Dale Bari Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Or switch the alumni show to the afternoon so the Class A corps who go on to the evening event have some time to rest. Gordie, I don't know if DCA can pull off three shows on Sunday. IIRC, Tom P. (or temporary replacements) said in the past that the Alumni show had to end by a certain time so that Finals could be started at a decent enough time for it to end. I'm not sure that DCA could shoe-horn another show into that space. If you push the start time back earlier, then you're beginning to cut into time for the fans to turn around from Prelims to A Finals. That wouldn't guarantee good attendance at the A Finals. It's all a question of logistics and balance, so a workable solution can be found, I think. Class A deserves more Finalists. Yes, these are all thorny questions, but they are of the good kind. [Other corps circuits (that shall remain nameless) have had to deal with the opposite problems for their smaller corps.] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_7 Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Technically there's already an out for more Class A finalists. All they have to do is beat an Open Class corps. And with 16(3 finalists) to 12(10 finalists), the odds are pretty good(of beating an Open Class corps, not really for making finals). Technically if they do that there's something about be forced to compete in Open Class? So I guess they wouldn't be a Class A finalist after all. Wasn't the finalist slots different than they are now as early as 2004? 1 (or 2) + 12-ish. Not that I'd want to see 7 Class A and 6 Open Class finalists given the current ratios. But depending on whatever formula is used to make the determination, I see that as a possiblity. If only in theory through the mentioned loophole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpsBuff Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Here's my question, would you rather win Class A or place 10th in Open Class Finals? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOSMarcher Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Here's my question, would you rather win Class A or place 10th in Open Class Finals? Good questions. I think I would rather win Class A. Years down the road when people are looking at past results they won't see the corps numbers next to the results... or what class they are technically. Instead, they will see that they are corps that placed 10th and 9 other Open Class corps beat them; as opposed to 1st in Class A, and being the best corps out of 16 in their class. So, yeah... definitely would prefer to win Class A. It is much cooler to say at Open House or put on the website, "Home of the 20_ _ Class A Champion." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajlisko Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 (edited) Gordie,I don't know if DCA can pull off three shows on Sunday. IIRC, Tom P. (or temporary replacements) said in the past that the Alumni show had to end by a certain time so that Finals could be started at a decent enough time for it to end. I'm not sure that DCA could shoe-horn another show into that space. If you push the start time back earlier, then you're beginning to cut into time for the fans to turn around from Prelims to A Finals. That wouldn't guarantee good attendance at the A Finals. It's all a question of logistics and balance, so a workable solution can be found, I think. Class A deserves more Finalists. Yes, these are all thorny questions, but they are of the good kind. [Other corps circuits (that shall remain nameless) have had to deal with the opposite problems for their smaller corps.] With the number of Class A corps now competing in prelims greater than the number of Open corps, it may be time to adjust the number of finalists in each category to six each ... DCA has got to pay attention to where the growth in the activity is ... maybe the day of the 10 or 12 Open finalists is over ... another possibility is to start the agenda earlier in the week (Thursday) or finish later (Monday) with some of the activities ... :-) Edited May 20, 2008 by ajlisko Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mayer Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Good questions. I think I would rather win Class A. Years down the road when people are looking at past results they won't see the corps numbers next to the results... or what class they are technically. Instead, they will see that they are corps that placed 10th and 9 other Open Class corps beat them; as opposed to 1st in Class A, and being the best corps out of 16 in their class.So, yeah... definitely would prefer to win Class A. It is much cooler to say at Open House or put on the website, "Home of the 20_ _ Class A Champion." It's been funny the last couple of years when people ask how you did, and you are standing by someone from MBI. The dude from MBI says 4th or 5th and the Govies get to say we took 1st or 2nd. And the funny thing is most people don't care what class you are in, they just hear 1st or 2nd and assume we beat MBI. just kind of funny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpsBuff Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 I guess that's why i never understood the whole "If you place high enough to make open class, then you compete in open class rather than class A." Doesn't seem like much incentive to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Matczak Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 I guess that's why i never understood the whole "If you place high enough to make open class, then you compete in open class rather than class A." Doesn't seem like much incentive to me. well,.............it is if you want to be a voting member of DCA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Windish Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 The growth of all-age drum corps is certainly exciting. Let's all hope it continues! If interest DOES continue, DCA will have to address fitting everything into one, 3 day weekend. I can tell you, DCA has a VERY full weekend right now. There is little chance for any rain adjustments, etc. Consider a year when, say, 35-40 competitive corps participate. How early can Prelims begin? I'm thinking there is room for about 7-8 more corps, under the current program. Should the above number NOT work, I'm guessing DCA will either need to discontinue the alumni event (NOT GOOD), run the alumni event concurrent with Prelims at another location, or conduct a stand-alone Class A elimination tournament several weeks earlier with the top 5-6 groups continuing on to Labor Day Weekend. Given the nature of DCA's participants, I doubt using a Thursday to enlarge the weekend is a realistic option. Such a problem to have! Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayre Kulp Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 Remember, to make the jump from Class A to Open Class at Finals, you need to crack a Top 10 spot. If there are 16 Open Class corps at prelims and you beat six of them, you're still going to Class A Finals, not open Class. The incentive to do so, is voting rights and additional share points. Even though it would be neat to see, I don't forsee that situation happening any time soon. Maybe if there were only 10 Open Class corps and the ones at the bottom were small & weak. But as we know, that's not generally the case these days. A corps that just misses open class finals nowadays would have probably placed in the Top 6 just a decade or two ago. And personally, if my choices were Class A Champ or 10th place open, I choose 10th in Open. But since the more realistic choice is Class A champ or 15th in Open, then I'd obviously go for the trophy. But times may change. Who knows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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