Dan Acheson should be fired

[dmfootworks]

Two points:

1) The OP is angry and I empathize with him. He feels he was ripped off and that his time was wasted. He is distressed about witnessing the demise of something that is very dear to him. If he is misguided about Acheson and his role, that is one thing. But he does have a right to be angry and I feel his pain.

2) For all of you that state that DCI is blameless because LOS is at fault for not having the stadium done on tme: THIS IS THE FAULT OF DCI AS WELL!!! Why would anyone sign a long-term contact for something at an intangible venue??? Not only could there be no genuine assurance that the stadium would be done on time, but how could a governing body possibly locate their premier event at a facility that could not first be sampled???

DCI's fault. Perhaps heads should role, even if Acheson isn't the one. But I know they won't.

[cowtown]

Cowtown is a paying customer.

Make that "was".

And that's a shame.

If my father heard from ANYONE that the food at his restaurant was a disappointment, he would chase that customer through the door to the parking lot and beg for another chance to make things right. "Please", he would say, "I know you chose us from all the other places you could have gone, and we let you down. Please, come back in and let's talk for a second. I can't let you leave disappointed."

And the customer usually gave him that chance because most people are dying for someone just to stop and say "I care about you".

I always told my dad, "people don't just come here for the food, they come here because you make every last one of them feel special".

See, there's no such thing as a throwaway customer. The customer that writes a letter? That customer cares the MOST. Cares enough to be angry. Cares enough to be honest. Cares enough about the place to want it to be better. That's my kind of customer.

I'm going to invite Cowtown to dca. If he wants to go to Finals, I'll sport the ticket....so long has he stays honest and keeps caring as much as he does.

Give dca a try. I'll go out on a limb and say "you'll have a World Class experience" and if dca misses his expectations for quality, value and entertainment, he can be sure that the 'brass' will hear him and take note. DCA built its circuit, its sheets, its atmosphere on entertaining the customer.

Cowtown, you can come to my party any time. I got the ticket. You can bring some chips or something.

thanks

I agree with that and I do want to check out DCA but I'd be happy to do it on my dime, I like supporty things I deem worthy. I'll see if I can swing the time this year but if not, book it for next

[Jeff Ream]

look....my last post til later, the real world calls..

i dont think you'll get much disagreement Lucas Oil Dome bombed in many ways.

is it worth someone's job? no, especially since the guy you want canned DOES WHAT THE BOD TELLS HIM TO DO.

(had to capitilize that so maybe you'd get it after the 20th time it's been said)

now.....will DCI hear the complaints?

you bet they are. I emailed my concerns over my next years order Sunday. already got a reply...yeah vague, but in 2 days i didnt expect them to have all the answers yet. they did however say every complaint...even complaints on DCP...would be looked at, a list made, and work on next year to begin.

ok, somethings may get fixed. some...the sound especially...may still suck.

but i have hope they'll work on it.

if it sucks further....bet they'll work on plan b. if enough fans stay home after this year and next year they still have issues, yeah they'll be looking at a ton of options.

but Dan doesnt deserve to be fired. he did what he was hired to do....the BOD's bidding.

shame you dont enough abut the real business world to see that

[flam control]

After the colossal failure of DCI last year with their late date venue switch and the lack of area hotels to support the move to the deliberating misleading expectation that roof at Lucas Oil Can would be open when in fact, DCI planned to and did close it for the entire tenure of their event. I've had enough. During Quarterfinals I experienced something I had never experienced at a Drum Corps show, I regretted being there. The sound was so bad that I asked myself, ‘what am I doing here, this is more annoying than entertaining’. Yep, they ruined the shows for me, that’s pretty unfair to the kids on the field. So enough.

I feel that someone should be held accountable and I’m looking to their leader. Finals week is a huge part of the DCI budget and frankly, they blew it the past 2 years, big time. I don’t think DCI can afford many more failed finals week yet those are now my current expectations from DCI’s management. This activity may be for the kids but it is supported and sustained by the fans and this fan feels abused, lied to and ripped off. So when is the event going to be broadcast on national TV, oh yeah, just another reason to change DCI's leadership, toss them all out.

Its time for some accountability for these massive business failures

Uhhhh...I'm pretty sure that DCI is still here today because of the great work that Dan Acheson does. I'm sure it's not an easy job. Even more thankless now....due to armchair quarterbacks like yourself taking cheap pot shots like this.

[cowtown]

Don't know if I've ever seen DCP explode quite like this!

Glad I tuned in.

you must have missed my blue devils thread last year

I'm a lightening rod but not in a trollish sense, I see myself as mr everyman, part of the greek chorus that will speak their mind

I have to get back to this later as I'm due for a second fitting of a new suit -Never keep a tailor waiting

[wishbonecav]

thanks

I agree with that and I do want to check out DCA but I'd be happy to do it on my dime, I like supporty things I deem worthy. I'll see if I can swing the time this year but if not, book it for next

Done!

[MisterA]

I agree with the original poster that something needs to be done. I don't think firing Acheson is the answer. There were many problems with finals week, the sound in the stadium being the biggest. And many people were upset over that, as we were led to believe the only reason the roof would be closed would be weather.

It would have been nice on finals week, if Dan had taken the field at some time during the week, and made an announcement about the arrangements. He could have said due to the following reasons, we have decided to have the roof closed during finals week. How difficult would that have been? We paid alot of money for our tickets, travel arrangements, hotels and food for the week. I honestly think we deserve a little better than that.

Dan could easily do interviews for DCI, Drumcorpsplanet, and Fannetwork explaining the situation, and what is to be expected for the upcoming years, as far as the stadium situation goes. I think we honestly deserve that much. He may not be responsible for any of the decisions from DCI, but he is the face, along with the rest of the staff there, of DCI. Failing to acknowledge the problem won't make it go away, but talking about it could help bring up more reasonable solutions.

[DCIHasBeen]

It seems that the OP wants to see someone pilloried for the sake of laying blame at the feet of an individual, rather than the organization as a whole.

That solves nothing.

What I would like to see is an acknowledgement, on dci.org, of the poor audience experience at this year's championships, and reasons for it, along with a proposed plan to mitigate the issues.

I have a problem with the silence from DCI, and would much prefer them taking the initiative in saying, "this is why people had a bad experience, and this is what we're doing so it won't happen again next year."

Bottom line, unless there is a very public acknowledgment of the issues and answers, DCI is going to have huge issues getting "Friends" renewals and generating upfront ticket sales, which is not good for the activity as a whole.

Edited August 11, 2009 by DCIHasBeen

[Liam]

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda (just kinda) agree with cow.

Not so much that Mr. Acheson is to blame, but I do think that DCI as a whole has been on a bit of a bad streak, management-decisions-wise.

Maybe no single decision was entirely their fault, but when you look at totally of things that go against you, you have to thinking that there needs to be a change in management. This kind of thing happens all the time in business -- when a series of decisions go bad (even when some of it is "out of your control"), changes get made.

Now, I'm not necessarily agreeing that Mr. Acheson should be fired -- I don't know enough about how the DCI BOD structure works. But I do think that there have been enough issues to warrant a shake-up and some new-blood, as they say.

to wit:

2008 Finals -- sure, not their fault -- but could have been avoided by not cutting the deal knowing that construction was going to be completed so close at best -- would one more year out West or somewhere else have been so bad.

2009 Finals -- stuff everywhere on DCP about this -- with a whole year to prepare after 2008 and knowing that everyone was going to judge them based on the 10-year contract knowledge equals major letdown.

Marketing -- BIG announcement 2 years ago in Atlanta about new partnership with high-falutin' marketing firm to expand DCI's image -- then ... nothing. No explanation as to what happened with the partnership and no further attempts along these lines. Just not handled well

TV -- this has been discussed to death, but the end result is that this was a priority on the DCI strategic plan list and now is nowhere. Maybe that turned out to be the best decision, but lots of execs have lost jobs in the business world for less when the strategic plan is altered such. I do like cow's quote "thought it was wrong to bail on the art crowd in favor of the sports crowd" -- that may ultimately be the path decison that did the most damage.

Notice, I've said nothing about on-field stuff as that is mostly a matter of taste.

So, hyperbole and anger aside, I do think that DCI has some management failures that are in danger of sending the organization down a tougher path, esp in this economy. It's not for me to say if someone should be fired or not, but lots of execs in business have been fired for less (whether or not "in their control") and I do think that DCI should consider re-organizing a bit to seperate and boosting the business/marketing side aside from the on-field/creative side, JMHO.

[Matt_S]

See, there's no such thing as a throwaway customer. The customer that writes a letter? That customer cares the MOST. Cares enough to be angry. Cares enough to be honest. Cares enough about the place to want it to be better. That's my kind of customer.

I've worked in customer service. Sometimes the angry customer is just a bitter person.