South Atlantic League along with the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks and the Lincoln Saltdogs of the American Association.

Fans' bobblehead choices will help national pollsters gain a feel for each state's electorate. In addition, the website www.bobblection.com has been launched to follow and track all polling.

"This year The Goldklang Group wanted to grow the event and have included teams from other leagues," said Charleston RiverDogs General Manager Dave Echols. "This year, with the addition of the official Bobblection website, fans from throughout the country can track and see results from all of the ballparks."

The schedule is as follows:

Aug. 6: Pittsfield (Massachusetts) Suns

Aug. 11: Hickory (North Carolina) Crawdads

Aug. 18: Asheville (North Carolina) Tourists

Aug. 21: Lakewood (New Jersey) BlueClaws, Lincoln (Nebraska) Saltdogs

Aug. 27: St. Paul (Minnesota) Saints

Aug. 28: Charleston (South Carolina) RiverDogs, Fargo-Moorhead (North Dakota) Redhawks, Hudson Valley (New York) Renegades

Aug. 30: Ft. Myers (Florida) Miracle

For the RiverDogs, this year's BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ allows the first 1,000 fans through the gate for the Aug. 28 game against the West Virginia Power, regardless of age, to receive a bobblehead of either presumed Republican candidate Mitt Romney or Democratic candidate President Barack Obama.

Upon approaching Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park, fans will be directed to enter one of two gates, marked for each candidate. (Obama supporters will enter via the line on the left, while Romney supporters will enter to the right.) At the top of the steps a bobblehead of the fans' chosen candidate will be handed to each fan until one candidate's bobbles run out. The first of the candidates to run out of all 500 bobbleheads will be declared the winner for the Charleston polling place.

The previous two presidential elections have been correctly predicted both locally in Charleston as well as on the national scale of the BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ promotion.

In Charleston in 2008, President Barack Obama soundly defeated Senator John McCain. Obama supporters first reached the 500 mark for their bobbleheads and got 58.1 percent of the vote while McCain fans were at 360. The national BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ results also proved prophetic as Obama got 51.3 percent in Hudson Valley while securing 52.3 percent in Brockton, Mass. and compared to only 42 percent in St. Paul. Obama got 55.2 percent in Sioux Falls and only 45.6 percent at Fort Myers.

In 2004, President George W. Bush won a narrow victory over Sen. John Kerry in the U.S. Presidential Election. National polls varied widely in the weeks leading up to the election as media outlets scrambled to predict which candidate would win.

One poll, taken three months prior to the election, would ultimately prove both predictive and the most fun to execute.

The Goldklang Group's BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ that was held on August 2, 2004, allowed fans arriving at the park to cast votes by choosing a bobblehead doll with either Bush or Kerry's likeness. It was the first organized promotion of its kind and left pollsters asking the question if bobbleheads are the answer to the nation's election problems.

As it turned out, Bush won in four of the seven participating ballparks in 2004, and the election.

RiverDogs officials have invited Charleston native and political satirist Stephen Colbert to the game to report on BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢ results as they come in, but there's been no word yet as to whether he'll be in attendance.

When asked if they were excited for this year's BOBBLECTION €žÂ¢, both candidates' bobbles nodded in agreement.

Tickets to the game are now on sale at 843/577-DOGS (3647) or online at www.riverdogs.com.

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