As someone who is a big fan of mascots, I love innovating new ways for other people to be able to appreciate mascots as much as I do; like when I made those suggestions about ways that the Seattle Kraken could effectively implement their mascot into their stadium. Today, I have an idea for how we can better appreciate ALL professional mascots, not just the new ones. 

So, I understand that for the most part, most of us only really get to see mascots in action at a game for the team which that character represents. (Or in highlights online, but for the most part, it’s only in that game setting.) Why is that? It’s much harder to compare mascot performances when they rarely meet. And sure, you have the Mascot Meet-up at the NHL Allstar game, and you have the Collegiate Mascot Championship games, but I’m looking for something in the middle. I want the Collegiate Championship platform with the participation of Fuzzy Big Names. I want categories for performance. I want the art of professional mascots to be recognized in some big way. And not just from one sport, either! I mean, sure, you can have categories for certain sports, but I want to see mascots from the big four: basketball, baseball, hockey and football. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the Collegiate Mascot Championships, then allow me to paint a more detailed picture of how my Mascot Olympics would work. There are a couple different categories (Or “events”) for the mascots to participate in. In the collegiate games, these are Game Situations, Crowd Involvement, Cheer/Dance/Band Integration, Community service, School activities (non-sporting) and Overall Impression. Some of these are obviously a little hard to perform in a stadium setting, but I think they make a good outline for a larger Mascot Olympics. Think of mascotting like figure Skating or gymnastics: these are sports with art and performance being a core part of what they are. They deserve the opportunity to display that. They deserve medals. Mascot medals. 

Now, when do we have this grand meeting of the mascots? Simple. We do it during the All-Star break in baseball. There are no sports happening during baseball’s All-Star break, and it’s at least a week long. That’s a tad unfortunate, seeing that the All-Star break is in July, which is typically a very warm month, but in my head, we can either host in a cooler climate, OR we could just host a very large medical staff ready to assist if a mascot gets overheated. Whichever is cheaper. 

I know that some of my ideas seem big, but it’s only because I think it’s something the public would really enjoy. Mascots are having a bit of a moment right now, but the only ways we can enjoy them are rather disjointed. I think it would be really nice to see them all in one place, without any of this sports stuff getting in the way of what the people really want: Mascot Analysis.