JoeDz Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) Well these last FEW posts certainly revealed that DCA in some parts of Rochester is our best kept secret !!!!! NOT GOOD !!! Edited September 9, 2015 by JoeDz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Just do what DCI did in INDY this year. Sell a truckload of end zone seats at $5 bucks a pop and you can all sit around boasting about soaring attendance records and how great everything is. Wow. Where to even start with this one. Never mind. Probably best for my blood pressure. LOL. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camel lips Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Things have probably changed a bunch in recent years, Starting in 2006 when it was largely seniors in the activity Rochester was practically invaded, They KNEW we were there and KNEW it BIG! Busses and corps Jackets hit the area and hit it hard. Hit all the local diners and "night" life , bars and pubs and no telling what hours. Kept the package stores and liquor stores busy too. wegmans was always getting hit hard for munchies early in the morning hours and beer runs were a plenty, a good portion of the corps I was in got rental cars so we could get around the city on our own, Ditto on some other corps that wanted to do the same. We were always running into the same groups in our rounds. So perhaps with the younger crowd laying the future of DCA it's more Mcdonalds and Taco Bell getting invaded and less drum corps shenanigans running around town. Perhaps corps have more strict curfews and curtailing of socializing on the town because of the age group. Perhaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephistopheles Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) This topic has generated a lot of new thoughts. Certainly, we all had quite a chance for input and filled 4 or more pages in a hurry. While we digest some and consider the future, clearly the most important point (IN MY OPINION) is that someone said that people in Rochester weren't sure it was still there. I can remember as a teenager in the 1960s, seeing the busses pass through Paterson with the advertising both outside the bus and on the inside overhead as well for The Dream Contest. There were also billboards all over this area (North Jersey) for The Dream. Maybe DCA needs some placard advertising in the Rochester area. Maybe the member corps could distribute the placards all over their own geographic areas as well..... perhaps window shop posters which are split between the member corps own contest and the DCA Finals on the other half ? Cheap to print IN VOLUME and FREE to put in store fronts...... digital transmission and printing would enable DCA to send half of a poster to the member corps for them to add the other half and print...... I'll bet every corps has one member who in employed in the print or communications industry. And then there's free local radio interviews.......... the list goes on..... free or inexpensive I hear you can get these pretty cheap at auction. Edited September 9, 2015 by Mephistopheles 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 That was a great list, Fred.... certainly worthy of consideration. It probably would help CV a bit though not so much Minn Brass...... I'd love to see that move made ! As for the other comment in this thread "keep it to 2016," well, we need to address that, too. Since DCA and DCI are so close in a working relationship, perhaps a DCA corps close enough to a DCI show could provide the exhibition at the end of a contest. We need DCI fans exposed to the DCA corps that we enjoyed this weekend. I also agree that the new DCA website, while more eye pleasing, doesn't have the fingertips information that people are looking for. Not easy for a volunteer organization, but if you aren't spreading the word, you aren't growing. A look at Class A shows that it takes more than local corps to make the circuit....... I nominate Fred to submit a bid for Allentown!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Mike from Erie - I would venture that the perception of DCA is rooted in an expectation of quality than quantity. People pay good money to see shows with 5 corps. This show had 15 in 2 classes with Star in exhibition. That's a good show, with or without Westshoremen. If the perception is that Fusion, Kidsgrove, Sabers and Cadets2 and Atlanta are not good substitutes for Empire, Brigadiers, Renegades, Crusaders and Westshore...that's DCA's problem to solve. There is one drum corps within 200 miles of Atlanta, but 18,000 people show up there to watch drum corps. That isnt all alums or moms and dads. That's fans. On the flip side of "major" events, the ability to sell tickets year after year even with fewer or different or "lesser" corps (ie the Rome, NY show) means there is a relationship cultivated with the event and its fans (most of whom couldnt name three of the drum corps they saw within 20 minutes of the end of the contest). Not sure DCA, the entity, has that. DCA Rochester used to have that....at Holleder Stadium everybody remembers drum corps as a big deal. Some of the corps have it, eg Hawthorne in Kingston. That's a tough ticket regardless of the lineup. People just plain go to that show. They make plans to go every year. They are made to feel welcome and special somehow. That's a big deal. Relationships mean the show isnt prediicated only on the whiz bang..., with 35 corps, there is plenty of whiz bang. The "spectacle" is there. 4032 people need enough reason to go check it out IMO...one thing not discussed in this thread... reaching out to the next generation. More web and social media presence. partnerships with band circuits like DCI does. it's not my generation or the one before me driving DCI attendance up. it's definitely not my generation or the one before me out there on the field. the future of DCA isn't in turning the clock backwards or even keeping it static. It's in the next generation. Many corps have embraced this for membership. No it needs to be embraced for marketing 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Winston Salem Sold how many Tickets at a 6 corps show in a major downpour without participation of many of the biggest draws??? they claim 3500. the crowd didn't look that big, and it was done raining well over an hour before the show, and was nice most of the day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 From an "experience at the stadium" standpoint, the lack of a video scoreboard this year, to show ads, corps videos, etc., didn't help. NOT DCA's FAULT, at all. Just a scoreboard that has basically given up the ghost and has not yet been replaced. and a city with more pressing problems than fixing a scoreboard 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Things have probably changed a bunch in recent years, Starting in 2006 when it was largely seniors in the activity Rochester was practically invaded, They KNEW we were there and KNEW it BIG! Busses and corps Jackets hit the area and hit it hard. Hit all the local diners and "night" life , bars and pubs and no telling what hours. Kept the package stores and liquor stores busy too. wegmans was always getting hit hard for munchies early in the morning hours and beer runs were a plenty, a good portion of the corps I was in got rental cars so we could get around the city on our own, Ditto on some other corps that wanted to do the same. We were always running into the same groups in our rounds. So perhaps with the younger crowd laying the future of DCA it's more Mcdonalds and Taco Bell getting invaded and less drum corps shenanigans running around town. Perhaps corps have more strict curfews and curtailing of socializing on the town because of the age group. Perhaps. one key reason why the word isn't out locally like it used to be: No Empire. The city knew them. They advertised well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Windish Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) I nominate Fred to submit a bid for Allentown!! Good Morning, Mr. Mortgage! Sorry, these days I'm more about 'talking,' less about doing. But, if an exploratory committee forms, I'm happy to provide a few thoughts. Allentown should be in DCA's future plans, however. Edited September 9, 2015 by Fred Windish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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