Game Show Network offers trip to Dodge City as sweepstakes contest prize

DodgeGlobe.com:
Game Show Network offers trip to Dodge City as sweepstakes contest prize
06/29/04

By Joshua Kinder
Dodge City Daily Globe
Hawaii and Dodge City clearly have very little in common and rarely are mentioned in the same sentence.

But thanks to a new television series on The Game Show Network, "Extreme Dodgeball," the two vacation hot spots are pitted against each other for the grand and first prizes for lucky game show viewers in a new sweepstakes. Second prize winners receive a dodgeball kit, which is essentially a dodgeball and sports bag.

The first prize winner gets to be "Dodge City Deputy Marshall for the day," airfare and accommodations for two at the Boot Hill. The winner and guest are also tentatively scheduled to participate in the Dodge City Days Western Parade.

The sweepstakes, "Get Outta Dodge," began accepting entries June 14 with the debut of the extreme sports show, which airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on digital cable channel 227 in Dodge City. Entries will continue to be accepted through Wednesday, with the winner to be announced sometime around the first week of July.

Joel Chiodi of The Game Show Network said the trip to Maui is intended to be the "extreme" vacation and about the trip to Dodge City, "Who wouldn't want to be marshall for the day in historic Dodge City and be in a parade?"

"Having grown up in the Midwest, I know about the hospitality and that the people of Dodge City will welcome them with open arms," he added.

Andy Stanton, director of the Dodge City Convention and Visitors Bureau said such an opportunity for Dodge City can be considered, "one of the city's 15 minutes of fame."

"This is great publicity for Dodge, to be promoted by The Game Show Network, " he said of the trip, which has an estimated value of $2,196, according to The Game Show Network's Web site. "A lot of times, we in Dodge overlook that we do have world-wide name recognition and that the phrase 'Get the heck out of Dodge' is used all over the world and its something that has come to our advantage every once in a while."

Stanton said he first heard of the promotion about a month ago when a promotions firm, Sullivan Compliance Company, from Burbank, Calif., called and requested video and photographs from Dodge City to use for the GSN sweepstakes.

"From what they told me right at the beginning, they were wanting to come up with anything related to the word, "Dodge," he said. "They were just trying to think outside the box a little bit and came up with Dodge City."