How Expensive is Drum Corps for You?

[INSIDETHEFORTY]

I'm still waiting for the part where any of this is DCI's fault.

Buy the fan network...get out some popcorn, some p-b & j and some of the red or purple stuff.

Semis is a lot of drum corps for $59 and you can invite as many people as you want. Also, you get video on demand and discounts on the audio downloads.

DCI can't be blamed for getting as much as they can for every seat in the house.

By the way...a semis and finals package with hotel for $449 was advertised yesterday.

Me...if I was going, I'd fly into Chicago on Wednesday and rent a car. Go to quarters on Thursday and fly home Friday or early Saturday. Wouldn't cost more than $500 total. But, the FN is still the best deal.

A semis and finals PACKAGE? I wonder where DCI got that idea? There may yet be hope!

Ron Gunn

[INSIDETHEFORTY]

Yes - let's look at the reality of the situation.

• Every single item that you listed (except tickets) has a price that is set by someone other than DCI.
  
• The one piece of your list that DCI does control you overstate for dramatic effect. You can buy tickets to Quarterfinals for $25, Semifinals for $25 and Finals for $35. Total cost for one person to attend all three nights = $85.
  
• There is no combination of tickets prices for the 3 nights that comes to the $300 you have listed.
  
• The most you will pay DCI for all 3 nights is $255 if you buy the highest priced ticket to each event - unless you are buying from scalpers. But, then again, DCI doesn't set scalper's prices either.
  

The costs that you have listed as $1,000 - $2,500 are really $915 - $2,245 outside of DCI control and $85 - $255 inside DCI control.

So - logic check here - how far would DCI have to lower their ticket prices to make the rest of the cost of the trip affordable?

Where were you when tickets first went on sale for 2009? The "Package" deal that DCI made available was for Open Class and World Class competitions. Price: $299.00 plus fees. If you wanted to get World Class tickets, you had to buy the Open Class tickets too! Until a certain date when World Class tickets became availabe on an individual night basis.

I challenge you to buy two tickets to DCI championships. Any show, at any price, and donate them to the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis!

Ron Gunn

[INSIDETHEFORTY]

I think expense is in the eye of the beholder. I have 3 boys, age 19 and twins age 15. They are rookies to DCI. I have spent many $$$ on camps, fees, supplies and other misc items just to get them in. I have spent many $$ so far to drive to 2 rainouts, I drove over 1200 miles last week to finally see them on the field! We have our tickets for Indy, for all three nights, although the guarantee of making semis is still not known. But the experience of seeing all three of my boys marching on the field is: PRICELESS!

PRICELESS, indeed!

I hope that your boys have the greatest summer of their lives! I know you are very pround of them!

Ron Gunn

[AlexL]

When you consider the fact that many people WILL sit outside the 20 yard line or even on the backside of the stadium if they can get cheap tickets, then it makes all the sense in the world.

However, who is going to pay $35.00 to sit in bad seats? No me, and cetainly not you! Those who are willing to sit outside the 20 yard line expect to pay a very modest price. THEY REFUSE TO PAY $35.00 EACH TO SIT IN BAD SEATS. $140.00 For general admission for a family of four is too high a price for most moderate/low income families.. $35.00 is too much to charge for those tickets. If DCI TRULY want to increase the number of people attnding Championships, they could reduce the GENERAL ADMISSION price to $25.00, make kids' tickets 1/2 price, and allow groups of 10 or more people to buy GENERAL ADMISSION tickets for $15.00 each. Those three things would boost attendance significantly AND increase the amount of money DCI makes over the long haul!

Ron Gunn

I dont know when the last finals you went to was. But Ive been to every finals since 2005. Every finals night has been packed.

People will pay to sit in those seats. the place is usually packed finals night. It might not be reasonable to you, but as proven by how packed finals has been, other people will buy.

You're proposing that dci offer these tickets, which people are WILLING to pay $35 for, for a lesser amount. What will that mean? DCI will take a hit. DCI isnt exactly loaded with cash. Drum corps as a whole suffers when DCI loses money.

Besides, we've already been over the price issue. Comparatively, DCI is NOT more expensive than many other major entertainment options. Yeah, things are more expensive than they used to be, but EVERYTHING is now.

So no thanks. Either go to a cheaper show (of which there are many) or pay to play at finals (or just go to quarters- you can get tickets for ultra cheap there if you want).

[dbc03]

Your $10 ticket in 1965, adjusted for inflation, would cost $67 in 2008.

So where is the problem again?

[Suviduvi]

FORGET FINALS..GO TO QUARTER FINALS, cheaper seats, and more corps

the best bang for the buck

Tickets are not the only costs involved in attending DCI Championships. Take a look at my list.

For the sake of discussion, assume a family of four living in UIndianapolis would like to attend DCI Championships. they have one child who is in a local marching band and he is in love with DCI corps! The family has an annual gross income of only $42,000 per year. (Please correct me, but I think that more than 20% of American families fall in the $30,000.00-$60,000.00 range.) How can this family afford to attend even one night of competition?

What is the lowest ticket price at DCI Championships World Class Finals? Multiply that by 4.

Just getting through the gates will cost that family at least $100.00! Then they are subjected to the "you are our prisoner" mentality of the stadium concessions. Stadiums will not allow outside food or drink in, therefore you have to spend money you can't afford to spend for bottled water, food, popcorn, sodas, and more. What's the damage for 4 people? $80.00 or more! But wait, the children want t-shirts and a few other items from thier favorites corps souvenir booth! There goes another $50.00 or more! Can a family of such meager means afford such extravagence? Only if they save for it for 2 months or more!

Even cutting out the amount a family has to spend to get to Indy, lodge the family for 1, 2 or more nights, enjoying other activities, and and get around town while there, the costs can be depressing for families who live day to day or paycheck to paycheck.

When I started in Drum corps, it was a Family-oriented activity. Families were encouraged to attend and given discounts at competitions. Kids were 1/2 price, or even FREE at some shows! Drum Corps was not run by people who had no compassion and only saw the "bottom line". It was run by men such as Don Warren, Jerry Seawright, Jim Jones, and more. Men who understood that in order for drum corps to FLOURISH, the masses had to be at the base of the triangle!

Let's look at it logically. If there are 100,000 drum corps fans who want to attend Championships, what percentage will actually attend in a particular year? 10%, 15%, 20%?

How does DCI increase attendance? By increasing ticket prices? I think not! Increasing ticket prices only makes Drum Corps less affordable to the masses, families with incomes under $100.000! The math is simple! If you want to increase attendance, you decrease the ticket price! Let's take, for instance, the lowest price at Finals, $35.00. Imagine if DCI reduced that price to $25.00. That way, a family of 4 could attend for $100.00.

What if they went farther? What if they made the adult price $25.00 and the price for kids under the age of 16 was reduced to 1/2 price? Then the family of 4 would only have to spend $75.00 to get in! They could then have 6 people, 2 adults and 4 children, (2 friends of the kid in band) attend for the same $100.00. By that simple move, the attendace at championships by families and children can be increased by more than 30%!!! But the best part is that they would be encouraged to attend not just once, but on multiple years! After all, Drum Corps Inrternational Championships would then be more affordable and more family-friendly! The percentage of families attending would increase, increasing overall attendance and actually INCREASING overall profits!

That way, more families can afford to attend! You then increase the percentage of drum corps fans who actually attend championships from 10% to 15% or from 15% to 20%. It could grow to the point where more than 20% of drum corps fans would be attending Championships in a given year! Just by offering a 1/2 price general addmission ticket for children under 16 years of age at DCI Finals!!

Being a guy who grew up "in the hood", I know a few things about supply and demand. When one wants to create demand, one must make the supply less expensive, more affordable, or easier to obtain. Also, when one wants to increase one's customer base, one simply gives out "free samples"! Drug dealers and rrug companies do it. They give free samples and trial samples to potential customers, knowing that they WILL get hooked and become regular, loyal, paying customers! That's how I got hooked on Drum Corps, my "drug" of choice!

One Saturday afternoon in July 1965, after working as a caddy at a local golf course, I walked toward home. My usual route took me past a stadium in Utica, NY. That afternoon, I heard and saw a lot of people with drums, flags, rifles, and horns. It sounded like a marching band playing in a parade. It sounded good to me, so I approached the stadium to see what was going on. After a few minutes of standing at the fence, wishing I could better see and hear what was going on, a man walking to the gate saw me. He watched me for a few minutes then asked me if I had ever seen a drum corps competition. I said, "A what?" "A Drum corps competition", he repeated. Then, unexpectedly, he reached into his pocket, took out a ticket, and handed it to me.

That man, by giving me a ticket, started me on a life filled with wonderful experiences, great people, and joys I have a yearning to share with others! A free ticket can be a gateway to a better life for a kid from the inner city, the country, or even another nation! Affordable tickets to DCI Finals can give families the gateway to experiences and opoortunities for their children few non-drum corps families are blessed with.

yours in Drum Corps,

Ron Gunn

[bandbuck]

Have some of you never heard of things like Hotwire? There are many ways to keep these trips cheap, and Indy's not a very expensive city to begin with. Also, maybe go to Thursday's show and skip Saturday's, if the price of tickets is a problem. You see way more corps on Thursday for way less money. Just my 2 cents....

[INSIDETHEFORTY]

Two more cents!

Someone asked when was the last Finals I attended. Anyone who knows me knows that I am almost always at DCI

Finals.

My DCI FINALs record is:

1972...Did not attend...the corps I was with did not compete at Whitewater, WI in 1972

1973...Marched in DCI Championships...Whitewater, WI...Blue Rock Drum and Bugle Corps, Wilmington, DE

1974......Ithaca, NY....Drum Corps Nut

1975......Philadelphia, PA

1976......Philadelphia, PA

1977......Dever, CO

1978......Denver, CO

1979......Birmingham, AL

1980......Birmingham, AL

1981......Did not attend...US Navy...On duty on board ship in the Med

1982......Montreal, CA

1983......Miami, FL

1984......Atlanta, GA

1985......Madsion, WI

1986......Madison, WI

1987......Madison, WI

1988......Kansas City, MO

1989......Kansas City, MO

1990......Buffalo, NY in spite of a auto accident and subsequent transportation issue

1991......Dallas, TX

1992......Madison, WI

1993......Jackson, MS

1994......Foxboro, MA

1995......Buffalo, NY

1996......Orlando, FL

1997......Orlando, FL

1998......Orlando, FL

1999......Madison, WI

2000......College Park, MD

2001......Buffalo, NY

2002......Madison, WI

2003......Orlando, FL

2004......Denver, CO Sat in the Press Box as a guest of a Friend of DCI

2005......Foxoro, MA

2006......Madison, WI

2007......Pasadena, CA....1/2 finals and Finals "INSIDE THE FORTY" yard lines in a Press Box Suite!

2008......Bloomington, IN

2009...If I am live and breathing, I will be at DCI Championships in Indianapolis, IN!

I always sit "INSIDE THE FORTY" yard lines!

Ron Gunn

[txorchdork013]

I would love to attend a championship, but alas it is way too expensive for my income. It takes alot of creative budgeting just to keep my daughter in corps from year to year and she marches open class.

Coming from a part of the country where just to march in a corps requires travel and housing. We drive up every summer so she can march. While here, we are lucky to share a one bedroom, one bath, 500 hundred scare foot apartment with family. During this time, I maintain our residence in Texas, i.e. all the normal bills like utilities, mortgage, ect. and put in the pot here, like groceries, more utilities, laundry (very expensive when you live in an apartment and have to wash drum corps practice clothes. It is like maintaining two households. Then there is the gas cost for the car and my car gets great mileage. My daughter mostly packs her lunches and dinners for rehearsals so we reduce the cost of meals. But with all this cost, going to see live shows is just to expensive since tickets usually run between $15 and $25.

An example of this is coming up this weekend. She has San Jose and Dublin. I will drive her there...cost of gas (in northern California it is over $3). Then on the way home, I have to feed her since she is always starving after a full day of competition.

I know the tickets for Dublin are $15 and I am pretty sure San Jose is about the same. If I attended both those shows, I would have already chalked out $30 just for tickets. Add two days of just dinner since we packed lunch, and we are talking cheap fast food (about $13 for both of us) and now we have $56 for the weekend. I am glad we don't have to cross any bridges this wekend since those are four bucks a pop up here.

Now if she has a couple of back to back local shows in a month, then you are looking at the equivalent of paying one utility bill. I am lucky if I I can afford to get in to see her at Stanford. I truly wish I could have seen her in Pasadena in 2007. So I try to plan it so that I can see her once a month at the show with the most corps performing to get the biggest bang for the buck. This weekend it will be in Dublin (since we commute, I will just hang out in San Jose 'til its over)since, correct me if I am wrong, I doubt Fan Network will broadcast these live (it is huge pet peeve of mine that DCI's Fan Network doesn't show off the Open Classes too since they are part of the family).

A summer of corps for us including cost of living, corps fees and miscellaneous comes out to about $3000. To travel to Indy, even with the hotel and flight discounts ect. from some of those internet sites is just beyond my fiscal reality and that would be for just one person. Even if I could afford the flight, I wouldn't be able to afford the ticket. I do have a cookie jar for seeing her at Championships her age out year in 2014....LOL.

Edited July 17, 2009 by txorchdork013

[anniem]

I've only been to the past few finals but I didn't see empty seats anywhere on the "front side" of any of those stadiums. Lowering the price wouldn't seem to help get more people in the seats at finals. They seem to be nearly full as it is. I've also never seen anyone tear tickets up as suggested happens. I bought the package last year to get the very best seats possible and when I couldn't go to 1/4s and 1/2s last year I gave those tickets away. While not exactly the same, I often see people leaving BOA semis giving away their finals tickets when their kid's band didn't make finals. I would think the same thing would happen at DCI if someone chose not to go.

As for getting local youth into shows, wouldn't it be more appropriate to approach DCI for help? Perhaps someone can suggest that if DCI still has tickets available the week before finals that they give away a small number to a local organization. Could DCI take a tax write off for their donation of tickets to charity? Surely there is already a blueprint of this sort of thing with professional sports. I understand the challenge to others to buy tickets to give away to those who can't afford tickets but I prefer to donate money to corps where I know there is a need.

Getting to finals and staying somewhere while at finals is costly (and not in DCI's control) so dropping the price of a ticket from say $35 to $10 isn't going to be an incentive to attend finals. The ticket price is a drop in the bucket compared to $200+ for airfare and $60+ for a hotel. That small savings on a ticket will not be the deciding factor of whether a family goes or not. The cost of getting there and staying there will determine attendance for most people.

Yesterday I decided last minute to go to the show in San Antonio and the only cost I looked at when deciding whether or not I could afford to go was airfare. I didn't check ticket prices or whether there are good seats still available. As long as I'm in the stadium I'll be happy. I pricelined my hotel so that wasn't as much of a factor either. Again, my point is that ticket price isn't a deciding factor.

As many others have suggested, finals doesn't seem to be the place to introduce newbies to drum corp. That would be like taking someone who has never seen a football game to go to the Super Bowl. Overkill. I'm not sure they'd understand enough about the activity to appreciate the difference between that and going to a small show. I traveled to Bristol this year and took two newbies who live nearby. They loved it. It only cost $20 for a decent seat and we could have gotten cheaper seats if we'd wanted.

An inexpensive way to introduce newbies to drum corp is to take them to a practice while a corp is staying in the area. All corps have their housing info posted on their websites. I plan to take two of my friends to see Crown while they stay at Avon during finals week. They have kids who could never/ would never sit still for a long day of finals but they can watch Crown practice and run around a little too when they grow tired of it. They don't have to worry about their kids fidgeting and bothering other people. They can bring their own food and drinks and can get up close and personal with the corp in a way not possible at a show. I'll find out when run throughs will likely happen and take them to see that part of the day. The "face peeling" sound that is so impressive happens even at practice without uniforms. It will give them a taste of the activity and if they want more they'll seek out more opportunities to see shows.

If someone can't afford to chase drum corps around the country all summer they can volunteer for a corp. I've met three middle aged people this summer who volunteer for corps on the kitchen wagon who have absolutely no affiliation with any corp. Didn't know one person in the corp. Never marched themselves. Just happened to discover the activity at local shows and practices and wanted to be around it. I heard about a guy who, when his wife asked what he wanted for his 50th birthday said, "I want you to let me go volunteer on my favorite corps kitchen wagon for a week." I also know of a college kid too poor to chase drum corp around on his own dime so he is also volunteering. For a week all of these people travel expense free, eat corp food, enjoy rehearsals and interacting with members and may even get into some shows without paying (I know when I was on the kitchen truck there were tickets given to the corp to get volunteers into shows).

My son ages out this year so I've traveled more than I thought possible financially because I've decided other things can give. I don't want to regret not going to shows. It will take longer to get the barn set up with electricity and I'm not getting a new kitchen sink anytime soon. I'm eating out less. No shopping for stuff I don't need. It's special to me to go so I've made it a priority. Thats the kind of people I also want sitting beside me at finals in a couple of weeks. Those that will truly appreciate being there.