New pro sport makes Downtown debut
Think horseshoes with beanbags instead of iron and a hole instead of a stake.
That sums up the game of “cornhole.” The sport’s sanctioning body, the American Cornhole Organization, brought its road show Saturday to the Hogan Street cul-de-sac at the Northbank Riverwalk.
Play is either singles or doubles. The object of the game is to toss bean bags, traditionally filled with corn kernels, into the holes on a target ramp or push a previously tossed bag into the hole with a subsequent throw, called a “push.” Scoring is through a point system. The winner is the first player or team to make 21 points.
One more technical note: Cornhole is the only professional sport that mandates cup holders on the scoreboards.
President and CEO Frank Geers and a few of his fellow beanbag tossers loaded up the organization’s van and made the trek south from Cornhole’s world headquarters in Cincinnati. They set up several regulation courts and conducted exhibition matches, familiarizing people who didn’t know a lot about it. Geers said part of the road trip’s mission was to begin negotiations with Visit Jacksonville, the Landing and local radio stations to add Jacksonville to the existing 35-stop ACO-sanctioned national tour. At the end of the season, the top 40 players from the organization’s Masters, Signature and Spotlight series will meet in Las Vegas in January for the King of Cornhole championship to compete for a share of the $15,000 payout.
“We’re on Carnival Cruise Lines, we’re setting up at some NASCAR races this year and we’re talking to ESPN about televising the championship,” said Geers. “What we’re doing is taking a backyard game and making it into a professional sport.”
To learn more about the game and ACO, visit www.americancornhole.org.