Slingerland

Nothing was going to stop drum corps from shrinking in the 70s and 80s, since the bedrock (the local town corps) was made extinct by the movement of the baby boom thru the snake of time, and the number of adults who had the time and interest in volunteering for their kids' activities was likewise shrinking. Speaking of shrinkage, let's consider the veterans posts that were primary funders/hosts of the activities, and their sharp decline in the 70s. Demographics and social constructs made the deterioration of local drum corps all but inevitable. Factor in the major recessions of the mid-70s and early 80s, and the erosion of local ability to fund and run drum corps was only accelerated. What I think is inarguable is that the exposure of the top corps to a nationwide audience via the PBS telecast of Finals definitely had an effect, in that it gave the most motivated kids a reason to seek out the best corps, rather than the nearest corps, since they wanted to play at the top levels of the sport. That's playing out today across youth sports ("drum corps" = "travel teams" in almost every meaningful aspect). What's been disappointing is the inability of DCI, the last ten years, to be aggressive in monetizing the changes in the media environment for the benefit of the corps. Of course, if they were aggressive in protecting their property, some online vlogger would complain that they were being heavy handed, so.... 😎

Gus was one of the gold standard DCI percussion judges in the mid to late 70s, before he went on staff with The Cavaliers. Big guy, big personality to match.

Good lord. Chicago has been Condé Nast Traveler's top ranked Best Big City for nine years in row. No one who has spent any time in the Loop or nearby environs (including the Museum Campus area, which Soldier Field is part of) would call it "a disaster." The Bears will build in Arlington Heights, because they already own the property and the McCaskeys can do the math. The Indiana thing is a feint to try and get Springfield to pony up for the infrastructural improvements needed for them to maximize the value of the AH property, as the Bears know full well that the profit for them will be in attracting people to the area adjacent to the stadium, which can do business 365 days a year. Pritzker may budge a bit, but he's not rolling over the way that previous Illinois governors did. Once the Bears acknowledge that the taxpayers have to be the beneficiaries of any development, and not the marks, they'll move forward.

More likely is that the number of corps competing on the national tour (the World Class model) winnows down to 12 to 14 stalwarts. 3 or 4 of them will have the very best performers out there, the rest will have the kids who can afford $7000-10,000 for summer band (and we're getting close to the $7k number already with some corps' published 2026 tour fees). If nothing else changes, then eventually even those 12 to 14 units will likely lose some passengers along the way, and there'll be 8 to 10 corps who have the funding mechanisms to keep playing, though you'd need pretty much all of them to be on the same tour all summer in order to have even 10 or 12 contests. Whether the other WC corps whose Boards opt out of the DCI model decide to do something else or just close the doors is open to question, though if they start doing the numbers, it might make sense to bag on summer, raise $200-$400k per season for a really good indoor group, and call it good. Something will definitely happen, and it will not be what we have now.

Some of the WC corps would be the biggest beneficiaries, since it would allow them to keep a product out there at a lower cost to them that would still benefit from the same pay structure as the current arrangement. I wouldn't be surprised to see a groundswell of support for any option that allowed them to play the game, keep their brand equity, and limit their expenses. I've heard several folks at the Board levels of different corps say that the mantra from the biggest corps is that everyone should just plan the tour and program their corps with what they can afford. Giving an option that isn't "spend or die" to those corps would likely increase the competitiveness at the Alt class, which could make for building some fan interest. The only growth is going to come from making it more affordable to produce, up until such a time as someone at DCI figures out how to climb out of the revenues rut they have been sitting in for the last 20 years. And no one should be holding their breath on that one. Maybe this thing just really doesn't have that much appeal to anyone outside of the insiders.

Some of the WC corps would be the biggest beneficiaries, since it would allow them to keep a product out there at a lower cost to them that would still benefit from the same pay structure as the current arrangement. I wouldn't be surprised to see a groundswell of support for any option that allowed them to play the game, keep their brand equity, and limit their expenses. I've heard several folks at the Board levels of different corps say that the mantra from the biggest corps is that everyone should just plan the tour and program their corps with what they can afford. Giving an option that isn't "spend or die" to those corps would likely increase the competitiveness at the Alt class, which could make for building some fan interest. The only growth is going to come from making it more affordable to produce, up until such a time as someone at DCI figures out how to climb out of the revenues rut they have been sitting in for the last 20 years.

Considering that the WC corps would be the biggest beneficiaries, since it would allow them to keep a product out there at a lower cost to them that would still benefit from the same pay structure as the BD/Bloo contingent. I wouldn't be surprised to see a groundswell of support for any option that allowed them to play the game, keep their brand equity, and limit their expenses.

Thinking aloud here. Perhaps a problem with the competitive framework is such that bigger and more expensive gets rewarded based at least in part on the pure scope of the physical production (strip Bloo of the electronics, and...well the musical content wow factor drops notably). SO...maybe the game should be to create a second division not based on "feeder corps" (which is how most of us view Open Class) but rather a co-equal division with World Class with limited membership sizes (under 90) , a smaller field, and, in exchange for smaller membership bases, more freedom from a programming standpoint but with defined budget limits on the creative and instructional side that would allow for more competition up and thru the division. Let's Call this Division Red for now, with the current version of WC being Division Blue. Finals night would feature the Top Six in each of the two divisions, alternating in performance, so that a member choosing to go for one of the new style corps isn't necessarily cutting themselves out from a Finals night experience. In fact, allow corps to choose each winter which tier makes sense for them the next summer. If Mandarins wanted to push into Division Red for a year to catch their breath, financially, they'd still have a platform to allow members to excel at the drum corps thing, in a different division, but without any defined expectation in a drop in quality. Upsides - the needs of rolling stock, food, teaching staff, etc for the summer tour drops by 30% from what it is now. Putting limits on the design team compensation means that anyone wanting the ability to let their design freak flag fly does it knowing that they're not going to be making $30-50k for the work. It would allow everyone, at every level, to choose a competition framework that makes sense for them, budgetarily, while giving the fan base a product that's seen not as "less than" but simply "different than." And it could be put in place as soon as 2027. That's important, because, to be honest, I suspect that a number of World Class heavy hitters are already thinking that this is a time to think different in terms of their future plans.

BD is netting in the $3m range, and Bluecoats appear to be clearing $1m. No idea where SCV is now, but until the early 2020s, at least, it appeared to be quite healthy.

This is a very odd thread. PR had a come to Jesus moment a few years ago where they restructured and refocused, and now feel confident that a Dev Director makes sense for them. If their BOD has the funds to support the position, good on them. Not everyone can have a gaming operation to support their charity. Some have to do it thru fundraising, like every other charitable organization does. But if it helps, when we read "Development Director", think "Bingo Manager." Problem solved.

The problem, as we can see with the 2026 schedule, is that there simply aren't enough tour-ready corps to have enough events, even if you go to a regional-first model. In the northeast, you'll have Boston, Spartans, 7th Regiment, Raiders....and that's it? Southeast is marginally better. Midwest is fine for World Class but doesn't have that many OC corps to fill out a ticket, and as shown next year, they can't really run multiple shows on the same night because then every line up is thin.

Spoiler alert - they aren't.

It's a Chicago thing too, along with its delightful hybrid cousin, "Jagbag."

Netflix owns both the IP and the actual film in question. It could be a business decision on their part to allow fan vids to stay up as a way to increase the value of the franchise via very cheap publicity (which I would say is a good business decision, since THEY are the beneficiaries). After all, Netflix' business model is to increase the number of eyeballs on their product. But if part of the online content includes material owned by other artists or companies who licensed their work for the marching band with fairly tight restrictions regarding how it can be used, then the situation is not really analogous. Simply put, no one has a right to take someone else's property and use it however they want without prior permission.

Running some 15 or 20 second clips - stopping it, and commenting on what about the clip made it emblematic of a point being made by the commenter would be covered by Fair Use. If the channel was running large chunks of the show, or perhaps the whole thing, even if commentary runs over the material, that would not be covered by Fair Use protection. You can't post a copyrighted commercial film online and present it with a few comments voiced-over and call it Fair Use. I mean, yeah, you COULD, but it wouldn't go very far.