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What did happen to Suncoast Sound?


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well from what I understand they charged most everything they purchased on credit cards, and also would pick up members during the season to fill spots and not collect membership dues from them. So they were touring on a budget bigger than their income.

The uniforms were originally donated to them from West Point and they added the gold cumberbund and probably some other small touches

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The uniforms were originally donated to them from West Point and they added the gold cumberbund and probably some other small touches

I always thought that they were from the Air Force Academy. Oh well.

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The uniforms were originally donated to them from West Point and they added the gold cumberbund and probably some other small touches

I always thought that they were from the Air Force Academy. Oh well.

They were....the Flight of Sound's unis were very similar...and I seriously doubt you could run a Div I corps off credit cards...

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Actually I know an old Drum instructor from the Bluecoats who they basically had borrowed a number of drums from and when they declared bankruptcy he lost his equipment. Also when Magic first started out, same organization basically, they tried to purchase a marimba from this same guy and they asked if he would take Visa or Mastercard.

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Actually I know an old Drum instructor from the Bluecoats who they basically had borrowed a number of drums from and when they declared bankruptcy he lost his equipment. Also when Magic first started out, same organization basically, they tried to purchase a marimba from this same guy and they asked if he would take Visa or Mastercard.

One or two items I can understand, but running the whole corps off CCs? Besides, there's no way they could've lasted as long as they did at the top if that was how they worked.

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Ok, here's what I can tell you.

Prior to 1986, Suncoast was not a wealthy corps. Heck, we were so poor that I remember the bologna sandwhich tour of 1985 (the first five days of tour was terrible food wise, as the chuckwagon broke down on the very first day of tour and didn't catch up for four or five days).

In the spring of 1986, Suncoast secured a complete corporate sponsorship from the Circle K Corporation. In return for thier money, they wanted us to meet some performance obligations. The money paid for new uniform pants and cummerbuns, completely new Pearl percussion, and ten new DEG magnum contras. It also paid for a west coast tour with a stop at Circle K's Arizona headquarters. All of this, combined with a very talented corps enabled the corps to place 5th...the highest placement in the history of the corps.

Sounds great right? I thought so to....until I found out that we didn't meet all of the obligations we made to Circle K (it involved a parade we were supposed to do but didn't...with the Circle K brass in attendance).

1987 met the members with a new corps director and a reduced budget, but as always, the corps perservered. The real trouble started in 1988.

I'm going to make a lot of alumni mad by saying this, but 1988 never should have happened. With yet another new director (the corps financial manager stepped up), the Suncaost Board of Directors and staff insisted the corps tour, despite being in a *major* financial crunch. Here's where the "credit card" story comes into play (though it's not what you might think).

During the 1988 tour, the food expenses got out of hand, and the corps simply did not have the money. Rather than close up shop and go home, the director PAID FOR FOOD FROM HIS OWN POCKET. We're talking thousands of dollars here...money he never saw repaid. This was so well hidden NONE of the members ever found out. I only know because of a personal friendship with those invoved that endured for many years. This man was a complete hero in my book, and never recieved the credit and gratitude he was due.

Somehow, the corps found the money to go out again in 1989 (I'd moved on to the Blue Devils), and I that thour conditions were pretty bad. After the finals show at DCI South in Birmingham, some of the other corps (including BD) made sure the Suncoast members got fed.

To my knowledge, no one ever paid for any Suncaost tour by flotaing money on credit cards. I know that to this date some of the staff from 88 and 89 were never paid (despite the corps' retun in Div 2/3 in the mid 90's).

Thoughts?

Edited by Kamarag
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And I can add to this (I was there in 89)

John's info is pretty much spot on. The only coda that I would add to the Circle-K piece is that the corporation was also a bit upset at some of the spending decisions made by the current board and how quickly the corps went through money.

1989 was a very, VERY tough year. I had been with the corps from November to February, but I dropped due to school situations (it was my freshman year in college) and the persistant rumor that we were not going to make it to tour. I went to the preview show in June and saw the progress that had been made with the corps and decided to jump on board. Tour was ####. Period. It seemed that we could not go a night without a bus breaking down, our bus lacked A/C for days at a time, we had to cram 3 busloads of people onto 2 busses for a 10 hour drive, stuff like that.

About halfway through tour we had a corps meeting because the rumor that we were about to go home was going through the corps. The aforementioned (by John) director got us together and promised us that we would finish the tour, no matter what, and not to worry. That's when things started to turn for us. The food situation was VERY bad however, and it caused major morale problems (yeah, you are going to be on the bus for the next 12 hours, here's a cookie and some juice). I had heard that other corps were helping out with the food, but we never were officially told anything.

All in all, it was a satisfying summer (we had a nearly 40 point improvement from June to August) but the conditions were rough.

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