The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-08
ON FIGHT
State Cheated on MOran-DillOn
Gate Receipts.
5000 of Crowd Not Accounted
For in Returns.
BY FRANK G. MENKE.

New York, July 8.-The Empire
state has been fleeced once again, this
time through the medium of the Mo-
ran-Dillon bout of a week or so ago.
According to the figures turned in
to the state boxing commissions Of
flee, the total paid attendance was
1896 and the total receipts $28,521.
The state gets n per cent of the gross
receipts from pugilistic entertainments
within its confines. The states share
for the Dillon-Moran go vas exactly
$2,139.07.
Just how much more the state ac-
tually should have received will re-
main mystery. But the fact IS in
diSputable that the state was defraud-
ed of some of its just percentage. Dis
honest ticket takers and dishonest
ushers, attempting to fatten their own
bankrolls, mulcted the commission and
the promoters of thousands of dollars.
Men who have estimated crowds for
years, and with remarkable correct
ness. are unit in declaring that the
attendance at the fight was $4,000 at
the very least. Many sporting authori-
ties Appropriated the crowd between
5000 and $4,000, while others Went
to 10000.
Ringside Box SITS.
The official figures show that the
paid part of that crowd numbered ex-
able to determine, the promoters dis
tributed about 500 complimentary
tickets, which would account for
1000 of the spectators.
How about the other 5000? Well,
this may answer it.
Two men who saw the fight met aft
erward and exchanged notes.
What sort of seat did you have?"
one of them asked.
Pretty good one," was the reply.
Il paid Sc for it,
You were a boob laughed the
other. 81 got ringside box seat for
$1.75."
How did you do it?"
Slipped a guy at the gate so cents
and he let me into the park was
the answer. by tipping ushers rs or
SO cents here and there, I got into a
box seat. Hundreds of other fellows
did the same thing, only some of them
didn't get into the boxes. They were
content to sit in the grandstand.'
The story above Is but a duplicate
of a dozen others that have come to
US since the night of the fight; tales
of how a bit of palm greasing'' en-
abled spectators to get into the park
and into choice seats for one-fifth or
one-tenth of the fixed price Is it any
| wonder that there is such a big dis
crepancy between the official attend
ance and the actual?
Echoes Brighton Scandal.
| The Moran-Dillon affair, as regards
the thinning of the state out of it's
full dues, duplicates the Mcfarland
( GIBBONS fiasco in Brighton Beach last
summer. The estimated attendance
there was around $4,000. The prices
ranged from 81 to SIS, averaging only
S2.25 per head-a low one indeed
it meant estimated receipts in the
neighborhood of 100000.
| The state, however, was paid its tax
on an approximate attendance of only
$4,000 and receipts of $58, 000-figures
only trifle less than half the lowest
unofficial estimates. At the time the
state boxing authorities felt that the
so-called official figures were wrong.
| They investigated and found that the
state had been cheated through the
laxity of some ticket collectors and the
| dishonesty of others.
| Up to that time, the states share
was figured by totaling up the num-
Der of tickets collected at the gates.
thousands of tickets had not been TAX
share on each one of those tickets.
Furthermore, many ticket takers and
ushers, upon receipt of so cents or
so. closed their eyes, and let folks slip
into the park or into the choice
ringside seats.
BalIx Cheats in Future.
state through failure to collect tick
cts, Fred Wenck, chairman of the
state boxing commission, put turn
stiles into the park for the Dillon