Solutions

[DCIHasBeen]

Doesn't matter what you or I think at the end of the day.

Someone posted looking for proposed solutions. I posted some. If want we think didn't matter to the original poster, I wouldn't have bothered responding.

Again, your answers are all very pat and run true to your "party lines" as to why to support the status quo. You have you've put forth nothing in the way of a proposed solution to the financial problems facing corps today, just refuted my ideas. I'm just trying to think "out of the box" ... Why not respond to the original post and propose some original solutions?

[audiodb]

the NFL has adopted the salary cap in an effort to equalize the league as they finally understood that the League was as, or even more important than the individual teams,.................

No, I'm not advocating a salary cap in drum corps. I'm just glad someone else sees that, as Spock would say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

[The Nagging Cough!]

I hate salary caps in sports, for the record. Baseball doesn't have one (it's more of a vague salary suggestion, like "try not to spend more than some countries produce in a year") and they do just fine. It's the worst in the NBA, where every trade has to be virtually dollar for dollar, preventing you from selling off the team at the deadline when you're hopelessly out of contention, which I have no problem with.

[GMKuzma]

On another note for everyone talking about touring distance... let me drive this point home:

Most corps caravans collectively get about 1 MPG.

Thus if you add 2000 miles to a tour, gas is only an extra $6000. If you cut 2000 miles, you're only saving $6000. Gas seems like a big expense, but in reality, it's minor. Not that you will tour; gas is a significant portion of every budget, but the difference in doing a longer or shorter distance tour isn't that big.

Yes, I was a tour director. Twice.

I'm not sure if I missed your earlier point on gas...are you saying that adding or reducing a tour by 2 weeks would not significantly affect the bottom line?

If we are thinking about less fuel saving money...how about the less amount of money spent on operating everything else, like buses, trucks, paying drivers, instructors, and food expenses. I would expect a significant savings with a reduced tour vs. a longer one when all variables are considered.

...and thank you for your time as Tour Director.

-GM

[Tristan]

[moderator]

I'd like to remind everyone to keep some level of civility in this heated discussion. There are quite a few posts that are borderline right now, and I don't want to have to close this thread, since I think it can lead somewhere positive.

Keep it cool guys.

[/moderator]

[SkyRyder_FMM]

I'm amazed that you are so knowledgeable of YEA's finances that you know how much they spent on props, electronics, and amplification.

Was the amount of the loan even made public or are you just completely making this up?

1 - didn't name names. 2- why is it so amazing? A few simple questions to the right people can derive the info. I asked. Simple, eh? 3 - not making anything up, and I didn't put any numbers out there, so what's the beef? Touch a nerve?

[The Other Mike]

[moderator]

I'd like to remind everyone to keep some level of civility in this heated discussion. There are quite a few posts that are borderline right now, and I don't want to have to close this thread, since I think it can lead somewhere positive.

Keep it cool guys.

[/moderator]

Would you mind pointing out just which posts are considered borderline ?

[troon8]

I am worried about the financial state of Drum Corps, and you are to. Let's brainstorm some possible solutions to problems corps face.

...and help get some of these fallen corps back on the road.

I expected to read this topic and view many new, creative ideas about how to do just this. I was fully prepared to be bombarded with energetic inspiration that could revolutionize the way corps in the future conduct buisness. Guess I should've known better...

Instead, for every post with an actual IDEA, there's ten talking about how much that idea stinks, and why it wouldn't work. Plus ten more personal attacks/counterattacks. In many organizations I've worked with, the first rule of "brainstorming" is that no once can dismiss or even discuss someone else's idea until after they've all been heard. Granted, this is an open forum, and I'm not trying to get anyone to hold hands and hug here...but if all you're doing is critquing the few concepts thrown out there (with legitimate concerns or not,) how are you really "helping some of these fallen corps back on the road?" You say such and such's idea won't work for the following reasons...ok, what's yours?

Much kudos to the few of you who actually have thrown your ideas in the ring!

[drumcat]

I'm not sure if I missed your earlier point on gas...are you saying that adding or reducing a tour by 2 weeks would not significantly affect the bottom line?

If we are thinking about less fuel saving money...how about the less amount of money spent on operating everything else, like buses, trucks, paying drivers, instructors, and food expenses. I would expect a significant savings with a reduced tour vs. a longer one when all variables are considered.

...and thank you for your time as Tour Director.

-GM

No problem.

It would not affect the bottom line as much as is being bandied about here. As a rule of thumb, the vehicles in an average full caravan get a mass total of about 1 mile per gallon. If you lob off 2000 miles, you reduce your gas consumption by ~$6000.

That number is not exact, but it is not far, either. The total amount of gas that a full-tour corps has to buy is definitely a bottom line factor, and when it goes up a dime a gallon, that's roughly $1250/summer, depending of course on your total. That's significant because you aren't getting more shows to make up for that. If prices go up a quarter a gallon, you have the money you make at one show disappear.

But when you talk about a tour, if you go fewer miles, you go to fewer shows. Shows tend to more than make up for gas and food, though it's not that much more. If you chop off miles on your tour, you also chop off paydays. Once you've decided to lap the lower 48, most of the costs of being national are sunk. What most people don't understand is that shows do indeed pay the corps. No show, no check. Most people are also under the misconception that once you reach that critical mass, you aren't saving any money by not venturing to shows.

There's a reason Florida and Canada are getting fewer shows. It's miles-per-show.

Your other points are indeed valid, but like I said, if you consider that you have to pay instructors for the season, no matter if they're in practice or at shows, then it's a 0 difference. At least I've not heard of any instructor being paid "by the show". Operating busses/trucks would in theory be reduced by lowering the miles, but not much. Again, most drivers are paid for the season, and if you're using a bus with your own drivers, you probably pay your drivers for the season. Will the busses and trucks have fewer repairs for only going 11k instead of 13k? Sure, but in reality the difference is very, very small. The biggest wear on busses is not using them for 9 months. If you charter busses from a company, then you're on by the day. If you can't afford your own busses as a corps, or choose not to own, then yes, I would imagine that you would be marginally better off by not using them as many days. But at the same time, does it make sense to come home? Is it better to drive 500 miles back to the corps hall, or stay on the road and minimize your miles? Often depends on the situation.

Food is another good point. It's $1000/day for food. You either feed your kids, or you have them pay. I guess that's more about ethics than anything else, but if you're on tour, the corps provides food. So sure, food is cheaper when you don't have to pay for it. A shorter tour would save you some food money, but you also short yourself a practice day or a show paycheck by doing it. At the least, you're making the kids pay, and if you're in all-days and run to Burger Stop, well, that's fine. $4 combo meal for the kids, paid by the kids. That's a variable cost, no doubt. But you also tell the parents that your tuition payment is going to cover a lot of that. It's not really a huge saving because if you have to drive just 150-200 miles out of your way to get the kids to buy food, you've spent the savings in fuel. If you drive just 100 miles, assuming you have a choice, you have to do the 100 back to where you were. That's 200 miles, and $600. Total savings to spend all that time on the bus, $400.

It all depends. But most of the time, it's better to be on the road when it's not a long trip. That's why many corps don't leave to join the travelling circus until it's near their base of operation. Once it is, it's time to take the ride.

[drumcat]

Interesting.

How many miles does the average corps travel in year, then? And how many more does a CA corps travel in a regular year (meaning not last year with Finals in CA)?

Anybody have a reasonably official guess?

Off the cuff, 12,500 miles. East coast corps tend to travel the least, but it isn't by very much. Cascades are regular long-haulers out of necessity. So was every Florida corps. Jubal is no slouch either. ;)

You might be surprised that Cali corps don't travel in miles much more than your Midwest and East corps. They have a lot of shows on the Left Coast. The ones that might surprise you are corps like BK and Troop. They regularly have to go at least 500 miles from home to get to 90% of their shows. Whereas Cali corps have 30-50% of their shows in California.

That's not to say that there is some big difference. There is a material difference, but it's not huge. Off the cuff, of course.