Why won't DCI follow this type of path?

[Slingerland]

If ya check the 990's you will find that while DCI performers do not get paid, many corps directors and staff are not just altruistic volunteers; and some directors, while not becoming millionaires, are not getting that shabby of a compensation package. And it does not need to take close to a million dollars to set up a single year touring system for the corps; a vastly lower cost tour schedule could be put into place.

Not really, unless you're talking about one where the members are all local, the staff is almost all volunteer (and local), and the corps only play weekend gigs for the first half of the season (riding school busses), only spending one or two weeks on the road heading to nationals.

And there IS a model for that type of operation already existing; Open Class. But it's harder to get the older, more skilled performers who make up World Class to invest their time away from university to do OC corps; if they're going to do it, they want to do it full-time, which they do in World Class.

Transportation leases, insurance, fuel, and food make up about half of the average corps' budget. The only way to significantly reduce those numbers would be if the corps never went anywhere and didn't have to feed the kids.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Slingerland

[cixelsyd]

Why won’t DCI follow this type of path?

I assume NASCAR does not have a clique of 7 top drivers/teams who think they are the draw, and thus are better off colluding among themselves.

The answer is very complex. I think Quad Aces hit on a key component of it when referring to attendance. Reality is, attendance at the macro level is down. Less people are touched by drum corps now vs. the early years of DCI. Now, I am not so naive as to think that DCI is blind to that fact... but I do think that they either miss the degree to which competitive disparity has eroded the fan base, or just are not willing to do what is necessary to reverse the trend.

The DCI office has done a great job of adjusting to changing times and the downsized activity at the tactical level. Higher level strategic planning, however, involves the member corps directors (rules) or a subset of them (BOD). As only higher ranking corps participate in the decision making at that level, the strategy reflects what is best for them, not necessarily what is best for all corps or for the long term.

[MikeD]

not

Yes; all-summer national touring is very hard on finances; especially with smaller WC corps. Not saying that DCI would agree to this because it is retroactive but at least it would bring down costs without destroying competition…. A DCI regional tour sysstem until independence day, and a DCI national touring system from July 5 ending at Championships certainly would bring travel and touring costs down drastically; and I contend it would not bring down the competition aspect, but it would increase the parity of competition by allowing smaller corps to use more of their current resources on the performances instead of operational expenditures.

No, it really wouldn't reduce costs all that much, if at all. Even if the corps east of the Miss. had to remain east of the Miss. until after July 4, and those west of the Miss. to the Rockies had to remain in that area, and the west coast corps had to remain on the coast, they still have to travel all over the area on a nightly basis to the next show site/housing site, feed the corps, house the corps, and find places to rehearse. Plus...there would need to be sufficient shows (sponsors) to provide them the ability to have full seasons within each geographic area. Plus...you are only talking about a couple of weeks here...and the west coast corps already do pretty much what you are talking about.

[perc2100]

I think it is a noble effort. But if SoundSport is all age, anything goes instrumentation, more of a fun fun thing than being a drum corps oriented competition, will that actually generate new corps entering the OC? We shall see.

Is that the purpose of SoundSport? It's my impression that SoundSport is designed to allow a new performance option, a radically different entertainment option for fans, and a comparably simplistic model for a 'start up' music performance/education organization. I know that fans on DCP have inferred on their own that perhaps SoundSport MIGHT be a model for starting a full-on drum corps (a pseudo-grassroots effort of nothing-SoundSport-Open Class maybe), but I'm not sure that is the explicit intent of SoundSport as far as DCI is concerned. I would hypothesize that at best DCI created SoundSport for the reasons I mentioned, with the thought of, "if this spawns new drum corps then added bonus."

[JimF-LowBari]

I think it is a noble effort. But if SoundSport is all age, anything goes instrumentation, more of a fun fun thing than being a drum corps oriented competition, will that actually generate new corps entering the OC? We shall see.

Probably depends on the mentality/purpose of the SS group. Thinking of what I've seen of the Mini corps over the years and have been a wide range of.. well. everything... Some appear to be serious about winning, some a way for the group to perform and off the top of my head one or two that did make it to the competing field in later years.

And a few competing corps that went inactive fro a season or so and had Mini corps for whatever reasons...

[Stu]

No, it really wouldn't reduce costs all that much, if at all. Even if the corps east of the Miss. had to remain east of the Miss. until after July 4, and those west of the Miss. to the Rockies had to remain in that area, and the west coast corps had to remain on the coast, they still have to travel all over the area on a nightly basis to the next show site/housing site, feed the corps, house the corps, and find places to rehearse. Plus...there would need to be sufficient shows (sponsors) to provide them the ability to have full seasons within each geographic area. Plus...you are only talking about a couple of weeks here...and the west coast corps already do pretty much what you are talking about.

Ok; if cutting down on travel is not the answer then what could DCI do to follow the lead of NASCAR in drastically cutting expenditures for all teams? I mean NASCAR has the altruistic desire take care of their teams by cutting expenses, whereas DCI has not shown any concern at all for the operational costs of their teams but conversely has actually kept increasing the need for more and more expenditures to be competitive. What, in your opinion, could DCI do to cut down costs for their corps?

[perc2100]

No, it really wouldn't reduce costs all that much, if at all. Even if the corps east of the Miss. had to remain east of the Miss. until after July 4, and those west of the Miss. to the Rockies had to remain in that area, and the west coast corps had to remain on the coast, they still have to travel all over the area on a nightly basis to the next show site/housing site, feed the corps, house the corps, and find places to rehearse. Plus...there would need to be sufficient shows (sponsors) to provide them the ability to have full seasons within each geographic area. Plus...you are only talking about a couple of weeks here...and the west coast corps already do pretty much what you are talking about.

The truly fascinating aspect of social media, now that anyone can have a voice in any discussion, is how often people seemingly want to think in black/white, cause/effect terms. As most of us know, life is rarely if ever that simplistic. This IMO is a perfect example. The thought process of, "less touring = less travel costs = massive savings" doesn't really compute logically unless DCI were to RADICALLY restructure their current touring model. The majority of WC corps still have to utilize rehearsal facilities they don't own (i.e. they typically have to pay to use), feed members, etc. On the flip side less performances/touring also means less appearance fees and souvenir sales, less input from judges, less opportunities for members to perform for audiences, less opportunities for audiences to see awesome performances, etc.

Is there a way to radically change tour logistics in order to benefit the activity financially? Possibly. But I haven't seen any viable, fully thought-out ideas/options yet.

[perc2100]

I assume NASCAR does not have a clique of 7 top drivers/teams who think they are the draw, and thus are better off colluding among themselves.

The answer is very complex. I think Quad Aces hit on a key component of it when referring to attendance. Reality is, attendance at the macro level is down. Less people are touched by drum corps now vs. the early years of DCI. Now, I am not so naive as to think that DCI is blind to that fact... but I do think that they either miss the degree to which competitive disparity has eroded the fan base, or just are not willing to do what is necessary to reverse the trend.

A few things:

1) you're right: the answer is MASSIVELY complex. We can likely all agree on that

2) the real question is WHY is attendance at the macro level down (IF it is)? DCI had record attendance at some of their large shows, an increase in Championship week, huge amounts of theater ticket-buyers, and even made money live-streaming Finals this year. In other words, from a DCI business stand-point is attendance looking like a major problem if the shows they operate are successful?

If by "macro level" you mean local shows, is there any data that indicates this is a) legitimate (i.e. across the board AND hard data and not observational anecdotes) and b) a growing trend of decline over multiple seasons? If there is hard data, there are so many variables for independently run shows that could affect attendance, it would be very difficult to equate decline to something like, "damm you G7!"

3) you talk about Competitive Disparity, but throughout the history of DCI there have been very few Champions. Even during the tic era, where sheets were radically weighted towards performance and not design, there were 'only' 5 corps who won (with only 2 corps winning 9 out of 12 Championship years during the DCI Tick era). Conversely, in the last 12 seasons, 5 corps have won the Championship: BD 5, Cavaliers 3, Cadets 2, Phantom & Crown 1 each. That is fairly similar (though for whatever reason the Championships seem a little more spread out than 72-83).

If there is a perception of competitive disparity, it was no less equal at any time throughout DCI History.

[Stu]

I assume NASCAR does not have a clique of 7 top drivers/teams who think they are the draw, and thus are better off colluding among themselves.

NASCAR has its share of arrogant egos with a few drivers and team owners. In fact a few years back Tony Stewart got really uppity and the response from NASCAR was that he needed NASCAR more than NASCAR needed him so there was the door if he wanted to leave; he shut up and stayed in the fold. The difference is that the governing body of NASCAR is not the team owners and drivers but a completely separate set of people, the France family and the professionals hired by them, whereas the DCI governing body 'is' the main WC corps as you have indicated.

The answer is very complex. I think Quad Aces hit on a key component of it when referring to attendance. Reality is, attendance at the macro level is down. Less people are touched by drum corps now vs. the early years of DCI. Now, I am not so naive as to think that DCI is blind to that fact... but I do think that they either miss the degree to which competitive disparity has eroded the fan base, or just are not willing to do what is necessary to reverse the trend.

DCI is similar to BOA with the respect of who is mainly in the stands (family, friends, wanna-bes, and alumni make up the bulk of the attendees). Less corps means less numbers of those people. Less numbers of those people means less numbers in the stands. The best way to increase numbers in the stands is to increase the number of corps. One of the best ways to increase the number of corps in to cut operational costs to be competitive which will allow for more corps to engage.

The DCI office has done a great job of adjusting to changing times and the downsized activity at the tactical level. Higher level strategic planning, however, involves the member corps directors (rules) or a subset of them (BOD). As only higher ranking corps participate in the decision making at that level, the strategy reflects what is best for them, not necessarily what is best for all corps or for the long term.

Those who benefit from the rules are the ones who create the rules, vote on the rules, and then govern themselves. That is a great scenario which breeds egocentric selfishness, but not one which breeds a fair and level playing field for competition of all involved on that field.

[Stu]

...unless DCI were to RADICALLY restructure their current touring model...

I see no competitive downside to the isolated statement above but only a competitive upside; especially if it yields cuts in expenses that only a handful of corps can currently afford which would then likely increase the number of competitive corps. NASCAR has RADICALLY restructured its rules and regulations for that very reason. If the DCI 'tours' were altered BD would adapt and do something along the lines of their BD entertainment; they would use the corps to do more external gigs to make money in between DCI shows and that would keep their quality high as well as increase their revenue stream. The kicker here is that it appears NASCAR is way ore altruistic and concerned about the outrageously increasing expenditures to compete in their activity than DCI is concerning their activity.