BIG BUSINESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 13

BIG BUSINESS.

COI#OSSAX> CROWDS. /•- _ ; ' i ALL RECORDS SMASHED. I Figures published in yesterday's "Auckland Star" showed i that prior to the current game the best two day's attendances at any previous Test were 63,247 and 02,250, at Melbourne in 1928-29, when Don Bradman reappeared against A. F. Chapman's eleven to make a century, after Ueing dropped from the Sydney Test for failure on his initial appearance at Briebane. This congest' produced a record in aggregate attendance (202,487), but not in revenue (£22,1*62), as in 1924-25 the receipts from tlie Melbourne game, in which J. B. Hobbs and H. Sutcliffe batted all day for 283, were £22,628. > The three day's of the game «ow being played at Melbourne have produced amazing attendance^'"^and' gates of 78,630 (£7128), 65,235 (£5565), and 87,798 (£74061, in that order. » The old record single-day crowd was 08,238 (£5577) on December 30, 1932, the day Don Bradman was bowled first ball by W. E. Bowes with a long-hop. He made 103 not out in the second innings, in a total of 191, to give Australia its only victory in the series against Douglas Jardine's side. Therefore the three days' aggregates are 231,663 persons and £20,098 revenue. It is easy to see, therefore, that only a 30,824 crowd is necessary to-day to equal the world record of 202,487 established in 1928-29 at Melbourne; and a mere £2532 to square accounts with the £22,628 gates for the second Second Test of A. E. R. Gilligan's 1924-25 series, when Australia won by 81 runs (600 and 250, to Marylebone'a.479 and ~J