DCI Finals in Bloomington

[Galen]

Hell, we host an Ohio State football game every other year, so we'll be fine.

And half the city of Columbus to boot

[Galen]

Ok, I'm going to address this point by point and clear this up once and for all.

Plan B should have been THE PLAN.

It WAS the plan. DCI said in their initial announcement when they announced finals for Indy that they HAD IU booked as a backup plan if it turned out that the stadium wouldn't be ready in advance.

If there is ANY possibility that the venue FOR YOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS may not be available, then you DO NOT plan it's use AT ALL

For the record, Lucas Oil Stadium has been under construction for about 2 years, and only recently has it turned out that it's a bit behind schedule.

You can still order tickets to the championships AT LUCAS STADIUM as I write this! Not acceptable.

News flash- it's April 7th. Finals aren't for another 4 months. Take a chill pill and relax- they'll get it fixed on their website soon enough.

[Galen]

I think it would be a super-swell idea for DCI to create a special "zone" at IU for all of the people with an over-inflated sense of entitlement.

No freakin' kidding. I've got just the place- out in the middle of one of the quarries out by Bloomington North, so they won't bug the rest of us with their constant WHINING.

[EndzoneEric]

I agree with most of this.

I cringe every time I call the DCI office. When calling I usually get responses like "I think" or "I Don't know" and then silence. Not.....we don't have that information but please check dci.org or give me your email address and we will let you know. For the prices they are charging......they should be a lot more on the ball. And the stadium being ready in time.....yeah.....they should never have tried to push for something that was this aggressive. Now they have thousands of paying customers confused about tickets and where their seats are.....which is the Holy Grail for most fans attending a drum corps show.

Of course, if one week's time had worked out in the other direction, they would have been heroes... to most... except for those who will find any reason to blast them.

[EndzoneEric]

It will give DCI another excuse as to why attendance at championships is down this year.

That's the spirit!

[Liam]

Of course, if one week's time had worked out in the other direction, they would have been heroes... to most... except for those who will find any reason to blast them.

True enough -- look, DCI said from the beginning that 2008 was contingent on construction being done. And they publicized the Bloomington option all along. If construction had finished, then nobody would have cared or even noticed if it was within one day of target or one week or one month. DCI would have had their marquee event and everyone would have been happy. It's definitely a good thing that we know now in April that the switch is being made rather than thinking that everything is on time and then having something go wrong in mid-July that throws off the schedule. At least now, it's done and there is a few months to plan accordingly. I sure the event will be up to DCI's standards and in the end, we'll all be entertained and looking forward to Indy in 2009.

My ONLY point is that it was a missed opportunity for DCI to be out in front of this from a communications standpoint. Not whining, just offering a business perspective that more than once I've seen DCI fall short on this front and here was another opportunity to improve their customer service that was missed. They are rightly upset that they learned of this from a third-party news source. Hopefully, they will take that to heart and do their best to make sure their paying customers don't suffer the same fate. That's all

[CorpsLife]

This is not the end of the world.

In 2000, the College Park venue was actually the third option for that year. Things worked out OK.

Fran

OK for you, I had to age out there after being in corps for 12 years. I would have rather been in Kansas City, Buffalo, Dallas, Jackson Mississippi, Madison, Denver, Orlando, Meadowlands, J Birney Crumb, Manning Bowl, That little stadium in Stillwater MN.........

OK JK, well maybe not about Madison. I would have loved to age out in Madison.

[notelvis]

It's more the story, and the hype that has been "finals in indy".

I'm not impressed by IU's stadium, but granted, I'm pretty bummed about it. I'll take a look at it when I'm less bummed.

DCI did a regional at Bloomington in 1989......maybe a few other times too.....and I thought it was a great stadium for seeing drum corps. No, it won't have the modern amenities of a brand new stadium BUT it will be a place where the fans can get a great look at the corps and where the corps can soak up the fan reaction.

Plus, Bloomington is an hour closer to my house driving. I might have to shoot up and catch the show.........at least semifinals.

[Phillygwm]

They may work out a shuttle bus operation between Indy and Bloomington, or not, or if they do, it may not be free. Higher priced rooms in Indy + paid shuttle option may make staying in Indy more expensive than a Bloomington room with a rental car, and much less convenient, time-wise. It takes about an hour to drive between Indy and Bloomington. If you have to make that drive by shuttle, it may use up 90 minutes or more each way, plus, you'll have to travel on their schedule, not yours.

Shuttles might seem like a good solution but I'm not sure of the practicality of it all. Let's assume that 20K people attend and 5000 of those people remain in Indy. That's 100+ buses from venues which are, presumably, not limited to the vicinity of the stadium. And if I'm a fan, would I really want an hour commute each way? I've booked the Hilton Garden Inn in B'ton but if everything sells out, better to rent a car and be in Podunk, 30 miles away, than to stay in Indy which is 50-ish miles. Probably cheaper, too.

It would also be nice if whatever authority negotiated this deal with DCI picked up the cost of any shuttles or other contingencies that might be necessary so they might be provided free of charge. And even nicer if DCI reimburses those of us who bought the club seats, but I won't put a lot of hope on either scenario occurring.

I'll agree with everyone else: the situation sucks, particularly the lack of formal notification to DCI, but it's not as though this wasn't an entirely foreseen possibility. Thus, DON'T expect DCI to offer fans an "opt-out" from their tix. We're going to Bloomington. It may not be quite as nice as Lucas Oil Stadium, but (barring rain) it will hardly be a disaster. I expect that it will beat the Citrus Bowl, Orange Bowl, Jackson, and possibly Boston.

Edited April 7, 2008 by Phillygwm

[rdorocke]

As I recall, the airport runway in Bloomington wasn't big enough for commercial jets ... Has this changed in the last 10 years or so, or do you still have to drive to Bloomington from Indy?

Yes, Bloomington is large enough for commercial jets. I've taken off and landed there on a 727. Unfortunately, we no longer have commercial service to Bloomington - its just short enough to drive up to the Indy airport (less than an hour drive) for the airlines to make any money flying into Bloomington.