oldsoprano

The year that finals were in College Park, Md., I was the tour director for Spirit of Atlanta, and housing was so difficult in the DC metro area that we didn't have finals week housing until about two hours AFTER our prelims performance. Not at all a dig at DCI, who was responsible for finding Championships housing for all the corps, but it's just the way it is in some areas. And that was two decades ago.

Speaking of Varsity...(see last paragraph) https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/cheerleading-championship-40000-people-georgia-world-congress-center/85-340fc6b8-b4e0-44da-aeda-78198c65e6e5?fbclid=IwAR1_xHIG4OiQwBxbHt3Z4SqGdhU7bXdk1hCnSm7rdOjMFT_oRMv7wD84omU

Seems to me like Varsity Spirit is a company that DCI has absolutely NO #### BUSINESS being involved with in any shape, form or fashion.

Not 100 percent sure, but I believe SCV was initially announced as winning high guard, and the actual winner was Spirit of Atlanta. Back then, the recap sheets were on two pages, six corps on page 1 and six on page 2. Whoever was feeding Brandt the information on caption awards only looked at page 1. Spirit, finishing in 8th place overall, was on page 2 of the recap. Spirit's guard staff noticed the error when they checked the recap sheets and alerted DCI officials on the field and a correction was made.

This one features current and former members of Spirit of Atlanta. And yes, someone (one of the drum majors, I think) played a clarinet for this, so get over it. 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/SpiritofAtlanta/videos/238536980541079/

Cadebts

And his brother Michael Martin! 🙂

I'm guessing she was talking about West Baden and French Lick. Here's a story on the amazing job he did restoring the resort: https://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/real-estate-news/united-states/french-lick-resort-west-baden-springs-tom-saunders-larry-borst-donald-trump-steve-ferguson-pete-dye-legends-championship-legends-tour-cook-medical-9292.php

Seems like using the 2020 show in 2021 would certainly be the fiscally prudent thing for most corps to do.

Carla Azar (18:32 on the video above) was in Spirit of Atlanta's snareline back in the late 70s or early 80s, as was Beth Hardcastle Gottlieb (not on the video), who is the percussionist with Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band. Beth's husband, Danny, (founding drummer of the Pat Methany Group) is the set drummer with the Lt. Dan Band.

Not sure what I would do if DCI canceled the summer tour, but whatever it is, my blood pressure will be lower just by cutting out the frustration of getting Flomarching to work decently.

In general, DCI secures housing for finals week and for all regionals, and the individual show sponsors are responsible for finding one night's housing for each competing corps. When a corps has multiple consecutive days without a show on tour, it is usually on the corps to find housing for those non-show days. Often, the sponsors of the shows on either end of those off days can provide housing for additional nights.

At least one large school system in metro Atlanta has cancelled all out-of-state school-related trips for the remainder of the school year.

A few years ago, Spirit had a corps dad that toured every summer on Spirit's medical team whose "real life job" was the emergency coordinator for the U.S. Public Health Service, and was also the federal government's leading expert on chemical and biological terrorism. Donald Wetter is now retired in Arizona, but he sure would have been a good person to have on the road this summer. If DCI wants the opinion or guidance from someone who is an expert in public health issues such as this and who also totally understands the unique challenges of keeping a touring drum corps healthy, I have Dr. Wetter's contact info.

I vaguely remember hearing a tape of one of the west coast corps at finals in the early to mid-70s (I think it was Anaheim, but not certain) and you can clearly hear someone yell "California sucks" on the tape.

No kidding. My last trip to finals, in 2011, I kept stalking Priceline for downtown hotel deals, and hit pay dirt on July 4, when I was able to book the Marriott Downtown, just a couple or three blocks from Lucas Oil, for Thursday through Sunday for just $58/nite.

Fundraising?

Dan Spalding was the drum caption head Spirit's inaugural season in 1977. Float didn't come on board until '78.

I first met Don in the early summer of 1976 in Atlanta, and quickly realized that he was a show marketing genius. I had just graduated from high school, and our band booster club was sponsoring the first DCI show in the southeast later that summer at Georgia Tech's Grant Field, part of a tour and series of shows that Don was promoting for DCI. I, along with our drum major, were marching that summer with the Birmingham Charioteers, a Class A corps from Alabama. Don flew into Atlanta for a week and he, my h.s drum major and myself spent several days going to all of the TV and radio stations in Atlanta pimping the upcoming Drums Across America show. It must have worked, because 14,000 people showed up at Grant Field to see the Blue Stars, Royal Crusaders, Crossmen, CapitolAires, Sancions, Black Knights, Charioteers and Bleu Raiders. Don later moved to Atlanta and started a very successful parade production company. Rest in Peace, Don. DCI sure could use your expertise now in maximizing the tour model.

Not arguing the effectiveness of the props, but I don't think that two consecutive 13th-place finishes puts Spirit into the "lower 1/3" of the activity. With 36 corps competing at last year's prelims, 13th place is a lot closer to the "top 1/3" of the activity than than the "lower 1/3."

Spirit of Atlanta did Woman in the Moon from A Star is Born our inaugural season in 1977. (Fast-forward to 18:00 in this video)

Jim Ott was known to buy a few cases of beer for his horn line occasionally when we (Spirit) had an off-night on tour. He would give each of us who were 18 or older two beers at the end of rehearsal - and only two. There were only a couple of folks who were under 18, as I recall. Oh, and Jim loved Coors beer (not Coors Light, but the gold can), and it wasn't available east of the Mississippi back then, so these horn line beer gifts didn't commence until we crossed the Mississippi.

Make sure you check out the Arby's/Spirit lovefest happening on Arby's Twitter feed:

Don't know about high brass, but one year back in the 70s, Oakland Crusaders had the high percussion score in prelims - and didn't make Finals! (no semi-finals back then, just prelims and finals)

Yes, the souvie marketplace will be set up outside the stadium tomorrow. DCI might have a souvie booth inside (not sure), but the corps are all outside. I think this paragraph from an AJC story earlier this year when they announced the cashless policy addresses the corps souvie stands, whether inside or outside the arena: Inside the stadium, the only exception to the cashless model could be souvenir sales for some events other than Falcons and Atlanta United games. The organizers of “third-party” events, such as concerts or college football games, will be able to sell their merchandise for cash if they choose. But the stadium’s food and beverage sales will be cashless at all events, whether the purchase is made from concession stands, bars, restaurants or hawkers.