2020

[xandandl]

1 hour ago, cixelsyd said:

Just because you have not seen it, does not mean it never happened.  Shows have been stopped, or in at least one case, cancelled due to high heat index.  Several shows with high heat indices have had delayed starts specifically to take advantage of evening cooling.

Also, for full clarity, DCI does not simply cancel shows due to lightning.  The idea is to wait a certain amount of time for the lightning threat to move out of the area, then continue the show.  If the threat remains long enough to prevent completion of the event, then the show is cancelled.  Of course, in practice, lightning is often accompanied by pouring rain, which creates other reasons for delay or cancellation depending on field conditions. 

and sometimes, it's not DCI's call to cancel but the policy of the stadium or local government. I've been at two called shows where the lightning postponed the contest  and the corps were willing to wait but a second series invoked a clause that the stadium had that all activities there had to be immediately cancelled. In the other situation the corps were ready to go on later but the police and emergency responders cancelled the show as their services were needed elsewhere rather than do traffic flow and security at the stadium. Many factors.

And guys, just a hint. Stu always likes the last word no matter how good your post is.

 

Edited April 4, 2017 by xandandl

[ouooga]

To the point of Fantasy, I still feel like that's the realm we're talking about here since this isn't actually on anyone's agenda yet (a show in Vegas, especially one at the new Raiders stadium I mean). However, I'd like to formally volunteer as a member of that committee if/when it gets off the ground. I will not spearhead any venture for myriad personal reasons, but if another individual/group does and needs support in any capacity, please sign me up!

[IllianaLancerContra]

On 3/29/2017 at 6:45 AM, cixelsyd said:

You are forgetting one of the criteria - fan base.  DCI will not (and should not) rearrange the entire tour to put one of the WC seeding weekends in a location without an established, demonstrable fan base.  Pasadena, Stanford or Santa Clara would make more sense for an event of that scale.

But if the tour stays as it is, the same fans can see a show every year.  Maybe shaking up the tour could expand the fan base, esp now that Finals are no longer televised.

[cixelsyd]

Expand the fan base with new show sites.  Great idea, for any show other than a WC seeding weekend event.  For that, there ought to be some evidence of a fan base that will translate to attendance.  This thread started around the idea of replacing the Atlanta event that sells 16,000 seats.

[ouooga]

1 hour ago, cixelsyd said:

Expand the fan base with new show sites.  Great idea, for any show other than a WC seeding weekend event.  For that, there ought to be some evidence of a fan base that will translate to attendance.  This thread started around the idea of replacing the Atlanta event that sells 16,000 seats.

I assume this a moot question, but does anyone have a list of theaters that showed Big Loud and Live in at least two markets, plus Vegas, y-o-y for a multi-year time period? (spreadsheet form would be great). Anecdotally, it's jumped a lot in Vegas, from 1 theater 10 years ago to nearly a dozen this past season. I'm guessing Fathom bases the decision to add more theaters on demand, so you could use that demand as an indicator for fan base. I could plot that data to determine demand and compare it to demand growth in other cities, just to give some context of a Vegas show's viability.

We are also one of the few school districts nationwide where every school has a music program. Qualitatively, with 50+ high schools, that's a pretty large opportunity market.

I'd also argue that Las Vegas is designed by nature to attract visitors from out of state, so the local fan base wouldn't be the only audience to consider. Around a quarter of our visitors come from Southern California, and about 1 in 10 of our visitors come from Arizona (p. 51), so you could assume a portion of that audience would come from those areas (though no way to tell what effect existing shows in those areas would have). Do we know the average out-of-town percentage at existing shows, specifically the SoCal shows and all of the regionals?

Also I have no evidence for entertainment activities, but at least on the meetings and conventions side it's documented that annual shows see an 8-percent increase in attendance (on average) when they rotate into Las Vegas (item 3). So there's argument to make that a regularly occurring show that moved into Las Vegas, rather than creating a new show, would see a rise in attendance as well.

[HockeyDad]

11 hours ago, xandandl said:

 

And guys, just a hint. Stu always likes the last word no matter how good your post is.

 

Coming from you, X, this is hilarious !

[xandandl]

42 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

Coming from you, X, this is hilarious !

[cixelsyd]

15 hours ago, ouooga said:

I assume this a moot question, but does anyone have a list of theaters that showed Big Loud and Live in at least two markets, plus Vegas, y-o-y for a multi-year time period? (spreadsheet form would be great). Anecdotally, it's jumped a lot in Vegas, from 1 theater 10 years ago to nearly a dozen this past season. I'm guessing Fathom bases the decision to add more theaters on demand, so you could use that demand as an indicator for fan base. I could plot that data to determine demand and compare it to demand growth in other cities, just to give some context of a Vegas show's viability.

We are also one of the few school districts nationwide where every school has a music program. Qualitatively, with 50+ high schools, that's a pretty large opportunity market.

I'd also argue that Las Vegas is designed by nature to attract visitors from out of state, so the local fan base wouldn't be the only audience to consider. Around a quarter of our visitors come from Southern California, and about 1 in 10 of our visitors come from Arizona (p. 51), so you could assume a portion of that audience would come from those areas (though no way to tell what effect existing shows in those areas would have). Do we know the average out-of-town percentage at existing shows, specifically the SoCal shows and all of the regionals?

Also I have no evidence for entertainment activities, but at least on the meetings and conventions side it's documented that annual shows see an 8-percent increase in attendance (on average) when they rotate into Las Vegas (item 3). So there's argument to make that a regularly occurring show that moved into Las Vegas, rather than creating a new show, would see a rise in attendance as well.

All I said is that before DCI rearranges their tour to put a WC seeding weekend show in a new location, that location ought to have an established, demonstrable fan base.  An ordinary DCI contest in the Las Vegas area would accomplish that.  It would also help establish the other supporting factors such as housing sites, local volunteer event staff and media exposure that contribute to a successful major event.  Theater attendance, school music programs, and local tourist draws are encouraging factors, but do not assure the level of success that DCI would need to relocate an event of Georgia Dome scale to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is somewhat unusual in that a drum corps contest has not been staged in the area since 1962.  It may be the only place in the universe that would even invite discussion of hosting a DCI focus show despite no track record of contest sponsorship in the past 55 years.  Creating that track record by having an ordinary DCI tour show there would make the case for Las Vegas much stronger, in my opinion.

However, if you prefer, make a pitch to DCI to run a 23-WC-corps event somewhere with no recent track record of events or the accompanying housing, volunteer and media support, and see what they say.

[ouooga]

4 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

All I said is that before DCI rearranges their tour to put a WC seeding weekend show in a new location, that location ought to have an established, demonstrable fan base.  An ordinary DCI contest in the Las Vegas area would accomplish that.  It would also help establish the other supporting factors such as housing sites, local volunteer event staff and media exposure that contribute to a successful major event.  Theater attendance, school music programs, and local tourist draws are encouraging factors, but do not assure the level of success that DCI would need to relocate an event of Georgia Dome scale to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is somewhat unusual in that a drum corps contest has not been staged in the area since 1962.  It may be the only place in the universe that would even invite discussion of hosting a DCI focus show despite no track record of contest sponsorship in the past 55 years.  Creating that track record by having an ordinary DCI tour show there would make the case for Las Vegas much stronger, in my opinion.

However, if you prefer, make a pitch to DCI to run a 23-WC-corps event somewhere with no recent track record of events or the accompanying housing, volunteer and media support, and see what they say.

Like I said in another post, I won't spearhead anything, but will definitely volunteer and will happily work with my local media contacts to help promote if a team is ever formed. My provided stats were simply meant to make a case that it's not ridiculous to assume a show would have a fan base, but you're right, hosting a smaller show at first would be a very viable way to measure that fan base's existence.

Re: replacing Atlanta, that's a major stretch, I agree. I've made a case in other discussions that DCI would benefit from an alternating tour schedule (odd years v. even years), where one year the corps goes left, the other the corps goes right, San Antonio is always the midpoint, Indy is always the end point, and Atlanta in this case alternates as an early-season/late-season show depending on the year. I always assumed Phoenix or possibly LA would be the alternative to that Atlanta show at the opposite end of San Antonio every year, but this conversation does suggest Las Vegas has viability if that idea ever picked up interest.

And that's not correct about 1962. The last time a drum corps contest was hosted in Las Vegas was 2009 (not a DCI-sanctioned event.) It was midweek and poorly advertised, but still felt well attended (not a true indicator of fan base, I know). Check out this cool video of Bluecoats and Blue Devils doing a double arc encore performance. That was a really, really fun night.

[cixelsyd]

1 hour ago, ouooga said:

And that's not correct about 1962. The last time a drum corps contest was hosted in Las Vegas was 2009 (not a DCI-sanctioned event.) It was midweek and poorly advertised, but still felt well attended (not a true indicator of fan base, I know). Check out this cool video of Bluecoats and Blue Devils doing a double arc encore performance. That was a really, really fun night.

I had to go look that up.  Now I regret doing that... after discovering it only drew 557 paid attendees.

Evidently, the 2009 event had no judges, and used fan favorite voting.  The open-class Velvet Knights beat Bluecoats to finish 2nd behind Blue Devils.

How about we agree that the 2009 event was neither a legitimate contest, nor a valid indicator of the potential fan draw for a DCI sanctioned contest in the area?