Neglecting the West - We need a real national tour

[jasgre2000]

I'll apologize ahead of time for the rant that is about to follow, but I feel like venting about something. I always appreciate it when an eastern corps makes the trip out west to start the season, like Crown and BAC have recently (and The Crossmen this year ... although they are based west of the Mississippi). But lets be honest ... these corps are only doing something once every decade or so that BD, SCV, BK, etc. do every single year. People claim that it is too expensive to have all the eastern corps travel to the west coast each year, but that is exactly what the western corps do every year and they don't seem to be struggling more than anyone else.

When I lived in Virginia, I attended the DCI show in Salem where I could usually see six or seven corps, including three or four corps that were likely to be DCI finalists for $30. Last time I went, I saw Crown, The Cadets, and BD in the same show for $30. Salem is near Roanoke and there are about 300,000 in the area. If I couldn't attend that show, I could travel a few hours in the other direction and attend a similar show in Northern Virginia.

Now, I live in Utah, and for the same price as the Salem, VA show I can see a show with a SCV, BK, and several open class corps and world class corps that are unlikely to be finalists. BD is even skipping the Ogden show this year (they will be in Illinois on the same night). I don't mean any offense to the corps that will be at Ogden this year. I am very excited to see them perform and am happy to pay $30+ to see them, plus money spent on concessions and other souvenirs. With that said, I would be willing to pay even more to see the corps at the very top of the activity. Ogden is near Salt Lake City on the Wasatch Front where over 2,000,000 live. I've been to the Ogden show for two years in a row before that, and it is always packed. High School students come from as much as 2-3 hours away, or more, to see the show. The next closest show is in Denver, which is 8 hours away. The first year I went to the show, I didn't get tickets until about a month before the show and all the best seats were sold out. I had to settle for tickets on about the 20 yard line. Last year I ordered tickets as soon as they were on sell in order to get closer to the 50 yard time. When I bought tickets in the first week, the center section of the stadium was almost sold out already. This was during the height of the recession. I just checked if there were still tickets available to the show this year (next week) and was able to buy four tickets right next to each other in the same row on the 50 yard line. Clearly tickets are not selling as well this year as they have the last couple years.

I don't understand why DCI neglects everyone west of the Mississippi. There are a lot of fans in the west and several storied drum corps with a long history of success in the activity. California is the most populous state in the country. The population of other western states is growing rapidly. The handful of shows that are in the west are well attended, and that is without a full lineup of top corps. It seems to me that DCI is leaving a lot of money on the table, and missing out on a large potential fan base, by refusing to support any major shows in the west. The claim that it is too expensive to have corps travel west does not hold water, as the western corps travel to the east coast every year (including non-finalist corps like The Academy and the Mandarins). There should be a major DCI show (where nearly every corps attends) in the bay area and Denver every single year. I know this will cause some of the early eastern shows to go away, but so much more will be gained by having a true national tour. It is just common sense.

If we could still give thumbs down, I would welcome as many thumbs down as you want to give. I know this post is annoying, but it is the one thing that I feel the need to get on my soapbox about. I love nearly everything else about drum corps.

Edited July 4, 2014 by jasgre2000

[crownisking]

I totally understand where you're coming from. If I lived on the west coast, I'd be a little frustrated too.

[IMcomguy]

I'll give your post some credit if you can accept that it's not fair to the "East Coast" corps to have limited panels every night while full 8-person panels are at nearly every show in the west during the start of the season. I'll say that's a fair trade off, along with the glamour of being able to score an 85 the first week of July. Also, what shows only had SCV and BK (and Open Class) corps at them? Frankly, I'd love to see Crossmen, Academy, Mandarins, Oregon Crusaders (who may just surprise you this year), Pacific Crest, etc.

You're slighting a lot of the west shows like they're all total crap. Try going to a show out here where you only get 5 corps in a night, an hour intermission, and where it is 10x more likely to get rained out. I feel your pain, but not really.

[UTLonghorn15]

Hm, well another problem that might prevent corps from travelling west is that most of them already have a way of doing things that have been the same way for many years. For example, a corps might do their spring training in the same place every year at an awesome facility (as opposed to doing Spring training at a new place on the west coast, if they were to start over there). Or perhaps corps prefer staying in the Midwest/East since all the shows are so close together, and they just want to minimize travelling time.

Don't get me wrong, you make some valid points, but I think the way corps do things are more or less set in stone, and straying away from the norm is just more work on their part. (But maybe that's the whole disrespect thing you're talking about).

[RContra]

You lost me at "the disrespect that DCI and the eastern-based corps show to fans and corps west of the Mississippi pisses me off."

This is a worthwhile topic that can (and should) spur some thoughtful discussion. I'd love to see more corps go West. You've got a great cause here.

But for the love of god, the tone is just such a turn-off to said cause. We, as a community, need to realize how we can come across when discussing issues we're passionate about. Ideally, we'd do what we can to avoid sounding like whiny d-bags and more like intelligent people trying to affect some meaningful change.

The soapboxing hasn't led to a whole lot over the years, eh?

Edited July 4, 2014 by RContra

[jasgre2000]

I'll give your post some credit if you can accept that it's not fair to the "East Coast" corps to have limited panels every night while full 8-person panels are at nearly every show in the west during the start of the season. I'll say that's a fair trade off, along with the glamour of being able to score an 85 the first week of July. Also, what shows only had SCV and BK (and Open Class) corps at them? Frankly, I'd love to see Crossmen, Academy, Mandarins, Oregon Crusaders (who may just surprise you this year), Pacific Crest, etc.

You're slighting a lot of the west shows like they're all total crap. Try going to a show out here where you only get 5 corps in a night, an hour intermission, and where it is 10x more likely to get rained out. I feel your pain, but not really.

If you read my entire post you would know I was not slighting any of those corps at all. At the same time, it is silly to pretend like there is no difference between the top finalist corps with a substantial number of members nearing their age-out and those corps with younger, less experienced members who may very well be in a top corps in the future when they have more experience. I also find it a little absurd that you think it is a fair tradeoff for fans that eastern shows have to live with a partial panel of judges while there are just not very many opportunities to watch a show in the west at all. I love the fan network, but it nothing like seeing a show live.

[sniper282000]

I'll give your post some credit if you can accept that it's not fair to the "East Coast" corps to have limited panels every night while full 8-person panels are at nearly every show in the west during the start of the season. I'll say that's a fair trade off, along with the glamour of being able to score an 85 the first week of July. Also, what shows only had SCV and BK (and Open Class) corps at them? Frankly, I'd love to see Crossmen, Academy, Mandarins, Oregon Crusaders (who may just surprise you this year), Pacific Crest, etc.

You're slighting a lot of the west shows like they're all total crap. Try going to a show out here where you only get 5 corps in a night, an hour intermission, and where it is 10x more likely to get rained out. I feel your pain, but not really.

Carolina Crown scored 85.10 in Bristol July 3rd 2009. East Coast corps score high first week of July too.

[jasgre2000]

You lost me at "the disrespect that DCI and the eastern-based corps show to fans and corps west of the Mississippi pisses me off."

This is a worthwhile topic that can (and should) spur some thoughtful discussion. I'd love to see more corps go West. You've got a great cause here.

But for the love of god, the tone is just such a turn-off to said cause. We, as a community, need to realize how we can come across when discussing issues we're passionate about. Ideally, we'd do what we can to avoid sounding like whiny d-bags and more like intelligent people trying to affect some meaningful change.

The soapboxing hasn't led to a whole lot over the years, eh?

I apologize if I offended you. I'll go back and edit my post to tone it down a bit. This is just something I feel strongly about and I'm particularly annoyed about it at the moment for some reason.

[IMcomguy]

Carolina Crown scored 85.10 in Bristol July 3rd 2009. East Coast corps score high first week of July too.

2009. Oh you mean when there were still full panels at every show (kind of like the west at every show this year). You backed up my point exactly.

[N.E. Brigand]

It's not fair, but a major reason probably is that the distance between major population centers in the West (apart from the coast) is so large that corps would have to perform fewer shows. Once the western corps reach the Midwest and East, they can travel relatively quickly from one sizeable metro area to the next.