Citizen-Seth

Well . . . in the most basic of basic examples, this law states that every object with mass is exerting an attractive force on all other objects with mass. In essence: everything has a gravitational pull and everything is pulling on everything else. So, as it relates to Crown and the park bench, each of the lovers on the bench are exerting an attractive force upon the other (because obviously they each have mass), and as the song progresses, this attractive force brings them closer and closer together until they finally kiss. Hence "mass attraction" is a very clever and nerdy pun.

Well, I'm not trying to speak for the Crown staff, but that part of their show is called "Mass Attraction" and Einstein was key in determining how gravitational mass affects spacetime with his law of universal gravitation. Surely there's a deeper explanation, but the play on words is enough for me.

Really not loving those guard uniforms . . . hope they get a mid-season redesign like the past couple of years.

Double post. Sorry.

I've now seen the show several times in person, including the uniform run this weekend in Little Rock, and I think this could be my favourite Crown show of all time. I'm a big fan of the source music to begin with, and the hornline sounds amazing. I really enjoy the narration in the ballad, though I prefer the female narrator to the male. The guard is excellent as usual, and it'll be nice for them to stand out again after being somewhat looked over in the sea of cream last year. The ending is a little flat for me, but we all know that it will change a hundred time between here and Indy. Can't wait to see them duke it out with Cadets and BD this summer.

Just caught a video of "Adagio" . . . going to be a great summer!

The same

These are a lot of great issues, and hopefully I can answer all of them. I've also worked with WC and Olympic clients, great to see we have a similar background. I can buy that it may be best to not mess with the corps/supplier relationship. I'm sure there's a lot going on there that I don't know about. Are these relationships generally VIK or what? As for $160,000 being low, what price would you suggest? Originally, I thought about $200,000 for a 2 year contract, but I guess it's really open ended. And I wasn't suggesting that the rights package didn't include streaming, theatre, etc. I just didn't type it all out. As for your point on the revenue split, I can't say I agree. Maybe I've been working with the IOC too long, but I'm a firm believe that everyone, regardless of how much the bring to the table, gets a fair share.

I'm not sure I follow your comment about my second point. The idea of product exclusivity is only in advertising terms. Corps can still play on whatever they like, but only one company would get their name on the DCI website/tour/products, etc. Maybe I should edit the original post to be clearer. As for the non profit bit, the is all legally doable. I also come from a non-profit background, and this is an extremely common structure.

I've not intently followed DCI since I last marched in 2006. I've always checked in with the scores and gone to shows when my schedule allows, but I've not really paid this forum much mind until this season. Since 2006, I've finished school and entered the marketing world, where I specialize in sports marketing, specifically, major corporate sponsorships. I've got a working knowledge of the G7 proposal and what is currently happening with DCI, but if there are some things I've missed, please constructively correct me. In the few months that I've been coming back to these forums, I'm struck by how much the idea of a G7/G8/Gwhatever is tearing up the fanbase. Most of the threads on the topic, however, seem to be arguing either for or against the system, without delving into other viable options (the idea that the DCI system is fine as it was is not a viable option). This is my attempt at that, and, as I said before, feel free to add to or dissect my theory/ies to your hearts content. From my perspective, the original G7 proposal was, in essence, a group of Directors trying to gain control of the main actions of DCI in order to funnel control (i.e. money) into their corps without respect to the remaining, non-G7 corps. So, to boil it down, even further, 7 corps Directors wanted more money, and they decided that this was the best way to get it. Surely, if that is the core issue, then there must be other ways to get more money into the hands of all corps, not just the G7/8/9/10... For obvious reasons, my immediate mind jumps to corporate sponsorship. Currently, DCI has 31 corporate partners, on varying levels of partner rights. Unfortunately, DCI does not list the exact cost of their sponsorships and their partner rights (and my emails/calls have gone unanswered), so I'm going to insert my own figures into this post. If anyone can give me any better info, I'd welcome it. What I'm proposing is a complete, %100 change from the current system, and it looks like this: 1) A "Global" Rights Package Currently, when you become a DCI sponsor, you can become a sponsor of either the Summer Music Tour, just DCI Worlds, both, or some weird combination of the three. Let's turn this into an "all or nothing" sort of thing: You become a DCI partner, you get your name on everything, every show, regionals, TOC (if they continue), Champs, everything. Also (and here is the kicker), as a holder of DCI's "global" rights, you're not only a sponsor of every show, but of every corps. Your logo is now on the website of not only DCI, but every single event that it hosts, and every single corps in the entire DCI system. You can charge a lot of money for that. Now, this is going to be a little tricky to engineer, as corps may be hesitant to give DCI the right to determine one of their sponsors, but I think the revenue this generates could a swage those fears. A lot of corps are going to say, "What is company X becomes the sponsor, but my corp uses company Y?" A clause will have to be written that corps are not bound by a company's sponsorship to purchase products from that company. This is actually quite common in sponsorships, especially sports, and I'll address it a little later on. 2)Category Exclusivity As I said, DCI currently has 31 corporate partners, which, to me, if WAY too many. Lets look at the companies that are percussion related: Pearl, Yamaha, Remo, Zildjian, Vic Firth, Dynasty, and Evans. That's 7 sponsors all trying to sell the same thing. Trust me, no one's message is through to consumers with that kind of brand clutter going on. Think of it this way, would someone understand you if you and 6 others were talking at them at the same time? How about in stead of having 7 different sponsors, each paying varying amounts, lets have just one. They'll be the official percussion sponsor of DCI, the summer tour and Champs. They will also be the presenting percussion sponsor of every corps on the field. Let's charge $160,000 for a 2 year contract (2 years is long enough for a good test run), and see who buys it. Do the same for brass equipment, electronics, color guard equipment, corps proper uniforms, plus a few other things. How about courting Procter & Gamble for a "household goods" category? How about working with an official insurance partner? That would cut out the problems of no refunds at rained out shows. I don't think Gatorade as the official sports drink is too far fetched. Who knows what categories could be sold? The point is that we reduce the brand clutter and branch out of the marching-specific companies. Both of those things will drive up the price. In essence: A corps could still use any product from any company, but only one company per category could actually get the publicity of the DCI sponsorship. 3) An "Official Supplier Option" on the DCI level Not all of DCI's current partners need to be redone. Also, not all of them could afford the huge "Global" rights package that I'm creating. For these companies, they can be an official supplier of something. They wont get all the rights as the global partners, and as such, the cost will be far reduced. Take Jolesch, for example. They probably aren't going to shell out much dough to go to our events and take pictures. They might pay a small fee, or this could be what is known as a VIK deal. VIK is short for Value in Kind, and consist of a no-cash, fare trade of sponsorship rights for free services. 4)An "Official Supplier" option for the corps It's extremely important for corps to still have the ability to make money from their own sponsorship rights. The corps can still sell whatever category they want to whomever they want. This way, Blue Devils can still spin FJM flags, even if Band Hall gets the "global" sponsorship. 5)Revenue Sharing I don't know much about the revenue needs of DCI, but what if we split the revenues like this: DCI admin: 20%, World Class: 40% Open Class: 40%. Each corps gets an equal share. 6)An "All or Nothing" sponsorship This is an all or nothing opportunity. If a corp decides not to participate in this then it's their loss. They will not be a part of the revenue split. I know this is a little radical, and a little long. If you have managed to read and understand my idea, please give me some feedback. I know it's not perfect, but I do think it's a step in a right direction. Just keep it constructive, and let's see what we can come up with!

You are generally correct. Marketing is different depending on the team, however. I didn't say that relegation and the G7 were one in the same, but I could definitely see a TOC-like concept working within the relegation concept, so if the the G7/TOC is going to stick around in any form, I would hope it would be handled in that way.

Actually, a similar concept is found in English football. The previous season's standings determine which league you can move up or down into for the following season. It works well for them, and I don't think it would be bad if DCI adopted a similar (albeit tweaked, policy). But then again, as I have said before, I think the entire G8 could be solved with better marketing on DCI's part.

I think people are looking at the nature of sport in the wrong way. Sport is a state of being from which activities (drum corps, basketball, hot dog eating, etc.) can inter into and exit from at the discretion of the practitioner. For me, drum corps was never really a sport, it was just something I did for fun, but I certainly know people for whom it very much was a sport. So, is drum corps a sport? For some people, yes, and for others, no. It doesn't really matter what it is as long as you enjoy it.

Yes, it is the Glee version with Chris Colfer singing.

Those are all pretty simple things that could be worked out in any contract with the insurer

What happened?

What if there was a ay around that . . . What if DCI had an official insurance sponsor for its summer tour? You would have a single company insure every show of the DCI tour. It would be a revenue boon for DCI, and it could take the financial burden off of the local show organizers. Your ticket price wouldn't increase because the price of the sponsorship covers any overage that might occur. Just an idea . . .

I understand where this comment is coming from, but I also take a lot of issue with it. By saying sport, you actually mean the NFL, NBA, NHL, some football leagues, and (unfortunately) American high school sports. The fact of the matter is that sports is whole lot bigger than just those leagues, and especially when you look at amateur sport (which is what drum corps is), the atmosphere many people seem to be afraid of is almost nonexistant. Each sport has a very distinct culture that creates a specific atmosphere for each event. Take tennis, for example, I don't think anyone heard booing from the stands last week during Wembledon. No booing at the Olympic Games, trust me, I work there. No booing at the Youth Olympic Games either. No booing at so many different sporting events. The point is that the fans create the culture. Do you actually think that the fan base of DCI would just change over night to become some beer-guzzling stadium of holligans? Of course not. The same would go for new fans: just because we call drum corps a sport does not mean that all of a sudden the kind of fans you're talking about are going to show up. The best way to ensure that DCI attracts the kind of fan base you want is be that kind of fan yourself. (no that I'm saying you're not already that fan, just making a point)

There's already a lot of booing in DCI, unfortunately. Also, you (and many others) seem to making the assumption that DCI being a sport means its the next NFL. If you look at the current amateur sports landscape you'd see that DCI actually has a lot more in common with those sports than it does any purely artistic event. My main point is that if DCI would try a more sports oriented marketing platform, the entire activity would benefit from the financial security. (There are obvious flaws in DCI's current marketing program, but that isn't what this thread is about. Actually, I think it's quite probable that if DCI would fix this issue we probably wouldn't have the G7/G8 issues we do now.)

Of course it's a sport, and it would do the activity some good if DCI would start marketing it that way. I work in sports marketing, and trust me when I say that there's a lot of untapped potential in drum corps that I don't think DCI really knows how to handle. I think that if DCI switched to a more sports oriented model (business wise, at least) it could really do wonders for the organizations financial security and the cohesiveness of the corps themselves.

Were you coming from the Ballston thratre? Found out it was cancelled when I showed up at 6! Metro-ed down to the other Arlington theatre and made it in by the middle of the Cavies' show.

Maybe this is a silly question, but will FN work outside the US? Work is requiring me to be in brazil for July and August, and I was thinking of getting it to stay up on the current season.

The Rihanna quote is in there . . . near the end of the pre show. "I'm rock staah! Ooh, baby, I'm rock staah!"

Can anyone that was at the show (or has heard it) confirm that there is indeed a recorded snippit of a "GLEE" character singing "A House Is Not A Home" right before the ending hit? From watching a video that somehow I may have stumbled upon somewhere, it seems pretty identical.

Does anyone know how much corps/DCI get for their sponsorships? I'm surprised we haven't seen corps selling the sponsorships of the summer tours yet, surely that would be a quick $150,000.