The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1921-02-13
BASEBALL GROWS
IN PUBLIC FAVOR
1921 Promises to Be Biz
Year for the National
Game

NEW YORK, Feb. IL I..r.,.
throughout the country during IN.
1921 season promises to SHOW con.
tinued growth In popularity. which
has been a consistent feature of IN.
national game since the clos, Of Tho
world war. Last season now A..
tendance records were made In tho
major and minor leagues and uuof
ficially IL was said that novor IN i,s
history has the game enjoyed such a
prosperous season generally or
season indications are that the rec
ords OF 1920 will be surpassed ne,i
summer. This leads to the question
Where will the club owner pu'
the fans who desire to see the Games
II baseball continues to grow In pop
ular favor?"
There are some sizeablc baseball
parks in the country, the largest OF
which is Braves Field at Boston with
seating capacity of 1880 Mos
Of the parks are sufficiently large 10
accommodate the crowds that ordi
narily attend the games. but IN every
baseball city there are occasions
during the season. especially on hol-
days and in the cases OF important
series, when the largest OF parks
are INADEQUATE to accommodate
those who desire to pass through the
turnstiles.
Large and numerous as are the
baseball parks throughout the coun
try In cities represented by profes.
sional teams, II will surprisc ma.
jority of the fans to learn that the
total seating capacity OF all the
parks OF major and minor leagues Of
| importance is less than one per cent
of the total population OF the eoun-
| try. 105, Bios, as shown by the
1920 census. The seating capacity
OF the parks in the major leagues
and the principal minor leagues to-
tails approximately 96l.000 which
with some minor leagues whose sta.
| tistics are not available. probably
would bring the total seating ca.
| pacity OF all league parks In the
/ country up to a round million.
Congestion Acute In Majors.
The apparent congestion OF seat.
| ing capacity is more acute In the two
major leagues than II Is in the
minors. The cities represented in
| the National league have total pop.
ulation of 12,655,30S and the base.
| ball parks in those cities have a
total seating capacity OF about lss-
1000. This means that there are
seats in all National League parks
/ for only l6 per cent of the popula-
! ton and IL would mean that II all
/ the people of those cities took the
! notion to attend the games on some
| holiday about co persons would be
scramb bling for possession OF each
seat
As regards the proportion Of seats
| to- population the situation In the
American league IL virtually The
same as in the senior major league
The cities in the circuit headed by
Ban Johnson boast of n total popula-
ton OF l3.594,014 persons, while the
/ clubs in the American league have
provided seats for close to $4,000
Here the percentage of accommoda-
tions for the population is about Is
the same as in the National league
but reduced TO actual figres Il
means one seat for each 63 persons
Conditions are a trifle better in
the three Glass AA leagues, the seat
ing capacity of which Is betweer
three and four per cent OF the pop
ulation. The American association
with population OF 2,423,O00 in iu
eight cities can seat 9i,500; the New
International league with tota
| population of\2 $4,000 has seats lol
70.40O and the Pacific Coast league
with 100000 population has pro
vided 92,400 seats.
Seating Was q Problem.
TheAclub with n particularly AZ
tractive star, such az Babe Ruth wa
10 the New York yankees last sea
son. finds II difficult many time
during the season to take care o
those who are anxious to contribute
to the financial success of the cluh
There were several Saturdays an'
Sundays last season when the van
KEGS were playing on the poe
grounds and when It was necessary
to close the gates long before th'
game started, thus turning away
thousands of disappointed fans. ..
The problem of seating capacity u
one that is likelyto remain with th'
| club owners for all time. In most o.
the parks that ate now established
Is quite impossible to increase IN
seating capacity because of the lact
Of space and with the steady grown
of American cities club owners in'
IL impossible to select sites for new
parks within distance that fans A'
willing to travel to witness games.
The Belgian government has r.
surhed experiments with the use
al fna1 ip internal CONONf