Play doesn't need to stop for sports fans taking a bathroom break
at a Pennsylvania minor-league baseball stadium that has installed
video games in men's room urinals.
The "hands-free" video game is played by directing oneself right or
left in the urinals at the Lehigh Valley IronPigs' Coca-Cola Park
in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The game is aimed at increasing
prostate health awareness.
The video screens challenge players to steer their way along a
snowmobile course, while trying to hit cartoon penguins. They also
display messages reminding men to make an appointment for a
prostate exam, Schaeffer said.
Names of high scorers deft enough to hit the target mirrored on a
12-inch LCD screen above the urinal will appear on other
contestants' urinals and on the video displays in the ballpark.
The "hands free" urinal players can go by their full name, part or
their name or a pseudonym when their scores are tallied.
The urinal video games will commence when the baseball games start
for the IronPigs, a minor league team affiliated with the
Philadelphia Phillies. The team opens its 2013 season next week
with an exhibition game on Tuesday.
The IronPigs bought the restroom entertainment, described as the
"world's only truly hands-free urinal game controller," from
Captive Media, a company based in the United Kingdom, said IronPigs
spokesman Jon Schaeffer.
While the games have been placed in bars in the United Kingdom,
their appearance in the Allentown stadium marks a first in the
world of sports, said Ed Gundrum, who oversees sales for the
company in the U.S.
"They told us with certainty that it's not in any other sports
venue in the world," Schaeffer said. The "p-controlled" video
games, which were undergoing "calibration" on Wednesday, are in
bars in the United Kingdom, Schaeffer said.
The games, part of a marketing agreement with the Lehigh Valley
Health Network, are intended to remind men about the importance of
prostate health, the baseball team said in a news release.