Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1915-01-10
WILL COLLINS PAY
$4,000 PATRONS?
Comiskey Placed a Pretty
High Valuation Eddie's
Drawing.
TO Become Real Asset EX-
Phillie Star Must
Step Some.
CBy l. e, sANBoRN) .

the acquisition bl l'ohS 7l''"N '''''
at heavy cost. The general impress
sion always is that when cluD
owner purchases the services OF
great player the promoter will get II
all back at the gate in few games
That is not true unless the said great
PLAYER makes a winner out OF lhS
owners team, thereby greatly en-
hancing the drawing power OF inc
whole. ....o.+
Eddie Collins will have TO attract
100000 patrons through the tulnsllies
of Comiskey park to even up lhV m
vestment which the owner OF the
White SoX made, or contracted 10
make. when he closed the TRANSACTION
which brought the Keystone marvel
to Chicago. That includes Collins
salary for five years, and gives the
nlaver five years in which to reln-
burse the master of the SoX Tor the
investment. 1t means, however, that
Collins personally must draw 5oV,VVV
patrons in addition to those "ho
would patronize the south side park
without Collins as an attraction
Three hundred and fifty thousand
patrons is more than half the aggre-
gate attendance at a MAJOR Ieasue
park in q big city in an average year.
il Is more than some major league
teams draw at home In whole year
II is more than half the major league
teams drew last season on their own
grounds. ,-,-. Co..
In order to reimburse Comiskey Tor
tho purchase price paid Philadelphia
for Collins and his salary Tor 1910
that PLAYER must attract 2OO,OOO peo-
pie to COmiskey park. and that means
200. 600 more than would have gone
there next year without Collins on
the team.
These figures do not take into ac-
count what additional patronage COL
Inns will draw on the road. There are
two reasons for including only the
home games. One of them Is the iact
that Collins, being already a tamihaI
figure to American league fans, Will
not be the individual drawing card on
the road that he will at home. The
other is the wide difference in the
revenue derived by a visiting cluo
from games played in the different
cities of the circuit. This variation
makes il almost impossible to estimate
TO any degree Of accuracy the aggre-
gate value of road patronage.
For Comiskey park 1t Is compare
lively easy to figure the dope. For
the average crowd there, distributed
as the average crowd Is in bleachers,
pavilions and grand stand, the box OF
flee will show close to 62 cents per
person. Threatening weather or ex-
tremely warm weather will send more
fans into the covered seats and raise
the average admission price above 62
cents. Cola weather will send larger
proportion of the crowd into the
sunny bleachers and lower the average
a little.
The average sum paid visiting clubs
at Comiskey park is close to twenty
two cents for each paid admission.
That leaves 40 cents head for the
home teams share Of the paid attend
ance at the South Side grounds. This
Is lower than the average revenue per
person at the majority of the major
league parks because Comiskey al
ways has adhered to the popular
prices" idea. He has more 25-cent
seats than anywhere else except pos
sibly at the two st. Louis parks. The
highest priced box seat on the South
Side is 81.
At the Cubs park, for instance,
there are fewer 25-cent seats than on
the South Side, and the top price Is
S15O, so that the average revenue
per fan on the west side is more than
IL is out south. At the polo grounds
in New York there are only a hand
full Of two bit seats and the majority
of the reserved seats cost $3.50, rails
ing the average price per admission to
Rsarly double that at Comiskey park.
The higher the average the more the
visiting club receives for each admis-
sion, Of course, which shows the in
tricacy Of trying to figure what Eddie
Collins would net Comiskey on the
road.
For the games he plays on the South
Side grounds Collins will have to
draw 100000 people at 40 cents
head on the average to make up the
$4,000 which Comiskey has invested,
or agreed to invest, in him. That
includes the purchase price of $685.
600 year Two hundred thousand
people must pay their way into the
SOX park next season before the
owner Of the club will be even for the
$4,000 represented by the 5000
paid for Collins and his 1915 salary.
How many more hundred thousand
patrons will be required to pay the
salaries of twenty or twenty-one other
players all next season i'm addition to
the small army Of park employees, in
terest on the investment in the plant,
etc, nobody can guess.
II may llHlfll UlEHtI W BuN II llllo
way: Collins must draw an average
Of 100 additional White SoN fans TO
every game played there in the next
five wears in order to reimburse the
owner Of the club for what he has and
will cost. Allowing for postponements
and double headers. championship
games are staged only seventy days in
yea" on an average at major
league park. That makes $50 days
In five years. and II requires 1000 per
diem to make $4,000.
OF course Collins can be counted as
an asset at the end OF five years, so
far as can be foreseen now, but he
then will be 32 years old and, natural
depreciation" will take a lot off the
SOS, 900 Comiskey paid for his release.
II will be marvellous IL he plays in
seventy games a season at home, al
lowing for sickness and injuries, and
If he should be hopelessly incapaci-
tated in the opening game of next sea-
son. or If death should claim him pre-
maturely there would be no reim-
bursement for the man who took the
risk.-Baseball World.
\ Water Cure.