jonnyboy Posted October 21, 2007 Share Posted October 21, 2007 ......A quick and dirty estimate...25 staff averaged about $25K a year (full time and part time) = $625K Travel for staff: $500K Hotels: $500K Adminstrative Facilities (rent mortgage, et al) $250K a year Adminstrative Staff: $300K Practice facilities: $300K Storage: $200K Transportation: (No idea here so help me anyone?) $250K a year or maybe just the leasing costs of tour? Food: $100K Uniforms and Equipement: ($250K) That's $3.3M. Wow. And the average corps charges what? $1000 for tour ($135K?) Some challenges there... Anyone care to comment? Practice Wow, I would think a smaller corps (not top 6 let's say) would have a budget that is a FRACTION of that. I think many corps operate with staff staying at corps homes in the areas, rides to the airport by friends, working out of a small office (not a corps hall), practicing at local schools, volunteer (or underpaid) staff. Uniform and equipment cost is spread over a few years (or more hopefully). I think the biggest costs would be spring training, renting or owning buses, providing facilities on tour and buying/maintaining euquipment. My gut tells me that a great Open Class corps can be run for a few hundred thousand, a World Class corps for under a million, and a giant behemouth that likes to buy the best staff that money can buy can be run for just around a million. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted October 21, 2007 Author Share Posted October 21, 2007 Great topic. Should be explored more though I suspect these private NPs are not interested in opening their books to show how they mangae their cash. Still, they are similar to Symphomy orchestras in that they need a business developer to raise the cash they need since their revenue production falls short of their expenditure need. I wish DCI would hold clinics and provide technical guidance to all corps on this subject. I have no idea what it costs but I suspect a corps needs about $2-4million annually to operate? Anyone know? A quick and dirty estimate... 25 staff averaged about $25K a year (full time and part time) = $625K Travel for staff: $500K Hotels: $500K Adminstrative Facilities (rent mortgage, et al) $250K a year Adminstrative Staff: $300K Practice facilities: $300K Storage: $200K Transportation: (No idea here so help me anyone?) $250K a year or maybe just the leasing costs of tour? Food: $100K Uniforms and Equipement: ($250K) That's $3.3M. Wow. And the average corps charges what? $1000 for tour ($135K?) Some challenges there... Anyone care to comment? Practice I think the costs above are somewhat unrealistic. You have 1.525M for staff alone...artistic, administration and travel for staff. I can easily bring this number in at around $150K. You can store equipment easily without having a corps hall. The key is having a relationship with the community/schools for use of facilities. I could comment on other numbers...for instance, figure $1K a day for 65 days for food. I believe the number for an average DCI World Class corps would be somewhere between $1M - 1.3M annually with capital costs ammortized over 5 years on top of that. Let's throw a number of $1.5M annually. If they get 300 to audition, it's $150K Corps member tour and camp fees $225K Appearance fees $300K Looks like the average World Class corps needs to raise about $800K to $1M annually. When you are trying to raise that kind of money from a local community, it helps to have strong bonds built and a good amount of local membership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelloPrano Posted October 21, 2007 Share Posted October 21, 2007 11-13. This is where it gets tough...Madison, Regiment and Troopers have large alumni bases, but have had recent financial issues. I guess with the diversification and addition of new programs, I give the nod for 11th to Regiment. New winter drums and guard and workshops developed recently. They most likely carry the most current debt of the three though. Give Jeff Spanos some credit for the Scouts. He cut back the spending huge amounts as the new exec director. I think he cut back spending to one third of what it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted October 22, 2007 Author Share Posted October 22, 2007 Give Jeff Spanos some credit for the Scouts. He cut back the spending huge amounts as the new exec director. I think he cut back spending to one third of what it was. I believe Madison will have to prove they can manage themselves over the long haul. So far, this decade has not been kind to them. First, they took on a struggling Southwind program and incurred expense during that time. Then they had to jetison both Southwind and Capital Sound so the Scouts could survive. And then the past two years have been an interesting financial roller coaster. Spanos survived this year and those are Jeff's words and not mine. They can move up if they can get back in the black financially and continue to energize their alumni base. I'm also surprised the Bucks, Brewers and/or Packers aren't already boasting a "Madison-esque" drum line already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iplaytimpani Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 At phantom audition for the 06 season they announced in the first camp that the operating budget for the season was going to be....One Million Dollars!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted October 22, 2007 Author Share Posted October 22, 2007 At phantom audition for the 06 season they announced in the first camp that the operating budget for the season was going to be....One Million Dollars!! and that wasn't the first time it ever topped $1M either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSNewell Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 At phantom audition for the 06 season they announced in the first camp that the operating budget for the season was going to be....One Million Dollars!! That's the budget for the organization as a whole, not just the drum corps. Remember that number includes a lot of other things besides staff, travel, housing, food, transportation, insurance, etc. for the drum corps. There also is a winter guard, two drum corps shows, a marching band show, 3 DM/snare camps, endorsements being accounted for, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willyc Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 Great topic. Should be explored more though I suspect these private NPs are not interested in opening their books to show how they mangae their cash. Still, they are similar to Symphomy orchestras in that they need a business developer to raise the cash they need since their revenue production falls short of their expenditure need. I wish DCI would hold clinics and provide technical guidance to all corps on this subject. I have no idea what it costs but I suspect a corps needs about $2-4million annually to operate? Anyone know? A quick and dirty estimate... 25 staff averaged about $25K a year (full time and part time) = $625K Travel for staff: $500K Hotels: $500K Adminstrative Facilities (rent mortgage, et al) $250K a year Adminstrative Staff: $300K Practice facilities: $300K Storage: $200K Transportation: (No idea here so help me anyone?) $250K a year or maybe just the leasing costs of tour? Food: $100K Uniforms and Equipement: ($250K) That's $3.3M. Wow. And the average corps charges what? $1000 for tour ($135K?) Some challenges there... Anyone care to comment? Practice MOST corps out there would think they had died and gone to heaven with an annual revenue stream of WELL less than half of that. If you had an organization with those type of resources on a annual basis, it would only be a few years before people would be saying Cadets, who? Cavaliers, who?, Phantom, who? etc. since they would dominate the drum corps world.................the best money can buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 In a way, it's a shame that it has to be so difficult to run a drum corps that we're having this conversation... Part of the problem back "in the day" was that many wonderful well-meaning people who ran corps did NOT have the business side of things under control...part of why so many corps failed over the years (pre-DCI as well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted October 22, 2007 Author Share Posted October 22, 2007 Part of the problem back "in the day" was that many wonderful well-meaning people who ran corps did NOT have the business side of things under control...part of why so many corps failed over the years (pre-DCI as well). Yeah, it almost requires a "Youth Arts Organization" type structure. You need several performing and educational ensembles both local and national in nature. A partnership with local schools and/or community organizations is a must. Bottom line, if a new corps wants to start tomorrow and doesn't take into consideration that a drum corps should be part of an overall community based youth arts program, their chances of being DOA within five years are dramatically increased. But, many corps leaders ONLY want to do drum corps. To them the rest is just noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.