Yale-Harvard Crowd Not a Record: More than Hundred Thousand Persons Have Paid to See a Number of Sporting Events, Daily Racing Form, 1916-11-30

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YALE - HARVARD CROWD NOT A RECORD. More Than Hundred Thousand Persons Have 2?aid to See a Number of Sporting Events. The claim made in behalf of the crowd at the Yale Harvard football game Saturday, that it was tin; "largest paid attendance at :ny sporting event in the history of the world," was of course an exaggeration, and has been promptly challenged by a Canadian writer, with others sure to follow. It is possible the crowd at the Yale bowl was the largest that ever paid a fairly good-sized admittance fee to a sporting event, although even that may be doubted. The records of the old Washington Park Club will show to any investigator that 74,000 persons saw one American Derby at that historical course, no that there is a near-challenger to the statement right here in the United States, whereas the proportion of the half-million persons several times witnessing the Epsom Derby who paid from 0 to 5 to witness that English classic was probably sufficient to make the gate receipts exceed those at the Yale bowl. In the case of the football and cricket matches cited by the writer below, however, it should be borne in mind that most of the spectators paid a mere six-jience for the privilege of witnessing their favorite sport. .The Canadian writer referred to is Francis Nelson, of the Toronto Globe, and he says: "With the usual assurance that the United States, or even the eastern section, constitutes all that is worth considering as the world. New York journals announce the attendance of something under S0.00O at the Yale-Harvard football match on Saturday as the largest crowd that ever paid admittance to any form of sporting competition anywhere. While the gathering greatly exceeds in numbers any recorded attendance in the States, it is far below old country crowds at football matches. At Hampden Park, Glasgow, on March 23, 1912, 127,307 persons paid to sec the international game between Scotland and England. At the Crystal Palace, London, on April 19, 1913, 120,028 persons gathered to ste Aston Villa and Sunderland teams decide the possession of the Football Association Cup for that season. Even a cricket match the England-Australia game in Melbourne five years ago drew an attendance of 99,253, but they were spread over the four days that it took to decide the match. .Literally, this crowd surpasses the attendance at the up race in the year of the worlds exhibition in Melbourne, over 120,000, though perhaps 20.000 of these occupied ground to which no admission fee was charged Here are three different sports at which attendances exceeded the remarkable record of Saturday at Yale."


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1916113001/drf1916113001_1_2
Local Identifier: drf1916113001_1_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800