Evening star. [volume], June 05, 1932, Page 7, Image 73

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
What It Costs to Stage the Olympic Games
The Bill forTransporting, Housing
and Feeding the Army of Athletes
Will Be a Million Dollars, While
Construction Costs and6 ‘Incidentals
Will Exceed Another Five Million.
Upper left—Mailing out tickets to the Olympic games . . .Betty
Henninger (left), Iva Daniels and Renee Muehlstein (right) of
the Olympic games offues, inclosing tickets for mailing to the
many thousands who have put in advance orders.
A room in one of the 550 cottages erected in Olympic Village to
accommodate the visiting athletes (above). Each cottage con
tains two rooms like this one, from which the roof and one wall
have been removed to make a clear view possible.
BY ERSKINE JOHNSON.
WHEN the sons of ancient
Greece trekked to Olympia in
Elis thousands of years ago
tor the games of the Olympiad,
financial worries were at a
minimum.
Only a small amount of money, meager
records show, was necessary to enable the
Cowers of Greece's manhood to participate in
these ancient sports celebrations.
But as the games of the Olympiad were
carried down through the centuries, elaborate
preparations resulted in increased expenditures.
The expenditures will reach a high peak this
Bummer when the tenth Olympic games are
held in Los Angeles. The financial aspect of
What has become an international institution
reaches astounding proportions.
So that "the Olympic torch may pursue its
way through the ages,” $6,041,000 will have
been spent when the last event of the 1932
Olympic games is staged in tba West Coast
City
Canstrueti.n of nine stadiums, auditoriums
and water courses, with seating capacities
rnging from 2.000 to 105,000, and erection of
miniature city for the housing of 2,000 ath
letes during the games, has sent expense of the
first Olympic games to be held In the United
Stamps climbing skyward.
The State of California and city and county
of Los Angeles already have spent millions in
preparation for the games.
To insure financial success of the game*, the
paople of the State three years ago voted »
$1,000,000 bond issue, the money being used
by the Organization Committee for construction
work with the understanding that it would be
returned to the coffers of the State from profits
ft the games.
ND nearly $2 000,000 more will be spent
before the games, to be held from July 30
to August 14, are concluded, officials estimate,
to csre for transporation and housing of the
athletes in Lee Angeles, publicity for the games,
printing of 15 tons of tickets and making of
hundreds of silver and bronse medals for vic
torious athletes, not to mention other expenses
Which apear at the last moment.
Approximately $1,000,000 will be expended
toy the United States and 49 other countries to
send their athletes to Los Angeles foe fch*
"games, and to house and feed them during their
stay In the 1932 Olympic city.
This item is quite in contrast to the ex
penses of the ancient participants of the games,
who either walked or rode in horse-drawn
chariots to Olympia to celebrate the games,
and slept in tents pitched cm the plains until
the games were completed.
This year the athletes will be carried to the
scene of the games in luxurious ocean liners,
some in airplanes and others in trains, ail of
which will add greatly to the expense of the
four-year celebration.
According to figures produced by the organ
ic ng\commiUee of the games, approximately
$480 per athlete will be spent by each country
entered for transportation and housing. Los
Angeles officials of the games have informed
the various nations that the athletes can be
housed and fed during their 16-day stay in
Los Angeles at a cost of $2 per day for each
athlete.
Basing the figures on these estimates means
that nearly one million dollars will be the
cost of the games to sponsors of the athletes.
Unlike participants in the early games in
Greece, who were forced to shift for them
selves before and after their events in Olympia,
athletes of the 1932 games will be housed In
a model city, built a few miles from the down
town district of Los Angeles at a cost of
$300,000.
Olympic Village, where visiting athletes will
be housed and fed during the games, is unique
in the history of the international gatherings.
It was built on a tract of 313 acres of land di
rectly west of Olympic Stadium. It Is located
on a range of hills between the mountains and
sea and commands an excellent view.
Five hundred and fifty especially designed
and line-looking portable houses, each measur
ing 24 by 10 fet and containing two rooms, ac
commodating two men to a room, were erected
at the site. They are furnished with four beds,
four chairs, two tables, two rugs, linens, blankets,
lights and plumbing fixtures.
Erection of the village means that for the
first tom* swo* the athletes of ancient Greece
pitched their tents togetlis* or-=Ucipants in the
Olympic Games will be housed and fed In a
single, complete community especially design**
for that purpose.
A huge dining hall, which is subdivided into
40 .private kitchens and dining rooms, giving
each country's team private facilities in which
their chefs will prepare their own food. Is a
feature of the little city.
^NOTHER item in construction of the city
was erection of an amphitheater, where
the athletes will view, each evening, motion
pictures of the various competitions which took
place during the day. Prominent motion pic
ture stars will also make personal appearances
at the village theater to help entertain the
visitors.
Entrance to the athletes’ village is through
an administration building of Pueblo Indian
architecture. In this building will be centered
all administrative work, although offices will be
prepared throughout the village for attaches of
the various competing nations. There is also
a building to house the medical service, and
bath houses are located conveniently throughout
th» city.
Five miles of graded road and eight miles of
water mains were laid to'complete the city.
Construction of stadiums and other buildings
which will permit a daily attendance of at least
400.000 persons at the games is the greatest
item on the Olympic Games expense list. Ap
proximately $2,985,000 was spent to care for
the thousands of visitors who are expected to
flock to Los Angeles to witness the ‘‘greatest
show on earth.”
The pivotal point of the games will be Olympic
Stadium in Exposition Park, a 10-minute auto
mobile ride from the center of Los Angeles.
Built eight years ago at a cost of $800,000, the
massive coliseum recently was remodeled to
accommodate 125.000 persons at an added cost
of $900,000. It has the greatest reserved seat
ing capacity of any stadium ever built, seating
105.000 persons on reserved admission.
An elaborate lighting system, installed at a
cost of $60,000, which is included in the $900,000
figure, will permit staging of Olympic events
in the stadium at night. The electricity used is
sufficient to light an average city of 15,900
persons.
The great stadium is elliptical in shape, and
was constructed on the cut-and-fill plan, by
excavating for the bowl and throwing the earth
up the sides to form a solid foundation for that
portion of the structure above the ground level.
In this great stadium will be held the impres
sive opening and closing ceremonies of the
games, track and field sports, gymnastics, finals
of the equestrian sports, field hockey, the na
tional demonstration of American foot ball, and
the international exhibition of lacrosse.
Cycling events will be held in picturesque
Pasadena Bose Bowl, one of the oldest stadiums
in the West and made famous throughout the
world by the New Year day East-West foot
ball games. The stadium has a seating ca
pacity of 85,511 persons.
A T Long Beach, oceanside city 28 miles from
'' Los Angeles, one of the finest courses in
the world has been built for the spectacular
rowing races of the games.
Constructed at a cost of $250,000, jointly paid
by the cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles
V\d the State, the course, known as Long Beach
Marine Stadium, forms an arm of picturesque
Alamitos Bay and meets all Olympic require
ments as to length, width and depth.
The rowing course is 2,000 meters long, 130
meters wide and 2>i meters deep. Grandstands,
officials’ stands, landings and boat houses were
completed recently, making it one of the finest
courses in the world.
In addition to those who Will find seats in
the grandstands, which will accommodate 10.000
persons, more than 100,000 spectators will be
able to find standing room along the sandy
banks of the course.
Olympic Auditorium, famous in the sports
world, will be the scene of the boxing, wrestling
and weight-lifting events of the games. The
auditorium, built privately at a cost of $500,000
several years ago in anticipation of the games,
is owned by the Los Angeles Athletic Club and
is the largest of its kind in the West. Its seat
ing capacity is 10,400.
Competitions in fine arts will be in Olympic
Fine Arts Museum (Los Angeles County Mu
seum), which houses world-famous collections
of history, science and art. The museum, as
remodeled by the county at a cost of $1,500,000
for the games, covers 9 acres of ground and
provides approximately 30 acres of floor space
for the exhibits.
Aquatic events of the games will be held in
the large, new Olympic Swimming Stadium,
which was erected in Exposition Park, almost
under the walls of the main Olympic stadium,
at a cost of $250,000, which was borne by
the City of Los Angeles and the State.
The pool is 20 by 50 meters and ranges in
depth from one and five-tenths meters to five
meters, including a regulation area for water
polo. Underwater lights and a heating plant
were installed to make the plunge suitable for
night swimming and diving.
Other equipment of the stadium includes two
meter diving boards, one three-meter board
and two diving platforms, one a five-meter and
the other a 10, and 65 dressing rooms. Two
grandstands erected on opposite sides of the
open-air pool provide seats for 10,000 persons.
rE yacht races of the games will be held at
Los Angeles Harbor In full view of the
thousands of spectators who will find points of
vantage along the towering clliTs of Point Flr
min and on the massive breakwater which juta
far out Into the ocean at the harbor's mouth.
The yacht races will be free to the public, the
only event of the games for which no admis
sion is charged.
The spacious grounds of the beautiful Riviera
Country Club, near Santa Monica, beach city
25 minutes by automobile from Olympic Vil
lage, have been selected as the site for the
equestrian sports, exclusive of the finals, which
will be held at Olympic Stadium.
The events will be staged In a natural am
phitheater formed by the walls of a ravine.
Stands were erected to accommodate 8.000 spec
tators and improvements made on the grounds
at a cost of $25,000 to directors and members
of the club.
Since return of at least a large part of the
$1,000,000 8tate bond issue Is the only direct
obligation of officials of the games. Olympic
authorities, headed by William May Garland,
Los Angeles civic leader, expect to break even
on the finances. The chance of making a small
profit, which would be divided equally between
the State, City of Los Angeles, County oC Los
Angeles and Long Beach, is expected.
Fight Train Sparks
RIDING on top of box cars on trains speed
ing and swaying along through the dark
hardly seems within the realm of activity of
forestry experts, yet Federal experts have been
so engaged in testing out apparatus intended
to eliminate the railroad locomotive as a source
of forest fire. It is estimated that about 10,000
fires a year result from fires starting from
locomotive sparks.
One device tested, a wire screen placed over
the stack, was fairly satisfactory, but at the
time of starting or up;n hitting steep grades
many sparks were blown through the mesh.
A more satisfactory device is a centrifugal
spark arrester, which cools and breaks up the
sparks before they are thrown out of the stack.
To illustrate the extent to which the railroads
are going to co-operate in keeping the fires
down, one company in the Northwest has in
stalled more than 300 spark arresters in the
stacks of its engines.
Fill lowing Fdils
FALLOWING, the time-honored method by
which farmers combat lack of moisture in
regions in which the rainfall is slight, is of
little use in the case of the area around Big
Spring, Tex., where much cotton is grown.
The Department of Agriculture has con
ducted experimental work in this area not only
with cotton, but with other crops, in the hope
of solving the problem of slight rainfall. Some
benefit was noted from fallowing, but the cost
far exceeded any benefits derived therefrom.
The area Is especially prized for cotton grow
ing. for tlie boll weevil is not found in that
section.
Efforts to grow grain, beans and other sub
stitute crops clearly indicated that cotton alone
was a suitalJe crop for the Big Spring section,