A Combination H. A. A. Ticket for All Sports.

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Attention has been called to the large gate receipts and the enormous amount of money spent on athletics as bad phases of the present athletic situation. This large income comes partly from the University, but chiefly from the public. At present season tickets are required for each sport and special tickets for big games, and in addition there are numerous calls for subscriptions, with consequent annoyance. There is a strong undergraduate feeling that subscriptions should be abolished. The burden of athletic support is not borne equally at present; a few pay for more than their share. With separate tickets for each sport, the one or two more fortunate ones draw the whole student body to their games; all the rest draw from a few hundred down to a handful. At present the relative importance of a sport should not be judged by the attendance. Most men buy only one ticket, usually for football, and the minor teams have very few men at their games. They may scrape along by the help of subscriptions, but larger attendance at their games would be much more valuable to the sport. With increased attendance there is bound to be increased interest in the minor sports, more men will come out for them, and there will be a large number of actual participants in our athletics.

The good results of a ticket admitting to all home games, with increased attendance at the minor team games that it would bring, would more than make up for the financial loss.

If all the sports were combined with one H. A. A. ticket admitting to everything, including all Yale and Princeton games, and the price of the ticket made so low as to be within reach of all, and regarded as each man's share or contribution for sport and permanent improvement rather than as an admittance ticket, an improved athletic situation could hardly fail to result.

The financial loss, if any, could be more than offset by looking into expenses. The possible saving in training table expenses, the cutting down of other extravagances, and the stopping of absolute wastes of money will make a very considerable economy.

With more men taking part in athletics the need for larger facilities will be felt more and more. Better athletic equipment for the University, including a modern and adequate gymnasium, with a large swimming pool an indoor track, new locker and shower rooms under the Stadium, and improvements on Soldiers Field, are legitimate ways to spend any amount of surplus from gate receipts. Outsiders are only too glad to pay to see College athletics, and it is only right that they should. This seems to me a legitimate way for the University to get financial aid for fostering general athletics and securing these improvements. JOHN. J. ROWE '07.