ShutUpAndPlayYerGuitar

I smell Jedi-levels of trolling.

The fan part of me mostly agrees with you. But as a member: I hated retreat. It always depended on the show. Some were nice and quick about it, and others took forever. The worst was always the midwest shows, where we would get eaten alive by bugs while staying locked down ... meanwhile the Cavaliers/BD would be talking and making a mockery of the entire thing. This was at every single show, even the ones in podunk towns where nobody cared about scores anyway. When they got rid of it for every show, we actually had free time to decompress or practice. There were some great retreat moments. We did a traditional one at one show where every corps played off and left the field ... which was really cool (especially hearing SCV play "Send in the Clowns" for the first time). It was also nice to see smaller shows actually be treated the same as bigger regionals. But the logistics outweigh the nostalgia. DCI can and should do more to help the fan experience, but full retreat isn't it (in my opinion).

Way better area for finals than LA, that's for sure. But I've heard mixed reviews about the stadium experience, with the biggest negatives being the lack of shade and horrible parking.

Since everyone is jumping on the post-2028 alternate location bandwagon, here are a few more major cities with indoor NFL stadiums. Why not have a 4-5 city rotation? Minneapolis at US Bank Stadium (completely biased assessment) Pro: Totally biased since I live here, but the dining+nightlife+entertainment factor in Mpls/St. Paul is in the top-tier of the midwest. There is something for everyone: want to attend a sporting event? See a Twins game on the other side of downtown or a Saints (minor league) game in the heart of St. Paul. Dive bars and breweries? Go to Northeast. Parks and trails? Plenty of them all over Minneapolis. The area has hosted major DCI events before and would have enough housing for all groups. The marching scene isn't at the level of Texas/Indy, but it's growing. The stadium itself is brand new and gorgeous on the inside (the ETFE roof allows tons of natural light). Con: The stadium concourses are disappointingly small. Was here for a marching band show last fall, and the acoustics weren't as terrible as the Alamodome/older indoor venues, but weren't great either. The groups were facing the north sideline (visitors side), which may have helped acoustically due to the tilted roof. Downtown Minneapolis is constantly changing, for better/worse. Nightlife in downtown kind of sucks right now. Parking is very limited, so a lot of attendees would be recommended to use the light rail. Warm up spots would be limited. Atlanta at Mecedes-Benz Stadium Pro: Brand new stadium. Experience with hosting regionals and supporting lots of groups. Huge city with nightlife in certain hot spots. Con: I haven't been here in years, but the area surrounding the Georgia Dome/convention hasn't been great. Has there been any redevelopment around it? Dallas at AT&T Stadium Pro: The prototype of all modern NFL stadiums, located in one of the biggest hotbeds of the marching scene. Con: I haven't been to Dallas in over a decade, and have never been to this stadium ... but from what I've heard, the stadium is surrounded by nothing. Almost no public transportation, apparently. Might be prohibitively expensive for DCI. New Orleans at the Superdome Pro: It's New Orleans! Con: ... It's also New Orleans ... Glendale at the UofPhnx Stadium Pro: Easier for west coast fans. Natural grass! I know nothing about the area or stadium besides that Con: I don't know enough about the area/stadium Los Angeles at the new Inglewood Stadium Pro: Again, west coast fans would finally stop complaining. The stadium design seems to take the best elements of the Vikings/Cowboys/Falcons stadiums. Really intrigued by the ETFE roof. Con: The idea of Stan Kroenke being involved probably means he would make this prohibitively expensive and a logistical nightmare. Also, since it's indoor ... all the west coasters' wacky tobbacky smoke would turn the stadium into a giant hotbox (I kid, I kid).

I haven't been to Indy since 2006 (still had the RCA Dome) as a member, so I have very little familiarity with the area and its layout.* That said, here are my submissions: - If there isn't some sort of a beer garden outside the stadium, there should be. - One thing I loved about DCA -- before Rochester's noise ordinance killed it -- were the "blow down" concerts by all the corps after finals retreat. Maybe have a staging area outside the stadium where non-finalist corps can let loose and do a relaxed non-uniform musical run of their show one last time? Doesn't have to be mandatory: if a corps doesn't want to deal with the logistical headache, they can opt out. *Most of my Indy memories are fond, mainly because of the massage chairs at Circle Centre Mall's Brookstone store.

Made my donation. Was tempted to leave a snarky "get your #### together"-type message, but wisely decided not to. As much as I hate surprise fundraisers, I know someone in the organization who has benefited greatly from being involved. Also, I give the director points for doing the donation plea video himself and not leaving it up for members to do (like Coastal Surge did a couple years ago).

For someone who claims to be a band director and an alumnus of a top-6 corps, you really seem to have a puerile sense of humor.

Not a chance.

Going to my first Indy finals this year. I'll just Periscope it for y'all.

Fair enough. Those were really just guesses on my part, though I can imagine smaller groups using that same reasoning. As someone who marched with a classic, fitted shako ... it was a cool look. Everything else about it sucked, especially if you were the assistant DM and tasked with keeping track of plumes.

Probably because last year's champion did it, among other reasons: - Hats take up a lot of space in vehicles that need all the space they can get - Extra uniform costs. - Limits full movement/vision capabilities of the performer. - It's what the taste-makers in the activity like (I saw a Facebook post from a well-known figure from WGI (with a little bit of a DCI background) railing against hats and traditional DCI uniforms. Seems to be the direction other designers are going). - The extra "height" that they add can be somewhat remedied by better uniform design. Just to be clear: I'm not really 100 percent for or against. I'm all for trying out new stuff though (even though I think it's funny that today's DCI groups are doing what DCA groups like the Govenaires and Empire Statesmen have done for years).

My statement was less about that and more about not answering the OP's actual question.

If I were to make a top-ten list of people I marched DCI with -- based on overall talent, attitude, work ethic, etc -- I'd say 4-5 of them started out as woodwind players, one of whom aged out with a championship ring. Tell her to try out for her "dream corps" > practice > go to a camp and pick up as much info as she can > if she's cut, there are always spots available in Open Class/lower ranked World Class/DCA groups. Even if you're not wrong, I'm still going to roll my eyes at this statement.

This happens a lot. Also, I once worked with a band that hired a well-known/talented DCI drill writer who completely phoned it in. Regarding the topic at hand: MBI will be fine. They're in sound financial shape and their current staff is great at what they do.

I came here for the straw man arguments. I am not disappointed.

The question appears to be number of corps advancing to finals from prelims. Last year it was 3 finalists. This year it's 4.

In the several years I marched DCI, I recall two instances of people getting sent home: I won't go into details for the first instances, but the other was a hole-filler who just really, really, really sucked and had the worst attitude of any person I had ever dealt with in drum corps. The director paid for the dude's plane ticket and thanked him for his time.

A friend of mine was in Syracuse, and said it was packed. I was watching the NBA draft, and feeling like an idiot.

I like the overall idea, and I'm all about getting away from the tyranny of shakos. The collar looks ridiculous without shoulder padding, though.

I like this idea. The position of Artistic Director in DCI helped establish best practices among the corps. In my opinion, it worked ... the majority of corps have a better understanding of the essential visual elements. A Music Director can help establish best practices with arrangements, instrumentation, and electronic sound design.

Some good arguments in here. Compared to some of BOA's finalists over the past 20 years, however, I still don't think a DCI show has ever truly come close to having a "libretto of ideology" until maybe the past year or two. Regarding the lack of "The Music of _____" shows: visual and guard folk generally hate doing them. They like to have at least a kernel of a visual concept/arc.

"Pretentious" is a cheap label dumb people use when they don't understand something. [runs away from DCP mob ... sprints into helicopter as it takes off ... grabs megaphone] *feedback* I'm really justkidding ... sort of [flies away from thread]

Opinions won't really matter until the unis (...oops, sorry ... "costumes") are seen in context. That said: they definitely look sharp and appear to fit the stated theme, but I'm not a fan of the piecemeal patchwork stuff ("the sleeves represent iron+blood ... the pants represent a scary forest ... etc"). I prefer simpler designs that don't follow the BD formula of cramming as much clashing fabric in one place as possible. I do like the puritan era elements, and wished they would've ran more with that across the board -- rather than relying on printed fabric of spooky trees.

This nebulous discussion has gone from the decline of "Western Civilization in drum corps" to "I think show announcements are dumb." I am very confused by this esoteric thread.

</thread> This is all about personal preference. I hate saccharine shows with unearned "inspiration" (also "patriotism") ... of which there are plenty. EDIT: Take a cursory look through corpsreps.