Galen

Because those $150,000 in loan payments for law school aren't going to pay themselves!

The Drum Corps Bracket Tourney has concluded, and the winner has been announced at marchingarenas.blogspot.com!

I was really torn between using Akron's stadium and Massillon when I put the poll together. Ultimately, however, I went with Massillon based on it having a longer history of hosting events and being an active venue. Also, I was also trying really hard to stick with the "One venue per state" rule in each bracket, and I already two Ohio venues in the Historical bracket (Toledo and Marion) that I felt both deserved spots based on their long history of hosting some really important shows. But Akron definitely had a strong argument.

Today's your last chance to vote in the Drum Corps Bracket Tourney! Voting for the final round ends at 9:00 PM CST tonight. Cast your vote for the best DCI stadium at marchingarenas.blogspot.com.

The finals are here, and it's Denver's Sports Authority Field vs. Massillon's Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for the championship round! Cast your vote at marchingarenas.blogspot.com before 9 PM CST on Monday, and a big thanks to everybody who's voted in this year's tourney.

Final Four voting is now live! Just four stadiums remain- Hersheypark Stadium, Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, The Alamodome and Sports Authority Field. Cast your vote for the best place to watch a drum corps show at marchingarenas.blogspot.com.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unfortunately unable to have the Final Four voting ready to go for today. I apologize for the delay. Final Four voting will begin tomorrow at 7:00 AM CST and run through Saturday, 7:00 PM CST.

The Final Four matchups for the Drum Corps Bracket Tourney are set! Denver vs. Hershey and San Antonio vs. Massillon in the semifinals. Voting for the best stadium in drum corps starts Thursday. Check out the full results at marchingarenas.blogspot.com

Elite Eight voting is now live! Cast your votes before 8 PM CST tomorrow.

Sweet Sixteen voting for the Drum Corps Bracket Tourney has wrapped up, and there were some major upsets in this round! See which stadiums advanced and which went home at marchingarenas.blogspot.com!

Sweet Sixteen voting for the Drum Corps Bracket Tourney is now live at marchingarenas.blogspot.com! Cast your votes for your favorite drum corps stadium by 7 PM CST Friday.

Second round voting is complete! See which stadiums advanced to the Sweet Sixteen and which #1 seed got upset! Sweet Sixteen voting starts Thursday at 9 AM CST.

Second round voting is now live!

Full results for the first round have been posted! See which stadiums survived and advanced and which were upset at http://marchingarenas.blogspot.com. Second round voting starts on Tuesday!

Voting is now LIVE for the first round of the Drum Corps Bracket Tourney! Cast your votes at marchingarenas.blogspot.com. Voting for this round ends at 6 PM CST on Friday, and the second half of the first round will run from Saturday through Sunday.

The first preview for the Drum Corps Bracket Tourney has been posted! Check back this afternoon for a look at the other two brackets' competitors. http://marchingarenas.blogspot.com/?m=1

All of our corps have safely returned home and we couldn't be happier with our results for this season. For Kosmos, we were trying to keep our expectations low for our initial return season, so finishing with the bronze medal feels absolutely amazing. We're definitely looking forward to next season and are already working on programming selections. Steel City Sound had a strong season overall. Although the corps had some flat moments in the second half of the season, this can be expected with a young group of performers learning how to sustain competitive momentum over the course of a long season. They more than made up for some of the low points with a solid finals week run, finishing fourth overall. Finally, Enchantment had a hero's welcome when they returned to New Mexico and are still reveling in their Class A championship win. The group has one more performance in the local St. Patrick's Day parade on Thursday to officially conclude their season, but will definitely be returning next season to defend their title.

I haven't done an entry on Gillette Stadium yet because I haven't had a chance to go there. Typically I like to go to a stadium in person before I do a report on it, although that may be changing. In the meantime, I have included Gillette Stadium as one of the entrants in this year's Drum Corps Bracket Tournament- which you can check out right here: http://marchingarenas.blogspot.com/?m=1

The Drum Corps Bracket Tournament returns for its third year! This year's event- the best stadiums in drum corps! From championship venues like Lucas Oil Stadium, Camp Randall Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium to historic venues like Stagg Stadium, the Manning Bowl, Roosevelt Stadium and current venues like Huskie Field, Stanford Stadium, the Alamo Dome and many, many more, this is your chance to weigh in on what the best place is to attend a drum corps event. Check out the full brackets at marchingarenas.blogspot.com. First round voting begins on Thursday, March 17th. Tell your friends and fellow drum corps fans!

Good luck to everybody in prelims today! Kosmos has been spending the last few days at McEachern HS in Powder Springs and has been having some very productive rehearsals. The corps is stoked and really looking forward to today's show! Steel City Sound and Enchantment have had a bit less rehearsal time due to their finals shows a couple nights ago, but they have been using their time at Carrollton HS in Carrollton and Rockdale HS in Conyers very profitably.

Kosmos and Quiksilver have really been going back and forth, swapping wins at their last several shows. All of our finals week changes have been put in place and we're looking forward to a very exciting week of competition! Steel City Sound seems to have hit a bit of a peak over the last couple of weeks as they've slid back in the standings, but we're still really proud of the effort these kids are putting in every day in rehearsals and at each show.

Another update from Oregon- Hillsboro Stadium, in the Portland suburbs. http://marchingarenas.blogspot.com/2016/02/hillsboro-stadium-hillsboro-or.html

So my first post of the year took considerably longer to get up than I expected, but here it is: Teeny-tiny Woodburn HS, home of the Drums of Fire event for several years. This will be my first in a series of posts on venues in the Pacific NW, since that region definitely deserves to have its time in the spotlight. http://marchingarenas.blogspot.com/2016/02/woodburn-or-woodburn-hs.html

Thanks- our staff and members were ecstatic after the scores were announced last night! Things really seem to be gelling right now, but we know we still have a long way to go. Steel City Sound and Enchantment were feeling just as good after their own respective wins in Irondequoit and Long Beach. Both corps are definitely way ahead of schedule with where we expected them to be at this point in their first seasons.

Going to wait on caption changes until the point increase is active. That said, the staff and members of Kosmos are absolutely thrilled with their placement at the SE event in Chicago on Saturday, which marks the first major event win for the corps since making their return. Out west, Enchantment has been enjoying a very strong run in their first season tour, capturing several wins in many of the southern California events. And Steel City Sound has been right in the thick of the Open Class race, mixing it up with the strongest competition on the circuit like Star of Hawaii, Les Blanc Chevaliers and Redline Regiment, among others. Quick question- will there still be a "caption reset" day after the regional championships like there has been in the past?