Clipping:Charging extra for a premium game: differing opinions
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| Date | Sunday, May 29, 1870 |
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| Text | The Atlantic and Red Stockings match is off for the present. The cause assigned by the Atlantic managers is the extra charge for admission made by the Red Stockings. In view of the fact that the grounds could scarcely hold the crowd at twenty-five cents admission, we think the increased fee a politic arrangement. The Unions and Mutuals do not object to it, and we do not see why the Atlantics should. New York Sunday Mercury May 29, 1870 If professional ball-players have any fancy for self-destruction, they cannot more certainly attain their object than by following the course they at present seem inclined to pursue. Base-ball, although styled the National Game, does not possess such inherent attractions as to induce the public to submit to any imposition which it may please a professional club to enforce. We are induced to make these remarks in consequence of the “Red Stocking” having declined to play the Atlantics or any other club here, unless they charged fifty cent admission fee to the ground on the day of the match. Fifty cents do not constitute a very large sum of money, but there are thousands who are regular supporters of the game, and whose quarters are very acceptable on ordinary occasions, to whom the extra “quarter” will make a material difference, when there are four or five games to be witness, and who are therefore to be “left out in the cold” because the “Red Stockings” won’t exhibit at less that fifty cents a head. We highly applaud the resolution of the Atlantic Club, in the present instance, not to accede to the request of the Cincinnati nine: and although there are some persons who wish to insinuate that they have done so for fear of losing the championship, they can afford to treat such opinions as they deserve. The Red Stockings are, no doubt, very fine players, but we don’t know that they are so much better than the players in this little village and the neighboring hamlet of Brooklyn; and when our two crack clubs, the Atlantic and Mutual, meet to struggle for the championship, they are quite content to play with the admission fee restricted to twenty-five cents. This attempt, therefore, to put the screw on, will, we believe, be resented by the public at large, not only by stopping away from these fifty cent shows, but from the twenty-five cent ones also. Our citizens don’t like to be told that their company is good enough upon ordinary match days, but when a grand field day is to come off, they must stand aside and allow their wealthier neighbors, alone, to enjoy the treat. When the Red Stockings have departed “to seek fresh fields and pastures new,” to whom do the professional clubs and ground owners look for support but to the “quarter dollar” paying public. It is not wise, therefore, to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, and those clubs which have submitted to the dictation of the Western men may find, when too late, they that have practically killed their goose. We trust, therefore, the Atlantic Club will not be induced to rescind their present resolution, and we feel assured they will meet with the cordial approbation and support of the public. An exceedingly fair proposition was made by the Atlantic to the Red Stockings, in respect to the lowness of the charge for admission. They said if the Red Stockings thought that a sufficient sum would not be realized by the twenty-five cent admission fee, they, the Atlantics, would take all the proceeds here, and when they went to Cincinnati to play the return game, on or before the 1 st of October, the Red Stocking might charge what admission fee they thought proper, to their ground, and take the entire proceeds, but this proposition they declined. New York Dispatch May 29, 1870 [The game was in fact played 6/14/70 with fifty cents admission.] [Cincinnati vs. Forest City of Cleveland 5/31/1870] Over 5,000 people paid the entrance fee of 50 cents to witness the match, and double that amount for seats on the grand-stand. New York Sunday Mercury June 5, 1870 We are led to these remarks with a view of calling the attention of the fraternity of the East to the true position the Cincinnati nine occupy in the baseball world, in order to offset an effort which has been made in one quarter to create a prejudice against the cincinnati Club because of their adoption of an increased tariff of admission fees to their matches. As a professional nine, the Red Stocking have just the same right to increase their admission fee from twenty-five cents to fifty as our professional clubs had to raise their gate money charge from ten cents to twenty-five. Not a word in demur at the increased tariff has been heard in other cities, and it would be a very small business for the wealthy metropolic of this country to inaugurate any opposition to it. In Philadelphia a dollar admission was charged on occasion of a meeting between the Atlantic and Athletic Clubs, and at that price four thousand people entered the inclosed grounds. The fact is, so great is the desire to witness the coming test games between the Red Stocking nine and our c rack clubs, that we have no ground large enough to hold the mass of people which would crowd the field at an admission fee of twenty-five cents; and rather than the stranger club should not have fair field to play on it would be better to charge even a dollar admission. New York Sunday Mercury June 12, 1870 |
| Source | New York Sunday Mercury |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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