Absence of Arena Official Stymies Council's Hearing

A Boston City Council fact-finding hearing on the possible purchase of the Boston Arena came to almost naught yesterday because of the absence of members of the Garden-Arena Corporation.

City Councilman Francis X. Joyce, chairman of the council's committee to preserve Boston's indoor recreational facilities, stated that officials of the corporation had been invited to the hearing because the committee needed specific facts on maintained cost and operating expenses of the Arena.

A bill authorizing the Metropolitan District Commission to purchase the Arena will come up before the Massachusetts State Legislature next week.

Joseph T. McKenney, director of physical education in the Boston schools, urged that the city accept the offer of John W. Watson '22 to donate $100,000 towards the purchase price, and buy the Arena outright.

Council Role Small

Watson, who was present at the hearing, minimized the role of the City Council in making the final decision.

"1 think they'll advise the MDC to take it over," he said, "and that's probably what would happen anyway. If they want an individual in on it, my offer still holds."

Acceptance of Watson's offer would mean naming the Arena in memory of his brother, Donald C. Waston '15, a former Crimson football player who died in 1951.

Hockey-lovers were alarmed early in December by the announcement of Walter Brown, manager of the Garden-Arena Corporation, that the old structure would be sold to a group of New York businessmen, and probably torn down. Under Brown the Arena was operating at a reported loss of $35,000 a year.