Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1919-06-28
GREAT ARENA FOR
Prize FIGHT CONTEST
(By Associated Press)

Toledo, O., June -Thrusting its
raw, yellow skeleton skyward, the
huge-shaped arena, costing $150,000
and originally planned to seat 50,-
600 persons. is rapidly nearing COM
pletion for the championship con-
test between Jess Willard and Jack
Dempsey here July 4.
The arena is located in Bay View
Park, municipality owned plot of
ground sixty acres in extent and di-
rectly north four miles from the
heart of the city. Before being
turned over to Tex Richard, promoter
of the championship contest, the park
had been used as recreation center
and the arena rests on the site of
two baseball diamonds. On the
north side of the park is Maume Bay
and to the east is Maumee River.
Encircling the plot is road of crush
ed stone. The park is of artificial
construction, most of it being filled in
land, but it is ideally SITUATED in
every respect. 1t is perfectly fiat and
treeless, making the work of the en-
C;neer constructing the arena easier
than it otherwise would have been.
Some idea of the immensely of the
arena may be obtained from the fact
that if four times as large as the
arena in which Jack johnson batter
ed Jim Jefferies to defeat in Reno,
New, and capable of seating four
times as many persons. Approx
mately 1,750,000 feet of lumber has
been used in the structure. Not a
bolt has been used, the entire build
ing being held together by nails of
which two carloads or $4,000 pounds
have been driven. All new lumber
has entered into the construction and
this will be sold after the contest.
Precautions for safety have been
taken in the construction. Careful
tests were made of the ground to
find out whether it could carry the
great human weight which would
rest upon it. The carrying capacity
of the lumber and the tensile strength
of the nails were determined and
margin allowed for safety.
Although the structure was original
ly planned for $4,000 persons, a load
of $4,000 persons was taken as the
basis of the estimate and, instead of
allowing ITS pounds per person, as
is done in ordinary construction for
Give load" of 5000 tons, but to al
low even further amount of safety
margin, construction was based upon
load of 10000 tons.
AS an insurance against any set
ting should rainy weather on the
day of the match, or even a few days
before, cause the structure to settle
slightly heavier footing was used.
This entailed an addition, expense
of about $500 but Promoter Richard
decided it would be cheaper for the
greater safety afforded.
Several hundred discharged soldiers
all having seen service in France, will
act as ushers and guards at the arena.
They will be armed. Banks clerks
have been engaged by Promoter
Richard in handling the ticket sales
at the arena and at the downtown
headquarters on the day of the con-
test.
An allowance of eighteen inches
seatway has been made for each ticket
holder. The rows will be two feet
apart for all seats cheaper than $50
and eight inches more for the $50
and $50 seats. The seats themselves
will be ten inches in width, giving
fourteen inches leg room between
rows. The only difference between
the cheapest seat and the top-priced
rows will allow slightly more leg
room.
The $50 tickets entities holders to
seats about fifteen feet from the ring
176 press seats for newspaper writers
taking up the actual ring side. There
will be forty-two seats in the first row
of the reserved seat sections, while
the last row of the $40 seats will ac-
commodate 1900 persons. The first
row of $40 seats will be about 276
feet from the middle of the RING