Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 267, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1917 — “PASS UP" $500,000 [ARTICLE]

“PASS UP" $500,000

Amount Yale, Princeton and Harvard Toss to Discard. ■ . -- A - Big Sum of Money Big College* Could Coax From Sporting Public's Bottomless Pocket Will Be Left Untouched. • Half a million dollars which has annually been spent for the last three years by spectator* at the football games of Harvard, Yale and Princeton will be saved or diverted elsewhere this year. The withdrawal of the Big Three from ’varsity football for the 1917 season will leave this large sum in circulation. The sad part of the circumstance is that the $500,000 is ready to be exchanged for football tickets again this fall, but the three universities have decided that It ought not to cheat the sporting public by putting on inferior teams, and not a cent of the money will come into the athletic treasuries as a result Harvard, Yale and Princeton can afford tqt pass up Its annual taking of football receipts this season better than most of the other colleges, but nevertheless these three big fellows could find plenty of uses for the money. Fixed charges are still going on in Cambridge, New Haven and Princeton, N. J., and in the absence of ’varsity football, such charges will amount to a loss. Office salaries still continue, and the usual expense for the upkeep of the football plants must be met. Money to meet these normal expenses must come out of the athletic treasury, for it is the law that sports must be kept as a separate item and not encroach on the academic appropriations. When the war is over and athletics is resumed, it is certain that Harvard, Yale and Princeton, in common with most of'lhe other colleges of the country, will face deficits in the athletic departments. In the case of the Big Three, however, it will probably not take more than a single football season to balance the ledgers. Football is always the best paying sport, and can be depended on to make more than its heavy expenses. In a few years Immediately following the war, however, it Is probable that some of the other sports will have to be handled more economically than they previously were. Crew racing, for instance, rolls up a heavy expense and returns but little in receipts. The same thing goes for track athletics. In the reconstruction period It is probable that football can pay for Itself and make up for the deficit caused by the unprofitable war years, but there will not be much money left over to pay for the big losses rung up by the nonpaying sports. For that reason, economy will still have to be practiced after all departments of sports are once more operating on a normal basis.