[charlie1223]

I think the reasons stated are somewhat flawed and outdated. The same things could have been said 10 years ago (and they were)...

But I sure am glad that the weekly doom and gloom thread is up an running. Thanks BlackStar!

This post has been edited by charlie1223: 12 July 2012 - 02:51 PM

[Shadowtron]

JimF-LowBari, on 12 July 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

Depends on the school, Harrisburg (PA) school district cut all funding to sports and arts this year as the city is bankrupt. They will continue this year thanks to private donations but it ain't thriving.

That's why I edited to say "since the 70s" ;)

It's unfortunate some of the education cost increases meant for our kids are going to public union admins, but the expanse of the high school activity and level of competitiveness has gone up relative to DCI participation over the past few decades.

[Shadowtron]

charlie1223, on 12 July 2012 - 02:49 PM, said:

I think the reasons stated are somewhat flawed and outdated. The same things could have been said 10 years ago (and they were)...

Right, and you don't think the Yankees Phillies Mets and Dodgers have a majority stake in MLB?

I agree with a lot of the OP's points, but when I see the word "Activity" I assume DCI + DCA + WGI + BOA + USSBA. I think the OP means DCI.

[rkfdPRphan]

Shadowtron, on 12 July 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

But high school programs have thrived since the 70s. The marching arts are still alive and well, but in high school and winter programs, not full national tour drum corps.

I am confident in the future of the activity, but not the DCI model we have today.

Altho public high school programs in my city are near dead (my once proud HS band had 13 members march in the local Memorial Day Parade - none wore their uniforms and only half even brought an instrument to play!), I do read about other areas where they are thriving. Probably a lot of private support for those programs - similar to drum corps.

To me, the whole DCI model has gotten too BIG.
Too many members per corps and too much travel.
I doubt if many (if any) high school programs have long, national tours.

IMO, until we get over the notion that we HAVE TO HAVE corps from the East Coast compete out West and we have to have the corps from out West come east to compete so the 'scores' are more believeable.....drum corps is going to slowly die.

Smaller corps competing in a smaller area, with the top 4 finishers at the end of a 'regional tour' go to a real tournament of champions. THEY duke it out in a similar set up to what our DCI Finals are today. WE REALLY DON'T need to know everything about a corps before we see them compete at Finals! As the DCI tour goes right now, and someone already stated this, most of us pretty much already 'know' who the top 6 corps are right now.....how about a little suspense to draw a crowd to Finals for a change?

It would be so much easier for a new corps to start or a smaller corps to build if it didn't cost so much money to develop and sustain larger and larger corps that travel further and further on less and less money.

[JimF-LowBari]

Shadowtron, on 12 July 2012 - 02:49 PM, said:

That's why I edited to say "since the 70s" ;)

It's unfortunate some of the education cost increases meant for our kids are going to public union admins, but the expanse of the high school activity and level of competitiveness has gone up relative to DCI participation over the past few decades.

How about editing to say "In general" cuz things are badly downhill since the 70s in capital city of PA. And admin costs is a small part of that problem. It's a tax base that has tanked badly and huge bills from bad city govt decisions. Bad enough to make the national news a few times. Edit: And the lawsuits (but not the ablility to pay the lawyers) are mounting...

More on topic it's nice that more school and kids have chance to partake of musical activities. But if you're a fan of the part of the marching arts that is going downhill it's little comfort.

This post has been edited by JimF-LowBari: 12 July 2012 - 03:16 PM

[skywhopper]

Blackstar, on 12 July 2012 - 02:09 PM, said:

If we get a new corps every 2-3 years and we're losing a corps a year it means the death of the activity.

This is the most important point. Elsewhere on DCP it's been argued to let poorly managed corps die, because there's no better way to weed out the money-wasters. That may or may not be true, but if new corps aren't rising up to fill the spaces left by corps that fall away, then either we must embrace the long slow death of drum corps of the scale of DCI's top corps, or we have to start thinking about finding ways to ensure corps don't fail (or at least, fail far less often).

[JimF-LowBari]

charlie1223, on 12 July 2012 - 02:49 PM, said:

I think the reasons stated are somewhat flawed and outdated. The same things could have been said 10 years ago (and they were)...

So what has changed in the last 10, 20, 30 years?

[Jeff Ream]

kaseyW, on 12 July 2012 - 02:32 PM, said:

This is why I have no problem with posting extreme thoughts like "What IF DCI took a year off?". I love this activity more than every sport, and I'd prefer to go to a DCI show than an orchestra or jazz concert, and I'm a music major. The problem is just the reasons you have explained (plus the fact that MY generation (even that of music majors) are getting in to different things, even musically). I may be hated after saying this, but maybe we SHOULD start agreeing with George Hopkin's ideas more (except woodwinds). Him, and many other progressive decision makers in DCI, have really good marketable ideas that could possibly launch drum corps even further.

DCi taking a year off is death.

[Jeff Ream]

JimF-LowBari, on 12 July 2012 - 03:00 PM, said:

So what has changed in the last 10, 20, 30 years?

10 years?

no regional circuits that helped breed smaller corps, fewer shows, fewer corps

[Roark1]

Maybe the simple questions that should be asked are:

What is the objective of the activity?

What is the fundamental mission?

How can the over-arching business model be aligned with the answers to the above questions?