April 28 (1920)

St. Louis soccer fans read good news and bad news in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. First, the good news: St. Louis has been chosen as the site of the National Challenge Cup final on May 9. The game to decide the national championship of soccer will match St. Louis’s Ben Millers, comprised entirely of homegrown talent, against the foreign-laden Fore River F.C. of Quincy, Mass. The appearance will be the first ever by a St. Louis team in the final of the National Challenge Cup (today’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup). The bad news: Admission will be $1.10 for adults and 55 cents for children, “the highest ever charged here for soccer,” according to the Post-Dispatch. Those wanting to beat the crowd lining up to buy tickets at the gate will have to pay $2.10 for an advance ticket, a big hit in the wallet at a time when production workers make about $29 a week. The match will be played at High School Field, Grand and Laclede Avenues. The Post-Dispatch reports, “The field at present is not in good shape, but next week will be devoted to putting it in shape.” Renovations will include field boxes erected at the north end of the field to accommodate a crowd expected to number in many thousands.