Did the ATA charge to enter the grounds?

I started shooting in 1981 and remember having to show my ATA card to get into the Vandalia grounds. Anyone remember what you had to do if you were not a member? Pay to enter? Not allowed in?

 

You had to pay a buck to get past the man at the gate

Ed Yanchok

 

Parking pass

 

Parking pass for the grand..this was 25 years ago and I was 50 years old.

 

I think it was early 90s if you were you got a parking pass if not you paid $10 a car. Not sure but I think so.

 

If you were a shooter you hat a pass. Sorry lost a little.

 

I remember them charging for non members.

 

Did the ATA charge to enter the grounds?

A little history if I may, for those interested.

The concept of charging admission to the Grand American tournament goes back at least to 1929 and perhaps farther. In that year the late great Orin N. Ford proposed a charge of 50 cents to visitors and the same amount for an automobile. Shooters and their families were admitted free.

His rationalization was based on the National Amateur Golf Championship staged by the Del Monte Company at their Pebble Beach course. He said they had 150 golfers while the GAH had about 1100 shooters. He said he saw thousands of people pay 50 cents to park their car in the woods a half-mile from the links, walk to the entrance gate and pay $2 entrance or $6 for the week, walk another 4-8 miles "over rocks, hills, ditches and sand dunes" watching two men play.

He said the Grand American: "had a beautiful place to park your car, a beautiful place to walk, and in one-third of a mile you can see the whole eleven hundred contestants shoot."

Sportsmen's Review reported their would be a 40 cents admission charge for the 1934 Grand.

HB​