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Show A FTER watching the scramble for world series MBtl and hearing hear-ing of the record demand for every game that teams like Army, Michi-gan Michi-gan and Notre Dame play, one be- flMHPr flljft gins to wonder how Hr many over-eager I fans are t u r n e d I i away in the course J9 wfc $ i of a year. L A The waste in the matter of specta- fcovi tors rims far Into HBPfijlit. the In loftP, fact, it will surpass j liS many hundreds of !Ff ilB millions, since on Grantland Rice ' certain big occa- sions far more people are turned away than the number of those admitted. ad-mitted. The Red Sox oflke in Boston told me that, with room enough, the Boston Bos-ton seat sale for the World Series would have passed the 500,000 mark. This means that about 80 per cent of the ticket applicants were turned away. Army feels confident that It could have played before more than 250,-000 250,-000 at Ann Arbor, if Michigan had a 250,000 stadium, and just as certain cer-tain it could play before close to a million in the Notre Dame game. Unfortunately, when earlier stands were built no one saw the possibilities possibili-ties of any such public demand. Certainly New York didn't, where there is no such bowl as so many other cities have. Los Angeles can handle 103,000 at her Municipal stadium, with Pasadena Pasa-dena only a few miles away, able to put away over 90,000. With Santa Anita and Hollywood set for racing, rac-ing, Los Angeles is well in front so far as accommodations for the human frame are concerned. Philadelphia and Chicago have 100,000 plants at the Sesquicenten-nial Sesquicenten-nial stadium and Soldier field. Neiv York's Big Parks But their ball parks are too meager, mea-ger, along with so many other cities. The Yankees have the only ball park that can seat 70,000 fans. Polo grounds and Briggs stadium are about on a par at 58,000. Outside of these places, few ball parks can seat more than 35,000 with any comfort. com-fort. Public interest in sport, almost al-most every variety of sport, has grown far beyond seating or even standing space. They can handle far bigger crowds in England and Scotland because hillsides often are used. In the matter of football or baseball, it is difficult to build stadiums sta-diums that could handle more than 110,000 or possibly 125,000 spectators. When crowds reach or pass these marks, too many spectators are too far away from the scene of conflict or contest. Rut there is vast room for Improving conditions, where space too often is much too limited. The Michigan stadium at Ann Arbor leads all strictly college facilities with room for slightly over 86,000 spectators. With over 100,000 applications appli-cations for the Army-Michigan game, you can see how inadequate this is. Just what will be done about the situation is a story for the future, with lack of space and also lack of building material. But many an owner or promoter has wasted many a sigh in thinking of all the lost gold from so many millions crowded out. Too Much Baseball There was a good deal of talk, during the recent series, about how baseball is extending its playing season sea-son deep into football's brief weeks. Then too, there's the matter of traveling. trav-eling. We were wondering what would happen in the future when Los Angeles An-geles or San Francisco had to face Boston or Brooklyn. A world series that rolls back and forth from ocean to ocean could be much worse than this shift from St. Louis to Boston and back. The Mississippi isn't nearly as far away from the Atlantic ocean as the The main fact Is that baseball is crowding much too far into the football foot-ball season. Naturally, baseball magnates i can't see It that way. They have i failed to realize that football Is ' now as much of a major sport as baseball ever was, or ever will be. If a series happens to run into a day or two of rain, those who follow both baseball and football see their first football game around midsea-son. midsea-son. This doesn't happen to make any sense. Baseball gets its start back in February. It has at least a six months' span. Football only asks for two and a half months. Football Rankings The majority of football fans agree that Texas university belongs on top, or close to the top of the heap, as far as this season goes. Army and Notre Dame are ranked close alongside, with Michigan In fourth place. It remains to be seen what Michigan Michi-gan will do in its remaining games. Also more than a trifle of Army's future depends on Doc Blanchard's condition. |