The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-24
COLISEUM HERE
MoToR-PACED BICYCLE RACES
FOR SAVANNAH IN PROSPECT.
PRINCE WANTS TO BUILD.
PROMOTER OF MODERN BICYCLE
RACING is NOW IN THE CITY.

lack Prince Filled with "A Plan to
bring the bicycle Cracks of the
Country to Savannah During
Three Months of the Year-Savan-
nah. Jacksonville and Atlanta to
Form a Circuit-Thinks savannah
ought Easily to Become the Head
quarters of the Racers During the
Spring MOnths-PrOPOsed Coliseum
IN seat 5000 PersOns-ThunderbO
suggested as Site.
If proper encouragement is given the
enterprise Savannah will have coli
seunl in the course of three weeks or
q month. where motor-paced bicycle
races. with all the attendant excite
ment contributed by breathless speed
and danger and daring, win serve to
draw the crowds.
lack Prince, ten years ago world ia
nous as a professional rider, and in
his maturer years as keen in advancing
the interests of the sport as he once
was in making it's early history, is in
savannah He has just built a colise-
nm in Atlanta, where two nights of
racing, participated in by such first
raters as Walthour and Leander and
attended by four or five thousand per-
sens. have already been held There
are several bicycle riders now in At
hnta, and Prince says he will bring
the bunch to Savannah almost for a
glad smile.
Probably this is a slight exaggeration
of his generosity. He wants some en-
couragement from those who will be
most largely benefited by the erection
of the coliseum, and in this class the
street railway company, of course,
most prominently figures. Prince is just
as certain he has a good thing to offer
as any man can be, and speaks already
with assuring conviction of the racers
he will bring to Savannah, of the good
sport he will offer and of the crowds
he feels sure of his ability to attract.
What l want to do" he said last
night. lis to establish a racing circuit,
consisting Of Savannah, Jacksonville
and Atlanta, with races in each place
for week at a TIVE during March,
the time the racers of the national
circuit depend on getting in training
and l can bring the tcst in the country
to Savannah. With the attractions this
city can offer, III the way of climate,
easy and cheap transpo' tation from the
Northern acilg cepters and it's always
present inter est in sport, it ought to
become easily the spling headquarters
of the bicycling racing fraternity.
If l can secure the cooperation of
the people here-anG 1 don't want
much, l will put up a coliseum that
will seat 5000 people, in two weeks.
The track will be as good as it can
be made, an eigth of a mile to the lap.
On this track l Will guarantee to show
motor paced bicycle racing, with plenty
of records of /. g."
Mr.. Prince represents the National
Racing Association, with headquarters
in New York. and is now engaged in
promoting bicy.le racing in the South.
He was out Yesterday to look over
possible sites at Thunderbolt ln1 his
eye was struck by the advantages of
the old half-mile track al that lace,
which is owned by the Doyles. His
present idea is to build his coliseum in
the center CT this track, unless a better
situation is suggested.
Mr.. Prince will have a conference
to-day with the officers of the Savan-
nah Electric Company and will en-
oeavor to secure their cooperation. If
he can impress them with the sound
ness of his proposition, and he says he
has no doubt of his ability to do this,
he ought to be able to have their help.
Certainly he is enthusiastic enough
himself to impress anybody.
Its the attraction of the century,,
he said. of course bicycle racing by
itself is a dead one. You couldn't get
dozen people in the East to look at
race not paced by motor cycles, but
when you get the motors out ahead
OF the racers and the men and wheels
covering ground at the rate of As miles
an hour and at an angle of As degrees,
you just can't keep the people away.
They're bound to see it.
It's the same old story-the danger
i oil the sport, that draws people to look
at 1t. When PAGERS and racers get away
IN bunch at break-neck speed it
seems as though every minute there
must be an accident. Sometimes an ac-
Qdent does occur, but the probability
OF this serves rather to incite the rid
eIs to new efforts and the crowds to
larger attendance than to produce any
other effect"
Mr.. Prince said he had already prac-
ucally closed the deal for the Jack
scnVllle coliseum and that Savannah
was now the only at all uncertain
quantity. He does not think Savannah
q IN ,N.,,..