Who's competing in DCA prelims

[JimF-LowBari]

Interesting that things are beginning to sound like they did in the 70s when I marched. Of course the big difference was the smaller corps had their own circuit and lot of them never went to DCA Prelims as they didn't have a snowballs chance in Hades of getting into Finals. Back then there was no Class A so everyone went head to head. Would be interesting to see how many different corps attended DCA and RCA/ICA in a given year. Guess I'll check Rons site at lunch and start counting.

Sad news is I guessing next years numbers will go down due to diesel costs. Hoping these corps stick around even if they don't come out Labor Day weekend.

[JohnZ]

I think it is a little different travel mindset in DCA v DCI, and I believe the fuel will have very little if any impact on finals, Jim.

Finals is the last gig the corps will likely sacrifice - most will adjust their travel habits in other ways, like set up more regional shows instead of travel long distances, minimize the number of bus trips by encouraging car pooling to shows that will allow it.

Of course the fuel costs will impact the south/midwest/west area folks more than the NE who have more opportunity to adjust accordingly - NOT A SLAM, just pragmatism.

I'd be more concerned about the traveling fan base - you might see a downtick in fan attendance.

[JimF-LowBari]

Understand John and should have been more specific. I was thinking of the non-NE corps who may be operating on kind of a show string budget as they build up what is needed for the corps. When Westshore reformed in 1974 we were in that situation and the biggest decision is deciding on gigs was what we were paid vs what it cost to do the gig. For the newer non-NE corps I can picture that a trip to DCA may be scrapped, or held off until "next year" because it just takes a too big if a bite out of the budget. Reasoning might be, "Let's not go this year so we'll be in better (financial) shape next season".

And follow up to my earlier post on number of different corps. Checked srcorps RCA results. First column is year, 2nd is number of corps at DCA Prelims, 3rd number of corps at RCA that were not at DCA Prelims, 4th is total.

1969 15 7 22

1970 15 8 23

1971 17 8 25

1972 15 12 27

1973 19 7 26

1974 15 9 24

1975 19 10 29

1976 17 3 20

1977 10 4 24

1978 15 3 18

IMO, the important part is corps being able to stick around and hope we do better in the 00s than what I see in the 70s.

Edited May 20, 2008 by JimF-3rdBari

[Jeff Ream]

Jim,

how many of those years had corps at both?

[JimF-LowBari]

Jim,

how many of those years had corps at both?

All of 'em. Left the paper work at my other desk but think it was between 3-6 corps each year. Usually Guelph Royalaires and Erie Thunderbirds hit both. Corps that hit both only once or so include Rochester Phoenix, Westshoremen, Hanover Lancers, Johnsonburg Diplomats, Dunkirk Patriots and Pittsburgh Rockets.

Saddest part is all of 'em no longer compete but over half have some sort of Alumni organization if not an Alumni corps.

Edit: Should have had number of corps at RCA Champs. Minimum was about 7 at the end and max was 13 or 15 in 1975. Hades, they even had a Prelims show.

Edited May 20, 2008 by JimF-3rdBari

[Canuck DCGroupie]

Bear in mind that some of that "growth" is former open class corps declaring Class A. For whatever reason, year off from DCA, regional economics, or whatever applies.

Frontier Was new to open class, but have declared Class A this year.

Carolina Gold was Open Class and is returning to DCA as a Class A corps.

MCL was Class A in 2005, and Open Class AFAIK now.

And somehow Sunrisers and Crusaders come to mind for some reason. Did I miss the memo, Sunrisers seem to be missing from the list. Skyliners too, but I think I got that memo.

You mentioned Crusaders. How are they doing? Hope they make it to Open Class.

[CorpsBuff]

Sun are MIA this year. See here. I'm really bummed, but hopeful that Sun will return as strong as ever.

Robert

The turnover of success of Class A corps is remarkable. It seems that the winner from one year does not make class A finals the next year. The constants over the past few years has been the Govenaires and the CorpsVets.

2000 Generations - Out of DCA by 2001

2001 Corpsvets - 11th in open class 2002, top ten since then.

2002 Skyliners - 12th in open in 2003, Out of DCA since 2006

2003 Heatwave - 4th in 2004, out of DCA by 2007

2004 Grennies - 11th in Open Class in 2005, out of DCA in 2006 (back now!)

2005 Chops Inc - 4th in 2006, 18th last year

2006 Govenaires - 2nd last year

2007 Sunrisers - Out of DCA in 2008

Edited May 20, 2008 by CorpsBuff

[BOSMarcher]

i think the powers that be need to realize from here on out, if we're going to have 10 or more in A, the number of finalists needs to be bumped up

Yeah, but I think the A Class corps enjoy playing in front of a large audience. Maybe there could be the Class A Finals in the morning, and then the top three could compete as Open Class corps in evening on Sunday.

[Canuck DCGroupie]

Yeah, but I think the A Class corps enjoy playing in front of a large audience. Maybe there could be the Class A Finals in the morning, and then the top three could compete as Open Class corps in evening on Sunday.

I think thats a great idea but probably should be in the afternoon. Isn't the alumni event Sunday morning at 10:00am? You would probably get a lot of the alumni crowd to stay and pick up some of the crowd coming in for finals which start at 5:30pm. I for one would end up hanging around all day and only have to move to which ever seat I have reserved for the respective show.

This would also be a bonus for people who are coming from out of town like myself. We would get to see more shows.

Excellent idea!

[Canuck DCGroupie]

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.