Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-19
CROWD ESTIMATES
VASTLY INFLATED
Few Schools Make Big Sums,
but Most Struggle to Meet
Expenses.
BY II. c. BYRD.
.ROBABLY there is no phase
- of college athletics in which
so great a misconception

So much has been said of the
great crowds and the tremendous
sums realized at the gate that the
idea seems to be growing in the
popular mind that all the college
foot ball teams of the country are
the sources of gold in fabulous
quantities. Nothing ever was
further from the actual situation.
True it is that there are some few
schools, and very few at that, which
do realize big sums from foot ball. Yale,
Harvard and PENNSYLVANIA in the East,
Notre Dame in the Middle West and
possibly one or two others, and South
ern California in the Far West are
notable examples OF schools whose ath-
letic treasures are full to the over
flowing at the close of each grldiron
season, but consider those that are not.
throughout the entire Nation there arc
hundreds of colleges that have the
hardest kind of a time making ootn
ends meet, and the great majority wind
I'D their financial years in the red.
Much is written of the games where big
gates are drawn, but very little OF tne
others.
So much is written of the big crowds
when Harvard and Yale meet, when
Notre Dame and Army play, when STAN
ford goes against Southern California
that it seems to The pubic that TINS
game of foot ball must be source
of unlimited wealth. However, II one
of these people so minded were to UNI
dertake to finance year OF college
athletics in any Of three or four hun-
dred colleges he would learn a good
deal.
Bad Weather Hurts.
IL 1t,1l.I
numbering not more than Is for the
whole country. if that many, that do
make big money out of foot ball, it may
safely be said that all the others find
it exceedingly difficult to finance their
programs Most of them usually de-
pend on one, sometimes two, games TO
get enough receipts to make up for
other games which yield little OF
n0Ahing, and in any season when bad
weather happens to come along on the
day of this big game, as the aviation
pilots say when asked what happens IN
the air when wing breaks, its just
too bad"
Let some one right now ask University
of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Instt-
tute. North Carolina State College,
Brown, Purdue, Nebraska, oregon or any
of the schools scattered throughout the
country where they stand financially,
and in all probability the answer will
be lust about the same in substance, we
hardly know how We are going to get
by" There is a good deal Of rivalry be-
tween Virginia and Washington and
Lee Anybody naturally would think a
foot ball game between them would yield
sufficient revenue to help carry on some
other sports, but as a matter OF fact
Virginia actually lost money on that
game this year. Take Georgetown,
Catholic University, George Washington,
for instance; the chances are that foot
ball in these schools over period OF
the last seven or eight years has hardly
done more than pay its own way
Lean Grid Year.
The last year probably has been the
worst that college foot ball generally
has experienced in a long while. No
doubt this is due somewhat TO the gen.
eral business depression, but the funda-
mental factor In the situation Is that
foot ball at the great majority Of schools
simply does not yield the revenue it
popularity Is supposed to.
Another factor which gives the pub
lie a wrong impression Of the amounts
yielded through receipts at foot ball
games IS the very general overestimates
placed on attendance by the news
papers 1t seems, in the mind Of the
men who cover games, that the bigger
the crowd the better should be the
story so a generous estimate is placed
on the crowd. Almost any game is an
example of this, as many OF the
stadiums that house foot ball crowds do
not take care of as many persons as
they are supposed TO, but almost any
game where the stands are not half full
or much more than half full stands out
as a glaring example. Take, for in
stance, a game played between two big
teams this last Fall in nearby city.
IN that the newspapers all carried
stories to the effect that 10000 persons
were present, when actually the number
of paid admissions was less than q. 900.
Another big game which the papers
stated a crowd of 10000 watched ac-
tually had present only a little more
than 1000 paid admissions. One big
game in the State of Virginia which
stories on the sports pages stated had
an attendance of 10000, really had a
paid attendance Of less than 1000.
Reader Is MisIed.
Naturally the reader of sports sheets,
when he sees it stated that crowd Of
10000 attended game, and he knows
that the admission 70 that game was
SO and 50, thinks that 100000 or more
passed into the box Office. The reader
sees that crowd of 10000 attended a
game in Virginia for which the admis
sion was 81, and naturally 1t comes to
his mind that 5000, or Whereabouts.
passed into the Golfers of the two con-
tending universities, when actually the
paid attendance was only $500.
Now, do a little simple arithmetic.
The $500 paid in a total Of $1,000, IN
stead Of the $4,000, under newspaper
estimate From that $1,000 had TO be
deducted 10 per cent for the use of
the park, expenses for officials and
other expenses incident to running a
game, such as advertising, ushers, gate
keepers, ticket sellers, ETC., so that the
net receipts for the two teams dwindled
to about Sc 400 or SO 200 each.
Now, If it costs team. including ex-
penseS for the university band, say,
$500 to get to the place Of the game,
the actual net receipts Of that particu-
lar game for one of the schools dwindle
to 81 100. So an analysis of this game
and this is an analysis of a game actu-
ally played last Fall, and 1t is typical
Of hundreds of otherS-shows that in
stead of getting the proceeds Of a
$50, 900 gate, such as the reader might
readily conclude from the facts as
stated in the sports pages, the schools
each profit to the extent Of $l,700,
which makes the actual facts quite
different from the conclusions one
might easily draw from published ac-
counts of games.
In reality the average man trusted
with the lob of financing foot ball and
college athletics usually is hard put TO
1870 10TH av1le Nnvvaa anvWbere near