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End of DCI Open Class


  

160 members have voted

  1. 1. When will Open Class no longer exist?

    • less than 3 years from now
      27
    • 3-5 years from now
      39
    • more than 5 years from now
      33
    • what are talking about...Open Class is growing!
      61


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ok Tom a question then:

do you make enough off of your show to justify the costs of doing even the Open Class tour? granted WC may throw you a bone or two for shows with them, but if you run one show for yourselves, yet have to go out most weekends and get nothing plus a two week tour...is that profitable?

Jeff, its a business any way you look at it. If the show does or does not make money...its my fault. The cost of judges, their transportation, stadiums, etc...are what they are. It is up to the sponsor to run a profitable show....not DCI. Who said drum corps is profitable? The business model of dc is not profitable. Everyone needs to stop searching someone to blame. We are not in this business to get rich. We are in this business to provide a service/experience to kids.

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That part I've seen first hand as Westshoremen had that agreement with Crossmen and Buccs during the standstill concert season years ago and understand the reasoning. It's not being paid for contests outside of the "you do mine for free and I'll do yours for free" that I don't see any sense.

What I'm reading is OC corps don't get paid at WC shows and either I misread or WTF????

OC corps get paid at WC events. :tongue:

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Thanks for the insight Tom, it's very interesting and informational. Best of luck this season!

Hey Richard...

We all love talking drum corps. I wish there was more of that on this site. We usually get a few trouble makers who do not contribute to our activity messing it up for others.

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Jeff, its a business any way you look at it. If the show does or does not make money...its my fault. The cost of judges, their transportation, stadiums, etc...are what they are. It is up to the sponsor to run a profitable show....not DCI. Who said drum corps is profitable? The business model of dc is not profitable. Everyone needs to stop searching someone to blame. We are not in this business to get rich. We are in this business to provide a service/experience to kids.

I'm not talking about making mad money. I'm talking about being enough to keep from carrying debt. the drum corps business model, if it means carrying a lot of debt, is, no offense, stupid business. Now, I know you guys fundraise, and thats tough for everyone right now, but to me, working a lot of gigs that bring in no income is bad business, even if you arent looking to load up on the profits.

and in turn, raises costs for the services offered to those kids.

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OC corps get paid at WC events. :tongue:

Thanks Tom.... Starting laughing when I read this as this is the first time someone has actually come out and said "YES they get paid". Seen plenty of arguments why or why not OC should get paid but no one had said IF they get paid.

In this case "Yes" is a good word to read....

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I'm not talking about making mad money. I'm talking about being enough to keep from carrying debt. the drum corps business model, if it means carrying a lot of debt, is, no offense, stupid business. Now, I know you guys fundraise, and thats tough for everyone right now, but to me, working a lot of gigs that bring in no income is bad business, even if you arent looking to load up on the profits.

and in turn, raises costs for the services offered to those kids.

Jeff, you talk as if the majority of Open Class corps operate in the red. I'd like to think that most of the OC directors out there are smart enough to do everything they can to avoid this. I think Tom proved that (at least in the case of the Raiders) with the information he's shared. A lot of what we talk about on here is "why don't OC corps do X so they're more financially stable". I'd like to think that the people running these corps have considered what we've discussed here and much more. If there were easy answers to the money issue that faces all OC drum corps, then we wouldn't even be having this discussion. I trust the directors to make smart decisions to keep their corps financially viable, and while this unfortunately isn't always the case, I doubt the slightly misguided directors are coming onto DCP, reading this thread and thinking, "ohhh yeah, debt is bad, whoops".

I'm not trying to say that this discussion is pointless even though it might come off like that, because after all, like Tom said, we all like talking about drum corps and we all want the same thing: the long-term stability of the Open Class division. I just like to give the current directors the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the way they're running their corps.

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Jeff, you talk as if the majority of Open Class corps operate in the red. I'd like to think that most of the OC directors out there are smart enough to do everything they can to avoid this. I think Tom proved that (at least in the case of the Raiders) with the information he's shared. A lot of what we talk about on here is "why don't OC corps do X so they're more financially stable". I'd like to think that the people running these corps have considered what we've discussed here and much more. If there were easy answers to the money issue that faces all OC drum corps, then we wouldn't even be having this discussion. I trust the directors to make smart decisions to keep their corps financially viable, and while this unfortunately isn't always the case, I doubt the slightly misguided directors are coming onto DCP, reading this thread and thinking, "ohhh yeah, debt is bad, whoops".

I'm not trying to say that this discussion is pointless even though it might come off like that, because after all, like Tom said, we all like talking about drum corps and we all want the same thing: the long-term stability of the Open Class division. I just like to give the current directors the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the way they're running their corps.

Thanks Richard...on behalf of the Open Class Directors!

If 1/2 the people who purchase and attend WC Finals bought tickets and attended local OC shows & OC Semis-Finals....I think the growth of OC would be amazing!

Edited by tnmaiello
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Thanks Richard...on behalf of the Open Class Directors!

If 1/2 the people who purchase and attend WC Finals bought tickets and attended local OC shows & OC Semis-Finals....I think the growth of OC would be amazing!

i agree with you there...i have faithfully attended OC stuff during finals week ( and had tockets for this year but cant go)

however...since the closest OC show is annually several hours away, i can not attend.

i dont think most operate in the red....now. there's so few left those left have to be doing something right.

but.....to perform that much for little income is still a bad decision. it's time OC stands up for itself and markets itself as just as good as WC. In fact in some years, it's been better and more enjoyable. 2002 OC finals still ranks in my top 10 all time shows attended, and i've attended many.

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