STATEMENT FROM PROF HOLLIS

To the Editors of the Crimson:

The following statement of the allotment of seats to the Harvard-Yale football game is prepared in reply to the numerous inquiries and complaints that have reached me during the past ten days. It may help us to trace to the proper source the dissatisfaction so generally expressed.

The total number of tickets printed for this game is 33,774. In order to place all applicants for seats on an equality, no free list was established. All tickets that have left the hands of the Graduate Manager have been paid for. They are allotted:

The tickets sent to Yale are in the centre of the North Stand. Those sent to the Harvard Club of New York fill one entire section near the centre of the South Stand. The players, coachers and others in the preceding table are regarded as privileged, and special seats were reserved for them in the centre of the South Stand. Thus 8265 tickets were disposed of before the applications of the season ticket holders were considered. When we add the 7835 seats sold to them, we have 16,100 persons who desire seats between the goal lines. As there are in the neighborhood of 14,000 such seats on both sides of the field, it may readily be seen that hundreds of people are certain to be disappointed. The seats for season ticket holders were drawn by lot on a system which had my approval and no preference was given to graduates or undergraduates. The fifth group of the first table received their tickets by lot, giving preference to the members of the Graduates' Athletic Association. The greater number of this group have seats in the stands behind the goal posts.

The system followed by the Graduate Manager is, in the main, one of established custom. A large number of persons have always been considered to have special privileges and the sale of seats to them this year has but slightly exceeded that of the large games in 1897 and 1898. The reason why the allotment for this game compares so unfavorably with that of previous years is due to the large sale to season ticket holders. It exceeds that of last year by 4000 tickets. If we subtract 4000 from the 16,100 mentioned above, we should have only 12,100 to be seated in the two stands, leaving 1900 seats to spare. The legitimate grounds for dissatisfaction seem therefore to be in the indiscriminate sale of season tickets. Heretofore, it has not appeared necessary to restrict these tickets to undergraduates and graduates, as the sale outside of the University was limited principally to the parents and relatives of the students. I do not think even now that a large percentage of season tickets has gone to outsiders who have no interest in Harvard; but I am sure that all will agree, after the experience of this year, to some kind of a restriction.

The sale of so large a number of special seats to players, coaches and others constitutes an abuse for which the students and graduates are largely responsible. Men who have played upon the teams are considered to have earned certain rights and privileges, which the management is expected to grant without question. Both students and graduates have acquiesced for years in this, and having acquiesced in it, many of them have acquired the habit of procuring good tickets through their friends among the players and coaches instead of taking their chances with the other students and graduates. It seems only fair that members of the team and the coaches should have special seats for themselves and their immediate families, but the privilege should extend no further. It is an abuse to treat their friends among graduates and undergraduates as a privileged class, yet their friends put very great pressure upon them for special seats. The whole spirit of good sport rests upon equal opportunities to all, both in playing the game and seeing it. Certainly, any system is a viscious one which deprives the undergraduates of their legitimate right to see the games under the most favorable conditions.

While there is undoubted cause for complaint this year, there is also great exaggeration in the statements about the seats. It is to be regretted that tickets have found their way into the hands of the speculators, but I am sure that the number bears an exceedingly small proportion to the total number issued. The accusation that some of the players and coaches have sold their tickets to speculators is probably without foundation. When we consider that undergraduates have all been offered good prices for their tickets, it speaks well for their sense of honor that so few of them have yielded. It was hoped that the large number of seats constructed around the field would effectually check speculation, and to that end the management deliberately put money into seats it did not expect to sell. Under the circumstances, the common delusion that any undergraduate has been entirely crowded out seems surprising. He has not had adequate opportunity to get good seats, but he can nevertheless see the game.

While the advisability of admitting so many people to the game and taking in so large a sum of gate money is questionable, the intention has been to make sure that every graduate and undergraduate should have a seat of some kind, and the aim of the management has not been mercenary.

The experience of this season seems to demonstrate the necessity of altering the rules of distribution, and of publishing them for the information of all Harvard men. In conclusion I may add that it is unfair to hold the Graduate Manager solely responsible for a condition which graduates and undergraduates have helped to create, and which the chairman of the Athletic Committee could have modified. 1.  To players, coaches, etc.  3,860 2.  To the Harvard Club of New York  704 3.  To the Yale Football Association  3,701 4.  To season ticket holders  7,835 5.  To graduates and undergraduates not season ticket holders  12,534 6.  To members of the press  284 7.  Seats taken out for exits, etc. (not sold)  698 8.  Tickets remaining on hand Nov. 14  4,158   Total  33,774 The first group is made up of the following: 1.  Members of teams and substitutes  64 2.  Coaches  31 3.  Ex-'Varsity players  74 4.  Undergraduate managers  8 5.  Ex-Managers  8 6.  Freshman Squad  52 7.  Persons connected with the management  28 8.  Officers of the University  13 9.  Officials of Boston and Cambridge  38 10.  Press  7 11.  Benefactors and others who have aided the Association financially  25   Total  348