New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-30
FOOTBALL FINANCES.
NOW THAT GREAT TASK OF SEATING
CROWDS OF SPECTATORS Is OVER
MANAGERS COUNT Up GAINS.

Cambridge Mass Nov. % (SpeciaD-Now that
the football season is over, the only thing left
do is for the managers 10 shut themselves up
behind lock and key and count their gains, ana
this it might he added. is the pleasantest and
easiest task which faces the athletic superintend-
ent of any great university.
In his little circular Office under the rotunda of
the Harvard Union, Hugh Blythe, graduate man
ager Harvard's athletics. has been tacklng prob
lens this season that would stagger a business
man True his task would have been larger had
the Yale game been played on Soldiers Field this
year; yet even with the Pennsylvania. Brown anu
Indian contests his hands have been fuller than
those OF the ordinary promoter Of great business
scheme
To the usual observer the red tape gone through
with to secure tickets any of the great games
seems entirely useless. students find themselves
divided and subdvlded into classes. and going
through a number OF apparently nonsensical forms
to procure tickets which. would ordinarily
think could Well not be turned over for d
spot payment Of cash.
The ostensible reason for this says The Har-
ward I.ampoon." lis TO facilitate seating but IN
reality the management merely wishes an oppor-
tunity to prove that they sit you down III
much more abstruse and subtle way than has ever
been done before. You may think 1t IS simple
thing to proceed football game and sit down
but if you spent the sleepiess nights that the
MANAGEMENT have in trying to make II hard you
would readily where the exquisite art comes IN
After all. the great value OF football as 1t Is now
played. consists not in the sport ltseIt Dut III lhe
business experience afforded those who run the
thing"
While The Lampoon' meant this last sentence
as a Joke it struck the truth than II was
intended to. Football teaches many practical les
sons but the man who has handled the money 10
run that team has been taught the greatest thins
after all.
In past years Harvard has never had more than
one man as the business head of her athletics
Last year the graduate manager OF athietcs was
G. VI. Schweppe this year 1t is Hugh Blythe as
sisted by Roger Ernst. The reason for the ne"
ONCE of assistant manager is that the business mas
grown to such proportions that II is impossible for
one man to handle 1t alone
Through these two mems hands thousands OF
dollars pass each week Few OF the large tootoaII
games played on Soldiers Field this year have at
racted less than ten thousand persons, and in the
case Of Pennsylvania and the Indians the attend
ance was considerably more than fifteen Thousand
The exact seating capacity of the regular grand
stands on Soldiers Field has been matter or dis
pute for some time. but, even at fifteen thousand
the receipts s. the ticket, swell TO respectable
sum OF course many Of the tickets are season
tickets or Harvard Athletic Association tickets,
purchased at s. each. and good for all athletic
events throughout the year. Then, too, reserved
seats for the smaller games cost only 81 each, but
even under these circumstances. seasons football
receipts can readily be seen TO be great
The handling of this money, however, is a snap
compared to the assignment OF the seats them
selves
L don't see why This should be hard" one stu
dent was heard 20 remark the other day, as he
stood waiting for his turn at the window Of the
Athletic office. Then he added. as II thought
s 1aG Just STRUCK MN" zee "0'' ''1
that expression before and TO his mind II summed
IN a very good reason for a whole lot OF red tape.
m dg GAMES a fS and OF OF nearly }tsen IN
the larger contests 10 get "a nice seat on the 90