AlexL

An aside that in the majority of states the age of consent is actually 16, with another chunk being 17. Its only about a dozen states where the law is 18. And in those states there are typically close-in-age provisions that would apply to many relations between young adult members and minors. Not saying that because I think that relations should be encouraged between 16 year olds and 21 year olds or anything (certainly not, in fact corps having their own rules against it would be more than reasonable), but from a legal standpoint, this reduces the legal exposure as most members are above 16/17, and all but the widest age gaps between members would be legal in most states. Better to focus on something that's a problem even if you get rid of 16/17 year olds, non-consensual relations, assaults, and anything between members and staff (as they're in a position of authority and should always be forbidden).

In terms of the product being delivered to an audience? It is much more than that. In terms of the product being sold to a prospective member? That's at least 70% of what it is.

Yeah, its easy to say "do a regional tour" but aside from the midwest corps the logistics of that gets tough.

The fact is, anyone trying to identify one single issue as the cause is wrong. The cost side needs to be addressed from multiple angles. Costs of the tour model (and not saying a regional model is necessarily the answer- the regional circuits already failed after all!), costs of the show production (including props\electronics), costs of labor and ever-ballooning staff numbers. No one of these things is a silver bullet, but corrections in all categories may be the difference between solvency and folding. Likewise, there are definitely questions on the revenue side. It can't be easy generating revenue from the corporate side when the people making those decisions are ever more concerned with their ROI when doling out sponsorship dollars. Alumni\fan revenue generation is certainly an area one could look at (including errors that have been made in pushing away fans over time), but that wouldn't change anything in the here and now and may take more time to change things than drum corps has. And the fact of the matter is, there may not be an actual answer. There may just be no way that this all maths out long-term. And that will be very sad for most of us who were impacted so positively by our experiences in drum corps.

The problem is, some of these can be related. When you spend a couple decades basically telling everyone "if you don't like it, shut up or go away", even if the costs of those things aren't large directly, there can be indirect costs in that you push away people so they're no longer around when they get to a point in their life they have the free cash to make donations. I don't even hate all the changes the way some do, but the message of "if you don't like it GTFO" has certainly been loud and clear and I know many people who were big marching arts people who have little interest in drum corps today due to how much its changed.

But still basically the same. Diesel during the summer months this year was basically where it was a decade ago

I get that it is a competitive activity and all, but the way the activity can treat some people when things don't work out, even when there is no abuse involved, can be pretty distant from the overall ideal of being an educational opportunity for youth first and foremost. Especially when kids are paying several grand for the privilege.

It just me or are the comments quietly locked on that reddit post?

Which is something that has to be kept in mind when they talk about 'record attendance' at some of their events. They may have great attendance at the regionals/finals, but its still negative if fewer people overall are seeing shows because the number of those are a fraction of what they once were.

Respectfully, I'd say no, the two are not on the same level. Even as someone who marched there and remains a fan as an alum. The Blue Stars are a solid organization, but lets face it, their world class history is essentially just the last 15 years for most people (the 70s might as well be ancient history and are pretty irrelevant to the brand value), and in that 15 years they've been generally a consistent finalist but not ever getting up into that realm where they could contend for a medal much less win a title. In comparison SCV is essentially drum corps royalty when you consider both their success and longevity. 50 years of history competing at the top level in DCI, multiple championships, even more shows that medaled, and pretty consistently a top 6 corps. That's not to diminish the work done at Blue Stars at all. Becoming a consistent finalist, delivering a good experience for members, and running an organization that seems to be on financially sound footing is quite an accomplishment in itself.

1 sounds good. 2- cant say I like shorter shows, especially when shows often have fewer corps these days. You have to preserve the value of those events. (See also: newspapers decreasing content and then being surprised people found no value in subscribing). Id rather tighten up the overall time, even if it means it becomes less feasible to roll a semi-worth of props onto the field. I don't really buy the prep time argument. Corps used to have no problems putting these shows on the field with shorter periods of pre-tour rehearsal. Again, maybe the answer here is not biting off more than you can chew in terms of complexity 3- Definitely agree with this, and would hope this might tilt things back to being more musically focused 4- I don't buy the justification for this. I don't remember feeling "pressured" by adjudication, other than maybe from on-field judges, which aren't really a thing anymore. 5\6 completely agree. This helps rein in abuses of the A&E components that were never supposed to happen when first proposed

I mean, plenty of corps like you imagine existed once upon a time. They all died out too. At faster rates. There just wasnt demand for it. And probably even less with competitive high school marching bands filling the role even more now than back then. The fact is, drum corps is a niche activity. An expensive niche activity at that. Even if you could go more local, you'd diminish the value of the experience. The tour is a huge part of the value proposition. So yeah, you'd save some costs, but you'd also have to expect a drop in revenue as no one is paying $5k a summer to not get the tour experience. History tells us that the math doesn't work for that model. The people who have worked tirelessly over decades on the touring model as it exists today didnt do it just because it seemed cool. They did it because it is the best chance for success.

Mostly correct from what I remember of corps history. The cadet corps kept competing, when the debt was paid off for the original corps the cadet corps adopted the original name. The business entity for the blue stars remained LBS Cadets Inc until 2009 when they adopted the "Blue Stars Performing Arts for Youth" namen While it is certainly an achievement for them to be able to operate 2 corps at all, they have some advantages and "national touring" may be a bit generous as almost all of their shows pre-finals week are within a few hours of Dubuque, in Iowa and the states bordering. The tour schedule sets up well for them as they can compete in WC shows as the WC tour hits their part of the country early on, and then jump in to the western group of the OC tour for OC shows while the WC corps are on their southern\eastern swing.

Its anywhere where there's significant power imbalances at work and a culture where people are generally pushed to not question authority or to 'keep things in the family' or 'keep quiet for the good of the team'. I think these all could apply to drum corps at various points, and it means culture changes are/were necessary.

I think it depends on when that naysaying happened. Last year? Sure. A lot was in the air. By this spring? A lot was clear. Vaccinations were moving rapidly. Corps were able to put things in place. I got kicked out of the 'drum corps friends' facebook group this spring because one of the admins was on a whole tear about how it wasnt safe for members, and those who disagreed with her got the boot.