THE STADIUM AGAIN

The question of what to do with the Stadium, which confronts the Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports at its meeting tonight, involves no consideration permanence. The time is not far distant when the present concrete Stadium will be structurally unfit for use. When that time comes, there will arise the problem which can be met only by a new athletic plant. Whether the solution of the immediate difficulty employs concrete stands or steel, the temporary character of the settlement cannot be overlooked.

With this fact in mind, it is hard to see the wisdom of any step but the construction of steel stands. Concrete seats built now would represent a waste when the present Stadium shall be abandoned. As much room may be found in a set of steel stands closing the open end of the Stadium which will not impair the usefulness of the track and may be removed at will.

Last winter Mr. Bingham recommended the immediate erection of a new stadium or the enlargement of the present plant as the logical answer to the question raised by the condemnation of the old wooden seats. A vote of the Corporation and the Board of Overseers rejected this proposition and forced the falling back on an expedient device. The remedy adopted will be, like its motivating force, one of expediency.

The problem of capacity and the misunderstandings attendant upon it will remain. In his 1928 report Mr. Bingham quoted the figures of the total number of Harvard men, alumni and present members of the University, as 61,763. Restrictions on admission to Harvard make it likely that this figure has reached nearly its top mark. But Harvard's share of tickets in the Stadium is only 32,000, and there are hundreds of disappointed alumni each year.

For most graduates football games, and particularly the Yale game, offer the most desirable means of direct contact with Harvard. Transformations like that in the Yale Bowl six weeks ago are the only visible and memorable representation of current Harvard life to many unfamiliar with general University advance. There seems to be no reason why Harvard should not have accommodations for the graduates who flood the ticket office with applications in losing seasons as well as in winning ones.

The overemphasis bugbear, the first article of the old cases against larger stadia, is laid, once and for all, at Harvard. It has been smothered, not by acts and regulations, but by the normal course of University development. Harvard men, with fresh stimuli ever calling, have shown that they can take their football or leave it alone. It is not unreasonable to suppose that when the question arises again, as it will inside of a decade, a larger stadium will be built at Harvard.