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Show I? TGAAmANDf WILL the coming Louis-Conn fight set a new record for gate receipts? There are more than two or three close to the fight game who don't think so. It will be a sellout, but the idea f .-svw"! is that the Yankee g Stadium can't ! J match either Sol. p Cijf I dier Field, Chicago, yf jt or the Sesquicen- J t I tennial in Philadel- a I phia. ,?k Here's the low down from a gate ?3it&Mi3 receipts authority: 'MSi&Mi'Sm "Mike Jacobs will UuMMMMBim charge $100 for Billy Conn ringside seats. He will scale the crowd down from that. I believe you will find the attendance somewhere between be-tween 90,000 and 100,000. My guess would be around $2,500,000, slightly below the second Tunney-Dempsey meeting in Chicago which drew $2,650,000." Jacobs boasts that he will gross three million dollars on this fight. This sent us prowling into the record rec-ord book to check the leading money records of the game. Here they are: Tunney-Dempsey, Chicago, 1927 $2,650,000. Dempsey - Tunney, Philadelphia, 1926 51,895,723. Dempsey-Carpentier, Jersey City, 192151,626,580. Dempsey-Sharkey, New Tork, 1927 $1,083,529. Dempsey-Firpo, New York, 1923 $1,082,590. Louis-Baer, New Tork, 1935 $948,352. Louis-Schmeling, New York, 1938 5940,096. TunneyHeeney, New York, 1928 $691,014. The first Louis-Conn fight in New York, 1941, drew only $451,743. There are two outstanding points in this financial roundup. The first is that Jack Dempsey figured in all the shows over $1,000,000, five altogether. al-together. These five Dempsey fights hauled in $8,338,422. Dempsey altogether drew in something some-thing like $10,000,000 at the gate, far beyond any one else. It will-also be noted that Dempsey drew huge amounts against four different opponents oppo-nents Tunney, Carpentier, Sharkey and Firpo. Gene Tunney, with Dempsey out of the picture fell from $2,650,000 and $1,895,723 to $691,014 against Tom Heeney. The Louis Gate Record Joe Louis so far has been in 57 fights, but Joe has yet to know a million-dollar gate. Here are his five best financial contests: Louis-Baer, New York, 1935 $948,352. Louis-Schmeling, New York, 1938 5940,096. Louis-Braddock, Chicago, 1937 $640,420. Louis-Nova, New York, 1941 $583,821. Louis-Schmeling, New York, 1936 $547,372. The five top Louis fights are nearly near-ly five million dollars below the Dempsey count for the same number num-ber of contests. The Conn engagement engage-ment will be the first time the Bomber Bomb-er moves into the million-dollar row, and this time it is almost certain to be better than the $2,000,000 row. Whether it will reach $3,000,000 is another guess. So far Louis has drawn in approximately ap-proximately $5,000,000 at the gate; 37 per cent of this amount is about $1,850,000. Even if split evenly with his managers this should have left Joe over $900,000. Taxes have taken a terrific toll from this amount, but even so one begins to wonder how Louis could be in the red, so far as back debts go, for over $200,000 to the government govern-ment and Mike Jacobs. If you owe $200,000 today and make $2,000,000, your net will be about 5180,000, and this still leaves you $20,000 shy. The best Louis can hope to collect in the Conn fight will be something about $900,000 and 51,000,000, so far as gate receipts go. What he will get from motion pictures pic-tures and television Is still a guess. But when they stop lopping off 90 or 92 per cent, the residue won't be any too ponderous to carry around. Dempsey and Tunney had better breaks. Tunney knocked over $900,- 000 or more for himself in 1927 at Chicago, but the income tax at that time was light approximately 10 or 12 per cent. Both Dempsey and Tunney kept most of what they made, although the Mauler split 50-50 50-50 with Jack Kearns before they said "farewell forever." Those days now belong with the dodo and the great auk. Maybe you can make it today, but if you do try to keep it. 1 Pennant Race Odds What should the proper and correct cor-rect odds be on the two pennant races just ahead? A few dozen bookmakers gave me this: "We've made the Cardinals even money against the rest of the National Na-tional league. "The American league looks about as wide open as the Kentucky Derby. The Yankees and the Red Sox should be slightly favored. We rate them the better balanced teams. |