Will Pro Football Crowd Soccer
Is football, the great American college game, going to join the ranks of the commercialized professional sports and detract from the interest attached to intercollegiate contests which heretofore reigned supreme or will its invasion throughout the country interfere with the interest in Association football which is rapidly gaining a strong foothold with the American public. Therese are problems that at present are receiving the serious consideration of those associated with the aforementioned sports. Its invasion throughout the country may probably be attributed to the war when service teams with their roster of former star college players drew large audiences, many probably who turned out for sentimental reasons instead of pure love for the game. However, they have had a taste of it and are now clamoring to see these celebrities again in action. Professional football of merit we believe had its inception in the middle west and was for a long time kept confined within a small area of territory. Each year showed a marked increase in attendance and the sport eventually became not only profitable but brought in receipts at the gate that made it possible to lure stars of All-American fame to take up the game and still leave a neat balance at the close of the season. For years promoters have been watching the financial returns of these games with interest, and now throughout the country many are planning to commercialize. On an elaborate scale, the owners of the New York National baseball club are planning to introduce it in the East and if successful in the venture it would be no surprise if within a very few years every major league ball park in the country will follow the close of the diamond pastime with eight or ten weeks of football. It would hardly be possible to play a schedule of daily games, but as once a week attractions, it might prove to be a financial success. The advantage they would enjoy is that most ball parks are allowed to display their wares on Sunday, a day on which college games are never thought of being played and a day on which the attendance at baseball games has exceeded all records. However, it is not believed that the same spirit prevalent in intercollegiate contests could be injected into the professional sport. Like in all other professional sports exhibitions could be camouflaged but those who are in control of the various independent teams believe that they are giving the public the best they present with an arrangement of 60 and 40 percent in the division of gate receipts with the winning team in some instances including a bonus to the regular salary for games won. College football has its own followers and it is doubtful if years of professional football could wean them away.