Bethlehem Steel Drops Soccer
The news that Bethlehem Steel has dropped out of soccer for the coming year and perhaps longer was bad news for the local fans and lovers of that game. There are several reasons, the chief one being that the gate receipts for some time, if indicative of what they were to be during the coming season, did not warrant the investment in the game. The industrial depression, said one of those closely allied with the local soccer interests, was also a factor. Many of the fans deeply interested in the game, because of the closing down of the Shipbuilding offices, are leaving town and the attendances, it was clearly seen, would b e even less this coming season than last. It is a peculiar coincidence that the team that took championship laurels for several years and also made a triumphal tour of foreign soccer fields last year should have to drop the game for a time. However, there is likely to be very good amateur soccer here. Among other things, the champs have aroused great interest among Bethlehem young men in the leading British sport and the watching of the fast game put up on the Bethlehem field by the professionals has had a reflex action on the amateurs. The amateurs will have a fine chance to boost the game still more in the coming season.