Today's Tidbit... Carriages and Cars Along The Sideline

Last year I wrote about the days when cars lined the sidelines at football fields until stadiums grew larger, eventually encircling the fields. Initially, football fields did not have stands, or the stands were only on one side, so fans stood on the other sideline and at the end of the fields. Well-controlled locations kept fans behind ropes or in their cars, with the local constables enforcing those rules. Of course, before fans watched games from automobiles, they did so from within or atop carriages. 

(Sitting Atop Carriages in Camp, Walter The Book of Foot-Ball. Century, New York. 1910.)

Having the fans in carriages and cars served a few purposes for the stadium proprietors. First, the vehicles brought in additional revenues since stadiums often charged per vehicle and each passenger. As early as 1891, the Yale-Princeton Thanksgiving Day game at Manhattan Field, they charged $10 per carriage and $1 per passenger. Stadiums outside New York City could not command those fees, but those in vehicles typically paid premium prices relative to their norms.

Carriages sit opposite the stands at the first Rose Bowl in Pasadena in 1902. (Stanford University Archives)