Quad Aces

Because it certainly is worth comparing today's Finals numbers with what they were in the "heyday" (if you will) of Finals to get an idea of how the activity has evolved (good or bad). Yes, the Finals numbers in Montreal may or may not be 100% accurate, but I am sure that DCI didn't outright lie about the numbers and say there were thousands upon thousands of people in the stands when there were only like 10 or so. I'm betting it was a matter of estimation, with the point being that there were far greater numbers (whatever they were) in the seats at Finals then than there is now. I was not at Finals in Montreal, however I have been to every one since 1989 (with the exception of one year). I can tell you that whatever the exact numbers have been, there were more people attending Finals when I started going vs. now, and there have been countless discussions on DCP as to why and what it all means.

Yes - I do get what you're saying. When you look at these numbers in perspective, they do not seem awful. That certainly is a valid point.

As can be done with any statistic, it all gets down to how DCI wants to spin the numbers (IMHO). Of course they're not going to tell you that attendance at Finals has not been anywhere near what it was in Montreal - they're going to make the numbers sound as positive as possible. Performance Numbers in the Corporate World 101...

Interesting question. Tickets are cheaper for better seats?

Nice...

This doesn't matter - TV was still the medium that allowed others to view the activity. If DCI was not broadcast on TV then, the friend or the teacher could insist that you check it out all they want, but without the medium to do so, you would not have been able to check it out. Note that I am not commenting on the other parts of comment, only the above part.

No, not from me...

Amen - well said Brasso!!

I think it's interesting that you picked the year 2011 to describe how entertaining the shows are. Isn't that the year after the "big offseason push" from DCI (i.e. hiring Michael J. Cesario) to make the shows more entertaining?

I think maybe the title to the thread should be "Tv ALONE Can't Save Drum Corps", because while TV may not be the savior by itself, I don't think it necessarily can HURT drum corps. That is, in the right situation. I have always kind of thought that the ESPN broadcast, while well-intentioned was always kind of a weird deal that they made. To me, I thought the pairing was a little strange. I thought PBS was a much better choice for all those years, which is how I and countless others got introduced to drum corps. Perhaps TV won't save the activity, but I think in the right circumstance it can't hurt and can only help - no?

I'm not so sure all of the corps should concentrate on making a more appealing product to the masses initially - I think they should focus on making a more appealing product for their core (no pun intended) audience first, as they seem to have lost some of it along the way.

Ah, I forgot about that survey - thanks for refreshing my memory. So it seems that DCI at least has this on its radar. I guess I'm fortunate to live close enough to Indy so travel expenses for Finals are kept to a minimum. If I had to buy plane tickets every year, I would be seriously hoping that DCI does something like this. I know BOA streams their Finals live (and have been for a while now), so I guess just like everyone else, I'm not entirely sure why DCI hasn't done the same.

Just curious - what led you to believe that DCI might do this this year? I don't ever recall hearing that this was even in the works. I wouldn't get your hopes up until there starts to be rumblings from DCI, and the only rumblings that I heard so far were from fans here on DCP that they would LIKE for this to happen, not from DCI that it WOULD happen.

I didn't say that they didn't have success with these years listed above - obviously they did. What I said was in response to a poster saying (paraphrasing) that these shows had jazz in them, just like their old shows. I was pointing out that while the strange cerebral style that BD is employing as of late (see shows mentioned above) has elements of jazz in it, but in no way can it be compared to the style that their shows had from about 1997 and before. As someone who used to be the biggest BD fan, for me it's not about the rings for them. I would gladly see them come in 12th (or below) every year if they would stick to the style that made them successful and popular with the fans in the first place.

From Wikipedia: DCI has contracted with the City of Indianapolis to hold the Championships at Lucas Oil Stadium every year through 2018, with the exception of 2014. The location of the 2014 Championships is undetermined.

I've been to every Finals since 1989 (with the exception of one year - 2001 - when a good friend of mine who happens to be my old high school trumpet teacher asked me to stand up in his wedding on the same day as Finals). Our group that goes is made up of family and friends, and a number of us marched together. Our tradition started when Finals was in Kansas City and some of us had recently graduated. We were happy to see that what we watched on PBS the previous two years was in a city close to where we lived. We decided to go and enjoyed it a lot, and decided to make it a tradition ever since. We liked it much better when Finals rotated and we also got a vacation out of it every year, but on the bright side, at least Indy is only a couple hours away by car and we don't have to pay for airfare anymore.

I believe I was the one who made the comment, and again, I suspect that I'm not the only one who shares the sentiment. I wasn't trying to say that bd NEVER plays jazz anymore. Certainly there have been years within the last decade where they have done all jazz shows, and those are the ones that I have found more entertaining, since they remind me of why I liked them in the first place. And even in the shows that haven't been all jazz recently, yes, there has been SOME jazz to be found somewhere in the shows. However, there is no way that one can honestly compare their recent trend of shows like 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012 to any show of theirs from 1997 or earlier and say that they are even remotely similar. For me, I feel the trend for their "strange" shows (again there have been years that are exceptions) started in 1998 - the West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet show. IMHO, instead of sticking to the style that they themselves created, had so much success with, and made many people become fans of theirs, the design team now would rather show everyone how clever they can be.

.

I'm not so sure that anyone ever said the design of BD shows of late is deficient (although I could be wrong). It is very evident that the design staff puts together well thought out programs year after year, and the corps members execute those shows incredibly well. I used to be the biggest BD fan around, but for me (and I suspect many others as well), the issue with them is they were very good for a very long time at playing an entire show filled with jazz rep. That is their history and the style that they created for themselves. Now they have essentially abandoned this style that endeared them for so long to so many fans, and decided to go off into some sort of cerebral direction with their shows. I've mentioned before in other threads that if Phantom all of sudden decided to do pop music shows from now on, there probably would be a large segment of their fan base that would be upset too, no matter how many championships they might win with that style.

I was thinking about this piece a little more - isn't the reason that it's so cool and different is that it's sung? Is it going to have the same impact if it's arranged for brass without the vocals? For example, the solfege section - with the solfege, it's very unique, but without the solfege, it's just a regular ole' melody, right? Thoughts?

Quite the shame if all of this is true. How long has I&E been around? I have never NOT known it to be around, so I'm guessing a pretty long time?

Wow - I'm not entirely sure what that was, but it was pretty cool!

Perhaps we differ in our analogies then. No, we don't know if Urlacher will be re-signed yet, but we do know that the Bears fired Lovie, hired Trestman, we will see coverage of their draft including interviews with the top picks, coverage of free agency results, mini-camp footage, tons of training camp coverage, and all of the pre-season games in their entirety on tv - all in the offseason. However, we will not even know many corps' reps (let alone camp footage) until May or so (big gap between middle of August and May), and in the case of Blue Knights last year, until shortly before the season began. So IMHO, the way that NFL teams (and sports teams in general) promote themselves in the offseason is nowhere near how most corps promote themselves in the offseason. At any rate, before the topic gets too far derailed - like you said, go Madison, and looking forward to seeing their show this year!

Well, good question. At first I really didn't see much of a difference between the two, but then I thought about it some more. Perhaps it's different from person to person, but for me there isn't a difference. As a big football fan myself, I would be pretty frustrated if the Chicago Bears didn't have any interaction with the fans about the upcoming season - not just videos, since the comparison really is to corps that don't say a peep due to national security concerns during the offseason. If the Bears ended the season, and then I didn't hear ANYTHING about their upcoming season - no free agent news, no draft news, no mini-camp news, no training camp news, no pre-season game news, nothing until the coverage of the very first game of the season - I wouldn't be too happy. Moreover, if other teams were disseminating constant streams of info about the upcoming season during the offseason while the Bears were not, I would be even more upset, and might not be a fan of theirs much longer.

Perhaps those other corps should do it too. Cadets are the gold standard when it comes to keeping interest in their organization year round, instead of just between the middle of June and the middle of August.