sydstranda Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Expensive drum corps beats no drum corps at all. That's exactly what I was trying to say, except it took me three paragraphs to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
INSIDETHEFORTY Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) I see your list, but a lot of those things arent things under DCI's control.I'm going to focus on tickets as you kept going into it with the local family example. Look at other forms of entertainment. Football- I'm a season ticket holder. I pay about $60\game. And this is just my ticket price. Not even counting the 'donations' that have to go in to get better seats. Thats just to get you in the door. You get about 3 hours of entertainment, or $20\hr. Movie- 10 bucks for a 2 hour movie. $5\hr. Drum Corps- tickets start at $25 for quarters. You get about 7 hours of drum corps iirc. Thats about $3.50\hr. As far as entertainment\hour goes, drum corps is actually very cost effective. It does suck that its become about the bottom line, but drum corps and show organizers (which are often not affiliated with the corps or dci) have their own people coming to them for money who dont go easy on them either. There was someone on here in a thread a week ago that has run a show for several years, i wish i could find it, that talked about the difficulties of running a show. Many shows have a struggle just to break even, by the time they pay the corps, pay for the stadium, and the myriad of other expenses they may incur. The corps have similar demands, paying the bus company, paying for fuel while prices shoot up, paying staff their pittance, and paying for their equipment and equipment maintenance. If corps and show organizers dont take care of their budgetary needs, we have no more shows and no more drum corps. Expensive drum corps beats no drum corps at all. People, you are missing the point. Putting more butts in the seats will solve the $$$$ problems that DCI has! How do you get more $$$$? Make the product more affordable and easier to obtain! What does Macy's do to attract new customers? They have a sale! What does Disney do to get new people to come to Disney World, they have a SALE! How did Walmart become such a GIANT? AFFORDABLE PRICES! Minimize costs and maximize affordability! Reduce the price of the FAMILY PACKAGE! Make kid's tickets 1/2 price! Make it more affordable for FAMILIES and they will come! Increase the number of customers now and in the future! Look to the Future of Drum Corps! Grow and flourish by making Drum Corps a grass-roots FAMILY activity again!!! Raising prices only restricts the affordability of a product. When a product become less affordable, the products's customer base shrinks! When the customer base shrinks, the overall revenue decreases! Basic economics, people! Look at the numbers of people attending DCI Championships over the life of DCI. Is it increasing? Why not? What can be done to cause the numbers of people attending DCI championships to increase? What REALLY works? yours in Drum corps, Ron Gunn Edited July 8, 2009 by INSIDETHEFORTY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
INSIDETHEFORTY Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) When you look at the Wal-Mart model, it makes sense. Wal-Mart took average items, went to their suppliers with a brilliant plan for growth and expansion, and got their suppliers to back off on the prices they charged Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart was then able to offer their products to the consumer at reduced prices. The consumer soon became loyal Wal-Mart customers! What attracted those new customers in the first place? Low, low prices! DCI: Make it affordable, and they will come! Give away a few tickets here and there and those who receive them will become DRUM CORPS ADDICTS! You want people to become DRUM CORPS ADDICTS! What to the big drug companies do? They give away FREE SAMPLES to people so that they will try thier products and get hooked on them! Street drug dealers do the same thing! They GIVE AWAY their product to people who have never used it. The people who like it come back to them for more and they are willing to pay for it! The give the non-junkies a FREE blow, and make them JUNKIES! They then get the junkies to bring their family, friends, etc. The family and friends become JUNKIES too! If Street drug-dealers can be that smart, why not DCI? What is a Drum corps Nut? A person who is ADDICTED to Drum Corps! The difference is that the Drum Corps addiction is good for you! Drum corps is adicting for many people. All it needs is exposure! Let's make more Drum Corps Junkies! Yours in Drum Corps, Ron Gunn By the way, my daughter and grand-daughter attended thier first drum corps show in Rome, NY last season. My Grand-daughter wants to go to DCI East with me this year! She loves Color Guard! If I could afford it, I would bring 2 or 3 kids from my neighborhood to DCI East with me! They would be blown away! We could even get one or two of them to join a local Drum corps! Edited July 8, 2009 by INSIDETHEFORTY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasspa Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I'm looking at $2850 in flighs, accomidation and tickets... then theres meals, transport and spending money ontop of all that jaz. Probably the last time I go too... I'm 22 so $2850 is hard to save!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
INSIDETHEFORTY Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 I'm looking at $2850 in flighs, accomidation and tickets... then theres meals, transport and spending money ontop of all that jaz. Probably the last time I go too... I'm 22 so $2850 is hard to save!! I feel your pain! I cring at the thought of how much i spend to attend DCI competitions! Have you seen my Schedule? I will post it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasspa Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I feel your pain! I cring at the thought of how much i spend to attend DCI competitions! Have you seen my Schedule? I will post it here. haha I would love to see it!! I'll only get to see the 3 shows over finals weekend :( I wish I could see more!!! But time and money is not on my side this year!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinwiz Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 1. If Finals is that big of a deal to you, then it's a Major Vacation. Treat it as such. You have all year to save up for it and plan a system that is within your means. 2. If things get tight, then you can pay approx $40. Quarterfinals theater broadcast, Semifinals internet. I expect a Finals PPV within the next five years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84skyrydr Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I have been blessed and money isn't keeping me away. I just don't like finals. I go to open quarters and world quarters. We are staying at a KOA 50 minutes away from the stadium. I save what would have been my ticket to the finals and buy the dvds of all the corps at the end of the year. I say, get in touch with some corps and volunteer some of the week leading up to finals and sleep there at their housing for free. There are a million ways to make a show affordable ona ny budget. Colts show was the first sell out ever and they didn't lower prices. Everything is going up and there won't be many empty seats come finals night, so lowering prices woon't help DCI for that show, but maybe for the quarters were there are half the fans, get some discount going for the cheap seats. Open quarters are general admission, I would gladly have paid more to ensure better seats, but whatever. I am still going. I do like the buy a ticket for someone else idea though. Anyone willing to take that one on. Ideas?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horizon Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Well whatever I'm spending this year, it's definitely going to be significantly less than the $2200 I paid last year. Then again, I was at almost 30 shows last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwscv87 Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 People, you are missing the point. Putting more butts in the seats will solve the $$$$ problems that DCI has!How do you get more $$$$? Make the product more affordable and easier to obtain! What does Macy's do to attract new customers? They have a sale! What does Disney do to get new people to come to Disney World, they have a SALE! How did Walmart become such a GIANT? AFFORDABLE PRICES! Minimize costs and maximize affordability! Reduce the price of the FAMILY PACKAGE! Make kid's tickets 1/2 price! Make it more affordable for FAMILIES and they will come! Increase the number of customers now and in the future! Look to the Future of Drum Corps! Grow and flourish by making Drum Corps a grass-roots FAMILY activity again!!! Raising prices only restricts the affordability of a product. When a product become less affordable, the products's customer base shrinks! When the customer base shrinks, the overall revenue decreases! Basic economics, people! Look at the numbers of people attending DCI Championships over the life of DCI. Is it increasing? Why not? What can be done to cause the numbers of people attending DCI championships to increase? What REALLY works? yours in Drum corps, Ron Gunn The Wal-Mart model does not make sense in the case of DCI Championships. The supply is limited to the number of seats on the concert side of the stadium. I've gone to nats 4 of the past 5 years and am going again this year. Each year the concert side was nearly packed. How much would they have to lower prices to fill those last seats? Lowering prices to fill them may not be a net gain. It is not the slam dunk you imply. All of the things you mentioned you did to keep the costs of attendance down are interesting (many of us have done the same in our younger days), but they are not relevant to the average fan. Very few of the cost drivers you mentioned are under the control of DCI. I think tickets are fairly priced and given that DCI needs to maximize its earnings from the few major events it has I am happy to pay it. I don't think making live attendance at nats accessible to someone a family earning $42K annually is a reasonable goal. The one poor choice they have made, IMO, is to choose a city that is not accessible via direct flights from many destinations. I can't get to Indy directly from Seattle, so that drives my travel costs. I am still going but several of my DCI buddies are not going as a result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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