TheOneWhoKnows

Don't read too much into this. It was a political ####### match between the county and the owner of the sports park. The "deficiency" was a trumped up interpretation of the code in an attempt to force the closure of the dome and the area of the stage to try to stop the sports park from having their weekly music events. It didn't work.

It definitely ain’t cheap to run a show. And one of the last of the partners, Lake Erie Fanfare, didn’t make even this year due to a second year in a row rain out. Now this show is supposed to be going to The Cadets to own this year. Maybe they can make money off it, maybe not. It was originally thought that The Cadets being back in the top 5 meant they could draw some of the big boys out to the show to increase appeal and revenue. We will see I guess.

He stated that they just broke even with significant cuts throughout the season and the board doesn't feel those cuts led to the best experience for the members. So thinking of already not wanting to make all those cuts again, to continued rising costs, they suspended to avoid doing pretty bad damage by doing a tour. I don't think they are in a dire financial situation, I think this was done to prevent a dire financial situation.

1) Drum corps have to have multiple income streams. They cannot rely on donors and member dues. 1A) There needs to be more ground/local support and foundation built to sustain an organization's future. 2) Pray that corps start to look at corporate sponsors. Find more grant funding. Find a #### way to make money. Everyone wants to bash the bingo halls, but income is income.

It's not different than *part* of the reason why colleges and universities have souring costs. All the sudden we have VP of (insert some ridiculous title) making 6 figures plus benefits.

In all truth, it was probably more the vote by the board happened the night they made the announcement. So truly up until that vote, it was go on as normal.

How is a lack of props going to "lessen the member experience". It doesn't. Regardless, all costs no matter what should be looked at when attempting to put a feasible product on the road that is safe and still provides the educational experience of participating in a performing, traveling group. Aside from all of that, what's happening in drum corps is the same thing that's happening across the country (not Texas) when it comes to marching band in general. It's no longer where students get their social interaction. You could have all these local and small town corps because it was something to do. Now with the entire world at our fingertips in nanoseconds, kids do not need "something to do". It's a fact of life. Oh and the standards of old have changed. It's no longer acceptable to have "just good enough" transportation for drum corps. Food trucks are more costly now. At the end of the day, based on the information SOA put out, their highest expense was "labor". I would like to know the breakdown of the labor costs, but clearly that's an issue. And not something drum corps used to have to deal with as much back in the day.

I agree with a regional model in theory.... but we need more corps to actually make it successful.

It's hard to get people to do this, but I've just donated a little what I could with this announcement. It won't save them this year, but turning out back on them now won't help later.

Very true. The worst part is the Cadets were working on building local roots here. Things were in the works and supposed to build a local community with the return of the Erie Thunderbirds, getting involved in WGI. Now I wonder how much of that will happen.

Definitely not wrong, but also so much focus on the big corps and not enough on the little ones. More corps is better for the activity. More corps means more fans, more sales, more fundraising, more merch sales etc etc. But with the loss of the "regional" and "local" drum corps and more focus on national talent, there's not foundational support anymore.

Clearly and frankly I'm mad because everyone around the org here said otherwise. I'm going to be hunting down what happened. Stay tuned.....

Hey now my thread was first go away DCP News 😆

How sad is this thing you speak of....

I'm heartbroken. Nothing pointed towards this. Everything pointed to them having a successful season competitively and financially. At least enough to not be in trouble.

https://cadets.org/cadets-suspend-competition-2024

Yeah I didnt get mine yet. Maybe tomorrow

For this past season we got them in early January. It just depends on how fast they get everything processed.

Too much loss for our community today. I’ve been reading condolences posts for Gina on Facebook. While every loss of life is hard, losing a band director has ripple effects that most people don’t think of. Band directors are so much more than teachers and I can’t imagine what current and former students are feeling right now. Let alone the potential future students this wonderful soul would have touched.

Played many of his works throughout the years…. This is a sad day for the music community

Call Tim Hinton, he can set it up

Only if it’s Vicki MacFarlane. I don’t want a female for the sake of it just being a female. The person needs to be qualified. And the only option I see within the community who has proven success is Vicki.

I knew from the beginning when it was announced that The Cadets were moving to Erie it was going to be good for the corps AND for Erie. Cadets are to hold a training clinic to get local interest and build up local students to potentially become Cadets. https://cadets.org/cadets-host-future-cadet-clinic-fall

I think you would be better trying to get DCI to plan later season shows for the Open class corps that don't want/can't afford to in a specific year to travel to Indy. I actually don't see that as a bad thing and think it would be good for both DCI and the Open Class corps to explore that option.

I’ve known this was coming