Evening star., 1961-09-24
Must Sign This Week

lar.
Must Sign This Week
The ball club, through Gen.
Pete Quesada, its president, did
stipulate that the contract
would have to be drawn up and
signed by September 80, the
clubs deadline for renewing its
option on Griffith Stadium.
But this is merely a tech
nicality. To all intents and
purposes, yesterdays meeting
spelled the end to the old Flor
ida avenue park as q major
prop on the Washington sports
scene.
The pro football Redskins al
ready are under a 10-year con-
tract to play in the new sta
dium and will open the action
there a week from today.
The old park, which belongs
to Calvin Griffith's Minnesota
Twins, probably will be sold.
The Senators have rights Of
occupancy through December
81. Their offices in the new
stadium are expected to be
available by that time.
Though the contract covers
a 10-year period, there is a re-
newal clause calling for renego-
tiation of the rental and con-
cession issues after five years.
Speaking at the conclusion
of yesterdays meeting, which
capped q series of conferences,
Quesada said: "We are happy
to reach agreement. 1t means
the ball club will play in the
new stadium under conditions
we think will allow us to sur
vive and prosper.
"The conditions of the agree
ment are comparable to all
other such agreements where
baseball clubs lease public sta
duimS."
100000 Customers Needed
Quesada said that his club
needed to draw 100000 at Grif-
fifth Stadium to break even and
would need 100000 to operate
in the black in the new plant
that sits near the end of the
East Capitol street bridge. The
Senators this year drew only
597,287.
The agreement with the
Armory Board, the stadium's |
proprietary body, gives the
Senators year-around control
of the concessions, which al
ready are contracted to Sports |
Services, Inc, of Buffalo, N. Y. !
The Senators will pay to the
Armory 1915 per cent of their
concessions take from baseball |
games and 1915 per cent of |
the take from all other events,
including the Redskins foot
ball games. The Senators take |
will be 331s per cent of the
gross receipts. Sports Service,
Inc, gets two-thirds of the
gross.
The Senators will pay a rent
al Of 7 per cent of gross receipts |
minus taxes, the visiting team
share and the American League
share.
"You can figure it this
way" Burke explained. "The
average ticket price is $1.80.
You can take 40 cents off for
the taxes and the visiting team |
and league shares. That leaves
$1.40 and we pay per cent of
that figure"
That figures to 9.8 cents per
paid admission.
Other items of import COW
cred in the agreement:
PARKING: Armory Board
retains all parking revenue and
manages parking.
PAY-AS-YOU-GO TV: In
ease of an attendance decrease
that can be presumed as re-
sulting from the coin-slot TV, !
the ball club will make up the
difference, based on the average
for the preceding five years,
and will pay up to $4,000 in
advertising loss, if any. In case
pay-TV comes in before five
years, the average will be based
on attendance to date.
FIELD AND STADIUM.
MAINTENANCE: The ball club
Will MAINTAIN Jne playing 1leld
during the baseball season and
will be responsible for cleaning
inside the stadium during the
season. The Armory Board will
clean outside the stadium. The
ball club provides janitor serv-
ice for the offices it occupies
on year-round basis.
WORLD SERIES AND ALL
STAR GAMES: The rental paid
to the Armory Board for an
All-Star game or a World Series
game will be flat $4,000.