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.187Additionally, criminal elements, such as costermongers, would often intrude, preventing the legitimate authorities from selling tickets and retailing their own instead.188 The hiring of venues presented further expense.At first, sparring exhibitions did very well; it costing just eight guineas to hire London’s Fives Court.189 However, profits dwindled when a rival venue appeared and towards the end of the period most of the gate money for such displays went in overheads.190170Beginnings of a Commercial Sporting Culture in BritainTable 7.2Receipts from sporting eventsSportSumYearCricket£200 1827Foot racing£1021848Horse racing1,000 g.1827Pugilism200 g.1822Wrestling£99 1849The finance involved in presenting sports events varied considerably.Clarke charged £100 for setting up a cricket match, some cock-fights cost as little as five pounds.191 Competitors would often insist on a share of the gate money.This was often so lucrative in prize-fights that a boxer would sell his right to name the venuefor sums of £50 or more.192 Many proprietors, especially at foot racing, were‘miserly’, though important athletes insisted on a three-way split.193 A detailed account from 1848 reveals that the proprietor made two pounds six shillings clearprofit from takings of £12.194 The aim was to maximize gate money, foot races sometimes being cancelled if the assembled crowd was regarded as insufficient.195Conversely, admission charges would be doubled for major events in cricket and foot racing.196Refreshments, typically alcohol and food, represented a significant portion of the revenue accrued by most sports’ grounds.Even quite minor cricket grounds sold wine and one of the major problems afflicting the Hippodrome Race Track was its lack of an alcohol licence.197 However, comparatively speaking, refresh-ments were of far more significance to sporting pubs.198Generally, sport was presented as one of a number of attractions at pubs, such as the mixture of songs, comedy and boxing held at the Garrick Head.199 Boxers were often publicans and therefore sold tickets to sparring exhibitions or hosted the displays at which the stakes for prize-fights were presented.200 Additionally, they would offer particular events, notably pedestrian displays or ‘bag foxes’ to entice customers, or simply provide recreational facilities, such as rackets.201 Prizes would sometimes be offered for particular events, for instance bowls and pigeon-shooting, the entrance money for which would include refreshments andmeals.202Ancillaries can be divided into four categories: transport, servicing, equipment and tourism.Transport was a significant part of the expense involved in sporting activity.For example, it was estimated that the crowd watching the Randall–Martin prize-fight in 1821 paid some £12,000 to reach the venue.203 By the 1840s, ferrys, canals, trains and steamers were all employed; though the last two were of moresignificance.204 Although steamers, in 1817, were the first to be used to carry spectators, trains had more long-term impact, being utilized for a wider range ofMass Entertainment Comes to Britain171sports.205 The problem with steamers was that it was easy to charter rivals andundercut prices.206 Consequently, facilities were improved, one boat to a prize-fight offering ‘an excellent brass band on board, and jigs, polkas, and quadrilles’.207 This led to bigger overheads and though it was often worthwhile for entrepreneurs to pay boxers for the right to provide a steamer, profits of £150sometimes being gained, on occasions ventures were ‘anything but profitable’.208One unscrupulous entrepreneur, having marooned his passengers on an island‘taking advantage of the trap in which the visitors were caught he doubled the toll’.209 Trains had wider geographical accessibility and by the 1840s most sporting events advertised their rail connections, organizing intersecting coaches.210 From the start profits had been good, a company selling £375 worth of sixpenny tickets to watch Manchester races in 1838, and by 1845 over a thousand pounds was expended visiting Tyne Regatta.211The services involved in established seasonal recreations, such as sailing, shooting and fox-hunting, brought great employment to many areas.A well groomed fox-hunting pack was reckoned to cost £3,000 a year, and in Surrey alonethe packs pumped £16,000 into the local economy in 1832.212 This tended to enrich almost everyone in an area.At Brighton, for instance, local labourers charged visitors half a crown to witness the kill at a hare-hunt.213 The most dramatic change occurred at Lutterworth.Whereas earlier farmers had sabotaged the hunts and ‘sent their men out at night, previous to the intended “meeting” to drive the foxes from covert’, 214 such hostility ended and the town began to provide good signposts and lighting, the inhabitants sharing in the prosperity of the commerce resulting from fox-hunting.By contrast, the excessive exactions at Melton Mowbray had severely reduced the number of packs based there.215 Sailing was a big employer in particular areas, notably Edinburgh and Cowes.216 The influx of those wishing to hire shooting grounds was a great boon in the north.Despite attempts to control prices and weed out plots that were of little sporting value, the owners’ profits increased steadily, with ignorant visitors continually being leased worthlessland.217Sporting equipment was produced for two main groups: spectators and participants [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]