btracht

Having hung around Capital Regiment a bit in a former life, I know a bit about their show at Crew Stadium. I assume expense numbers listed were pulled from the corps' 990s. There is no way the actual expenses for the contest are that high. What the expense numbers you listed would have to include is a rather random allocation to the show expense category of other expenses associated with the operation of the organization. Also, I would imagine the that expense number does not include the cost of the stadium as I will explain below. From what I recollect, the stadium cost was about $10,000 (maybe higher). Likely the DCI contract was around $20,000 - $25,000 depending on the show's line-up. Those were the main costs associated with the contest. Any other expenses were relatively minor I would think unless they had to pay for housing for any of the corps. The income listed is likely a net figure after the stadium expense has been taken out. Ticketmaster handles the sale of the tickets and Crew Stadium gets the money. They take their cut for the stadium and the net goes to Capital Regiment. So if you take the revenue numbers you have listed (ticket sales income less stadium cost) and subtract the DCI contract cost you get a more accurate idea of the net income the show produced. The show probably made a profit of over $20,000 in 2006 and 2007 but likely only broke even in 2008. Capital Regiment could take the show to a high school stadium and cut a deal with a high school band booster group and possibly get the stadium for free - by giving the concessions to the band booster. But then Capital Regiment would have to provide the stadium workers (tickets, ushers, parking,etc.) or have the band booster group provide them in turn for a piece of the profit or a set amount. With the Crew Stadium, it is a turn key operation which while costly makes running the show easier.

Anytime you need to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster for any event, call them and pick out your tickets over the phone. I have always found their agents to be very helpful.

I love this activity. I have embraced the evolution that I have seen since I first saw a drum and bugle corps 36 years ago. But, the line has been crossed. When I heard brass lines using ABSE (Artificial Brass Sound Enhancement) on Thursday and Friday and even one of my all time favorite corps' 80 person brass line using it on a triple forte push, my heart just sank. The brass sound has always been real. It must return to being real. May tonight be the last time we ever hear the wall of sound, that has always been synonymous with drum corps, be artificially enhanced.

I watched a couple of corps from that spot. Not one bit of drum clarity. Echo city. No big brass sound. Honestly, it really reminded me of my first indoor show at the Pontiac Silverdom in '76 at which time I stated "This ain't drum corps." I hope to dump my 640 tickets and get some 100 tickets for tonight and Saturday.

We had seats in 438 and watched a couple of corps there. Sound was not good at all. We then went up to 640 (right on the fifty) where our seats are for Friday and Saturday. Sound was not good at all. We went down and sat about 15 rows from the stadium floor in the 100's on about the 35 yard line and the sound was actually pretty good: felt like I was actually at a drum corps show.

Thought it might be nice to have a place to share Indy info. For example: Just checked into the Crown Plaza Airport - 3.5 stars. Really, really nice. Got it on Hotwire and canceled my Super 8 reservation that was the same price, $54 a night, free parking, free wi-fi. 10 minutes from stadium. Just checked Hotwire. It is still available for that price but earlier this am I saw it for $50 a night. Also saw a downtown hotel - 4 start for $75 a night on Hotwire.

Right now the chance of rain in Indy is 0% all day. Last week one of the DCI board members told me the roof would be open if there was zero chance of rain. So will the roof and windows be open?

Many corps have good tickets available for parents, supporters, anyone, to purchase through their organization. I was too late to purchase super premium tickets for semis and finals but I did get premium, section 640 tickets (top of stadium center section) for both those shows from the Bluecoats. I also got super premium from the Bluecoats for quarters, but don't know the section yet.

Bluecoats Tuesday, August 4 - Wednesday, August 5: Centerville HS in Centerville, OH Thursday, August 6 - Saturday, August 8: Edgewood HS in Ellettsville, IN

At the Centerville show I had the chance to ask one of the directors about the roof. He confirmed what "Lead" said above. Plans call for the roof to be closed for an event unless there is virtually a zero percent chance of rain. I guess we will likely be sitting in a closed air conditioned space next week.

Great review Matt but I do have one major disagreement with you. The new seat backs were terrible, at least in the row I sat in. Zero leg room. But fortunately there was some some spacious seats available across the aisle to move to. But seriously... Centerville always runs a great show. I counted 22 school busses. Love to see band directors taking their kids to drum corps shows! A couple of add-ons to Matts review: While I am rooting for the Troopers to make it to finals, I have to say I was really impressed with Academy. They have really improved since I saw them in SA: a well deserved increase of about 7.5 points. Will be an interesting finish for the 12 position with those two and the others in that pack. Bloo was on! Great show and their encore was goosebump city for me. BD is good but 95.65 good? Glad Soaring Sounds got in their 30th consecutive show without being rained out!

1980

I don't think there have been any rainouts of this show. Let's hope the rain in Ohio moves through so this streak continues! Tonight's line-up Blue Devils - Concord, CA Bluecoats - Canton, OH The Academy - Tempe, AZ Troopers - Casper, WY Pacific Crest - Diamond Bar, CA Mandarins - Sacramento, CA Cascades - Seattle, WA Cincinnati Tradition - Cincinnati, OH BD has won the show 9 times but Bloo has won the show the past 3 years including 2007 when they defeated both the Cavies and BD at that show. That was a very memorable night for Bloo. While there is no question about who the winner of the show will be tonight, from watching an hour and a half of Bloo's ensemble rehearsal in the stadium last evening, I think they will be the crowd favorite. IMO, this is one of the best BC shows ever! In case anyone is interested, here are the scores from Soaring Sounds #1 courtesy of corpreps.com. 1 Crossmen 77.500 1 Spirit of Atlanta 77.500 3 Garfield Cadets 66.000 4 Boston Crusaders 61.800 5 Avant Garde 59.450 5 Royal Crusaders 59.450 7 Florida Vanguard 38.650 8 Marion Cadets 32.900

As I drove to work in the rain this morning (hoping the rain clears out of Ohio for the Centerville show tonight!) I got to thinking about the retractable roof at Lucas Ohio Stadium and wondered if anyone knew about DCI's plans/parameters for the roof. I found some interesting information about the roof at http://lucasoilstadium.9f.com/#roof but it would be interesting to know what to expect next weekend. For example: Does the roof stay open all day Friday and Saturday when both Open and World events take place? If rain is forecasted does the roof stay closed so all corps perform under the same conditions? Does DCI save some bucks on rental if the AC doesn't run?

Many if not most corps do not provide transportation back to their home base because most of the members don't live there and they simply fly or get driven home from the finals location.

Since DCI has said they expect to recommend Capital Regiment for participation at the January meeting, you can be sure they have looked at and worked with the organization to make sure they are ready to hit the field. This is a huge quality control step that potential members and parents can take stock in. Being recommended for participation says “We have examined the organization and wholeheartedly believe the organization is viable.” While this step is very important to establishing organizational credibility, it would be of benefit for Capital Regiment to not only talk about what they have done to shore up their operations (like moving to chartered coaches, solidifying their financial positions, etc.) with the potential members and parents that walk through their doors, but talk publicly about their changes. This would be a very positive PR and marketing move. I know Capital Regiment hopes to complete in world class with a full tour with lots of shows. It really doesn’t matter which class and how many shows they get. Members will have an incredible drum corps experience regardless in which class they compete with and how extensive their tour is. Good luck Capital Regiment 2009! It will be good to see you back on the field!

Thank you for posting Carl. It is good to hear that someone is helping CR with admin especially an old fart! :) Good luck to you!

.Call me dense, but I don't get your grandstanding statement. You are correct. I have a beef with CR (i.e. RB), their board(i.e. RB) and Mr. Bays but sending a private email to Mr. Bays would have served no purpose. Actually, he is not who I am directing this post to but I am sure he has already seen it. In the few minutes that I have checked in on this thread to see what people have written, I have seen that the following people have viewed the thread. Former Capital Regiment members Former Capital Regiment members who have since marched elsewhere A current CR board member A current CR volunteer and a past parent of a corps member Past parents of corps members Someone who has been a driver for CR Music educators and instructors In addition I am sure there are even a few potential members and parents of potential member who have read this post. Certainly there are among this list some people who should think about the questions I wrote and ask them themselves. Not trying to change the past. Just trying to make sure the past doesn't get repeated.

Someone has asked me privately why I felt the need to make my original post. Why bring this all up again? Why do it here? Here are my answers to those questions. I want the drum corps activity to thrive. In order to thrive, the activity needs quality organizations at all levels of the activity. I believe one characteristic of a quality organization is the presence of is a working board of directors that is ultimately responsible for the running of the organization. One of most important responsibilities of the board is to hire a quality executive to run the the organization and to regularly evaluate the executive's performance and the performance of the organization. In Capital Regiment's case, I believe the board has always consisted of three persons or less one of which has always been Mr. Bays, the corps director and founder. With such a structure one can see that the board would most likely not function as a board should. From my personal experience with the organization I believe the board is a there in name only. As such, Mr. Bays has run Capital Regiment with no real oversight and scrutiny from a board of directors. If there is no real board providing oversight to protect stakeholders including members, parents, volunteers, other corps, fans, etc. (or even if there is a real board) those of us who have directly witnessed problems and have had concerns about the operation of the organization need to speak up, ask questions, voice concerns so the organization knows that there are people who are not going to be content with the status quo. I am also confident that as part of the DCI evaluation process DCI will not only speak with those still involved with the organization but will also speak to those who are no longer involved with the organization but have experiences and concerns to share. Why bring this up all over again and why post the questions on DCP? As another poster stated so well, "I have a moral obligation to other parents to help them know what to ask before they entrust their child's well-being to this oganization." Ditto.

I could have written this! Thank you!

On Wednesday, July 30, Capital Regiment published a press release that announced that the corps “was now accepting applications for the 2009 season.” The press release also stated that “The past two years have been good for Capital Regiment and much has been done to address some things that needed attention.” The drum corps community is always ready to welcome back an inactive corps that has made major progress to address the causes of its previous inactive status. In the past, corps that have been inactive and have announced their return have done a good job in publicly addressing what steps have been made to solidify the organization. I hope that Capital Regiment will come forth with information about what has been done to solidify the organization including answering questions like these: How exactly have “The last two years been good for Capital Regiment”? What exactly were “some things that needed attention”? What is “much has been done to address some things that needed attention.”? What is Capital Regiment’s status with DCI and what is the estimated timeline for the corps to return to a status of good standing with DCI? Who is now involved with the effort to help Capital Regiment return to active status? Is the list of Capital Regiment’s board of directors current? Has there been any change in the leadership of Capital Regiment? What is Capital Regiment’s financial situation? There are other questions that should be asked to address specific concerns that were publicly presented or privately presented to DCI or Mr. Bays by myself and others over the past two years. I am confident that they will be asked as part of DCI’s evaluation process. Here’s hoping that if Capital Regiment is allowed to return to active status by DCI, that the organization has indeed addressed its problems and that substantive organizational change has taken place.

As a Bluecoat parent, alum, and fan, I am most certainly disappointed by any behavior that would cause shame to the Bluecoat organization. While is hard to know exactly which incidents reported on this forum are accurate, which are snowball, and which are just not true I think the fact that this is being discussed at all should be a call for corps directors and DCI to address behavior expectations and standards. I expect it will be a topic of discussion at the next DCI board meeting and at board meetings of certain drum corps. This isn't like the old days. The activity is more under the microscope than ever before. Contest sponsors have lost housing sites because of poor behavior and poor choices by members and staff. Fans have left the activity simply due to experiences they have had walking by buses and trucks at drum corps shows or simply observing rehearsals with their kids. I shudder to think what would happen if Lucas Oil Stadium and Indianapolis Visitors and Convention personnel had directly observed some of behaviors and antics reported in this thread. The standard of behavior both while in uniform and out of uniform while in the public eye (at stadiums, housing sites, rest stops, etc.) must be high in this activity. We can't be satisfied with the just a professional "Marching Music Major League" appearance that is seen during actual corps performances and an "anything goes" attitude at all other times. I think it is time to tighten up behavior standards.

Some thoughts on some of the non-performance aspects of Saturday Night being discussed. Free Format Finals Retreat - Free format retreats are terrible. Do we really need to see some drum corps members acting like a bunch of idiots after such a classy performance experience? I think not. I have heard that the retreat is the members’ time to celebrate after a long season of hard work. That can be done after the retreat is over. It does not need to be done in front of 20,000 people. America – Corps should play America with class and dignity. Playing other tunes, ignoring cutoffs, taking parts up an octave (and sounding like ****) are all plain disgusting. There was some ****ty playing Saturday Night. Very, very sad. Making noise during another corps performance – Corps should make their way to the gate quietly, not with loud duts. Corps hypes should not interfere with another corps performance. Make noise during your own warm-up, performance, and post performance block. Acknowledging the Champion and leaving the field - The old tradition of playing a corps song and then trooping the winner was a great way to end the night. It was the perfect culmination to an extraordinary evening.

Downtown Indianapolis, with the addition of what is expected to be a very good stadium for drum corps, could be the ideal location for World Championships. We absolutely loved downtown Indianapolis. It is such an exciting, beautiful, clean downtown. There are so many nice hotels, great restaurants, City Centre Mall, and more! It will be so nice next year to be able to walk from the hotels to Lucus Oil Stadium. There even appear to be some watering holes in the spirit of Madison's Stadium Bar near the stadium! Did I mention the White Castle next to the stadium? Those flying in have the ability to shuttle from the airport to downtown and never need a rental car unless they want to leave downtown to catch some corps' rehearsals. Looking forward to having World Championships in Indy in 2009!

Debbit Torchia judged last evening. Every time she has judged the Bluecoats guard this season, their score drops and then rises at the next show when someone else is judging For Example Murfreesboro 17.5 Atlanta 16.5 (DT Judging) Centerville (17.6) Columbus 17.8 Allentown 17.3 (DT Judging) Buffalo 17.9 Quarter Finals 18.5 Semi Finals 17.6 (DT Judging) Finals ????? Yah, I am a homer but such consistent inconsistency doesn't seem right especially a difference of of .9 finals week and a drop from 7th in guard to 12th in guard. from quarters to semis. If I were a betting man I would bet their guard score goes right back up tonight. . Go Blooooo and Go Bloooo Guard!