New-York tribune., 1905-11-29
FOOTBALL ooMNERcIALIsM.

Conspicuous among the desirable-indeed We
might say MISCONCEPTIONS to be made in the
college game of football is the elimination OF
what has come TO be called commerciahsm, mean
ing the extravagant money making features Of
the game. Some years ago it was thought
considerable reform was effected In having all
games played on college grounds, instead Of let
ting teams come to NeWYork to play before great
crowds on some public field That was a re
form, and it should be maintained; but it was
not sufficient. For one thing it affected only a
few games and teams, and for another it simply
resulted in Mahomet going to the mountain
when the mountain could not go to Mahomet.
Larger crowds actually go from the cities to the
college grounds than were present at the city
grounds when the games were played here. Now,
there is no objection to having great crowds wit
ness the games. What we do object to is having
the games made spectacles for the drawing Of
great crowds for the sake Of the gate receipts.
That system degrades what should be an anna
teur sport to the level of a money making pro-
fession. Chancellor MacCracken is right in ask
ing what would be thought of German universi-
ties should they let their students fight their
dueIs before grandstands full of people at So a
head and in suggesting q comparison between
that and some of our football games.
To forbid the taking Of gate money might
seem hardship to small colleges where only
where those small receipts are perhaps not as
much as is needed for the actual expenses Of the
game economically adjusted. Even in those
cases we believe it would be easy, and would be
far better to provide for the cost of the sport in
some other way. But what is the case at some
of the "big' games? We hear Of games with
more than forty thousand spectators and with
gate receipts of from $4,000 to $s5,000. That
mere fact is discreditabe to the standing Of the
r,a-f nd CHI 70 bo
tarnished with unmistakable commercialism.
Apart from such evil effects upon the game
itself the influence of so large revenue upon
college sports in general is almost certainly in
furious. 1t makes directly and almost inevitably
for luxury and extravaganza. a college ball
nine or boat crew nowadays is cared for in its
housing in its attendance and on its travels
more like the hothouse divas of a grand opera
troupe than like a company of hardy young fell
lows ready TO rough it in physical exercise.
We pass by the occasional scandals of ticket
speculating and the like as merely incidental
though indeed the conditions give opportunity
and temptation for them. But the system itself,
in seeking TO make pecuniary profit out of anna
teur sports, and In making It to SO excessive a
degree. seems to us intrnsically false and al
most inevitably demoraIizing. There may at
first sight appear to be little. If any, relation
between the taking of gate money and the vio-
injury and death, or that multifarious trickery
in procuring players and conducting the sport
which has now been proved; but we firmly be-
lieve that huge receipts are the main source of
those evils which the best friends of college
sports deplore. and which should be reformed
not merely in part but altogether.
We are not unmindful of the plea that is made
for gate money at football and baseball games
that it goes to pay for the care and equipment
of athletic fields and the heavy expenses of boat
ing and other college sports from which little or
no revenue Is or can be derived. The answer is
that all really necessary expenses could readily
be met In some other way, and that large pro-
portion Of expenses now incurred is nothing but
luxurious extravaganza. With the vast increase
of recent years in the budget Of college athletics
there has been no corresponding Increase, II In
deed any increase at all in the proficiency of
the contestants or In the physical benefit of the
training afforded. On the contrary, some Of the
records OF athletic achievement In college sports