Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1917 — STATISTICS OF PARKS [ARTICLE]

STATISTICS OF PARKS

Odd Facts Shown by Study of Baseball Situation. Seating Capacity of More Than One Hundred Parks Is but 3 Per Cent of Population—Some Interesting Figures. The recent discussion relative to the high cost of baseball and the changes suggested aa tending to reduce what in some eases is close to prohibitive expense has led to some Interesting statements and explanations. That some are not based upon cold facts can be shown by a careful study of the baseball situation as it exists today. It has been said that one reason for the heavy expense in connection with the management of a baseball club is the building of parks and .stands considerably in excess of the prospective attendance as warranted by the population of the surrounding territory. While this statement may be true in one or two isolated cases, it is not borne out by existing figures in, so far as it applies to the general run of major and minor baseball leagues. Build Expensive Parks.

In recent years some elaborate and expensive ball parks have been constructed, especially In cities represented in the National and American league circuits. In no case, however, does a comparison of the park seating capacity and the city population show that the accommodations are out of proportion to the attendance possibilities. Taking 17 leagues, scattered throughout the country, as a basis for computation, it is found that the total seating capacity of all the parks aggregates baseball parks is but 3 per cent of tha population of all the cities in which these parks are located. In the case of the larger class of cities the addition of the population figures of numerous suburbs would make the percentage still lower.

As they stand the statistics show that these 17 leagues contain clubs which play in cities with a total population of 37,416,000, and that the seat? ing capacity of all the parks aggregates but 1.106,300. As a result these parks would be filled almost to capacity at each game if three persons out of every hundred of the population-were to attend the contests. In Major Leagues. In the case of the major leagues the parks will not seat even 3 per cent of the population, the figures working out nearer to 2 per cent. On the other hand, some of the Southern and Western league parks will accommodate close to 15 per cent of the surrounding population. Seven of the leagues cover territory in which the total populatiorrortlie dtub flfles runs over the million mark, while the other ten range between one-quarter and three-quart-ers of a million. The figures, showing the population and seating capacity of parks by leagues, are as follows:

League Parks, ' Cities’ Seating Leagues. Population. Capacity. National 12,070,000 225,000 American 10,662,000 216,000 American Asociation..... 2,216,000 99,500 International 3,363,000 79,500 Pacific Coast 1,988,000 71,000 Southern 1,160,000 52,800 Western 821,000 51,200 Central 579,000 32,200 Eastern 1,035,000 40,000 Illinois-lowa-Indiana ... 314,000 28,400 New York 731,000 43,700 Northwestern 703,000 32,100 Texas 578,000 41,800 Northern 458,000 22,300 South Atlantic 337,000 21,200 Central Asociation 188,000 22,800 Virginia 213,000 27,300