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Southeastern Championships Atlanta Venue


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12 hours ago, Cadevilina Crown said:

 

Now, the stadium at McEachern High is no slouch of a stadium—it's quite big, pretty comparable to a Texas high school stadium in terms of home side stands. It also has hosted an annual BOA regional, and was the original site of the Atlanta show before it got moved to the Georgia Dome.

 

While McEachern has hosted drum corps shows in the past, the true original site of the Atlanta show was Grant Field in the 70s, beginning with Drums Across America in 1976 (part of the very first DCI southern tour). Source: My high school band sponsored the show, and I marched twice that night. (High school band marched our previous fall's show in exhibition at the beginning of the night, then changed uniforms and swapped my trumpet for a piston-rotor soprano and marched right back out onto the field with the Charioteers, the first corps in competition.)

Spirit's home show was at Grant Field for several years in the 70s and 80s, and of course, DCI Championships were at Grant Field in 1984.

McEachern hosted Spirit home shows in 2004, 2005 and 2006, then DCI took notice of the big crowds we were drawing and decided to start the Georgia Dome regional in 2007, I believe it was. Source: My wife was the Tour Event Partner for the shows at McEachern.

Other stadiums that have hosted drum corps shows in the Atlanta area that I can recall off the top of my head include Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Tara Stadium, Milton High School, Kennesaw Mountain H.S., Alexander H.S. and Decatur H.S. There have also been some Div.II/Open class shows in metro Atlanta, but not sure where they were held.

And that's probably more info than anyone wanted to read about drum corps shows in Atlanta over the years, LOL.

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20 minutes ago, war eagle said:

There is also Birminghm which previously hosted DCI finals in the 80s. 

Legion Field hosted finals in '79 and '80, and I was there at a mid-season event as late as 1991 (Phantom Voices still etched in my mind from that show). Unfortunately, Legion Field is probably not the best venue for a regional competition these days. "The Old Gray Lady" is a shadow of its former self, and there's really not a lot of usable space around it to meet the pre- and post-show needs of a modern drum corps.

Either of the big college campuses would be much better. 

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When it comes to using the mentioned college stadiums, there are many hurdles that have to be jumped through to use the facilities...the athletic department, the university....it's not a simple process. Also..this close to football season...good luck getting an AD to sign off on the use of a field with natural grass. Those grounds crew folks treat that grass like their baby and they take great pride in keeping it pristine. 

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On 7/8/2017 at 8:54 PM, Precious Roy said:

Legion Field hosted finals in '79 and '80, and I was there at a mid-season event as late as 1991 (Phantom Voices still etched in my mind from that show). Unfortunately, Legion Field is probably not the best venue for a regional competition these days. "The Old Gray Lady" is a shadow of its former self, and there's really not a lot of usable space around it to meet the pre- and post-show needs of a modern drum corps.

Either of the big college campuses would be much better. 

It was stated in an earlier post that both stadiums were unavailable due to a soccer game and reconstruction.  I thought the same as well, to be honest.

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1 minute ago, MikeRapp said:

Or they could just move the Southeastern Regional to Nashville. 

Just sayin...

I think they should permanently move the Murfreesboro show to Nashville. 

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2 minutes ago, crownisking said:

I think they should permanently move the Murfreesboro show to Nashville. 

I suspect that is already done. State of the art artificial surface, plenty of parking, and epic walk-up.

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On 7/8/2017 at 8:15 AM, Cadevilina Crown said:

As much as I'd love to see a show in Georgia Tech or UGA, both of these stadiums have grass fields, which are not at all ideal for today's shows, much less for a major regional like the DCI Southeastern Championship. I'd also note that neither venue has sufficient room for warming up/parking, and that the stadium at GT hosts a MLS team that plays there in the summer.

Now, the stadium at McEachern High is no slouch of a stadium—it's quite big, pretty comparable to a Texas high school stadium in terms of home side stands. It also has hosted an annual BOA regional, and was the original site of the Atlanta show before it got moved to the Georgia Dome.

Finally, in all fairness, not every corps will perform in the Southeastern Championship; 6 of them will instead perform at the show the next day in Winston-Salem, NC for their regional scores.

Atlanta United soccer has Tech tied up for the summer when the new dome didn't open on time. And no one would drive to the cesspool of the south (Athens) for a drum corps show. 

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