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Forget Woodwinds – Beware of WGI


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2 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

fans vote with their wallet. attendance continues to show growth

Yes, but again, and this should be obvious: neither you nor I can say with absolute confidence that this is the best of all possible scenarios. Are the directors completely satisfied with the way things are now? Or will there be proposals in January to make things different in some way? Who knows? Ten years ago, when this resurrected thread was launched, there was a good deal of speculation (or fear) on these forums that DCI's leaders thought that the way to sell more tickets was to add woodwinds.

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6 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

fans vote with their wallet. attendance continues to show growth

A question about growing attendance.

I presume this is based on DCi events like their regional championships and finals.

Is it possible to get attendance figures for local shows ?

My wife and I attend a few shows every year ,including the Easts.

Speaking empirically,except for the Easts, there do seem to be more empty seats

each season.

Some of that can be attributed to the "quality" of the corps at a particular show, and,of course, the weather.

But,we haven't seen any real growth in attendance.

This year  several people at the Easts were commenting about the number of

empty seats on Saturday night.

Just my $0.02

 

 

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54 minutes ago, rpbobcat said:

A question about growing attendance.

I presume this is based on DCi events like their regional championships and finals.

Is it possible to get attendance figures for local shows ?

My wife and I attend a few shows every year ,including the Easts.

Speaking empirically,except for the Easts, there do seem to be more empty seats

each season.

Some of that can be attributed to the "quality" of the corps at a particular show, and,of course, the weather.

But,we haven't seen any real growth in attendance.

This year  several people at the Easts were commenting about the number of

empty seats on Saturday night.

Just my $0.02

Here is how that works.  Every year, DCI compiles data on show attendance, and analyzes the numbers in all sorts of ways.  Then they cherry-pick anything positive that can be said about it (upward trends, records broken, etc.), and issue a press release listing just those items.  Downward trends, record lows, and other negative news are not included.  If there is no good news to report, then there is no press release.  This has been an annual tradition ever since there was such a thing as DCI.org.

Since DCI only releases the positive portion of the data, an impression is created that attendance is always rising.

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6 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Yes, but again, and this should be obvious: neither you nor I can say with absolute confidence that this is the best of all possible scenarios. Are the directors completely satisfied with the way things are now? Or will there be proposals in January to make things different in some way? Who knows? Ten years ago, when this resurrected thread was launched, there was a good deal of speculation (or fear) on these forums that DCI's leaders thought that the way to sell more tickets was to add woodwinds.

I doubt anyone thinks woodwinds will sell more tickets.  But they will be added for other reasons.

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On 8/18/2009 at 12:08 PM, fifer said:

Yet another thread just opened regarding the fear of DCI adding woodwinds. But it seems to me that the more immediate concern should be over drum corps being significantly affected by a move away from show designs that focus on music and movement and toward shows designed around the color guard and WGI-type themes.

You need only look as far as Blue Devils 2009 for an example of this as a trend that show designers are taking and, more significantly, that judges are rewarding. And with judges rewarding this design style, it won’t be long before many other corps follow suit and, as a result, change the face of drum corps forever.

And if finals remain in Lucan Oil Stadium (with its crappy sight lines and disturbing echo), corps will have even more reason to play/march less and act, pose, do gynmastics, move chairs, etc. more.

So while everyone is so worried about woodwinds, drum corps is changing significantly right under our noses and few seem to be saying or doing anything about it.

WGI has been ruining Drum Corps for years and it's not likely to stop. Pretty soon all corps members will be wearing ballet shoes. 

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58 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

Here is how that works.  Every year, DCI compiles data on show attendance, and analyzes the numbers in all sorts of ways.  Then they cherry-pick anything positive that can be said about it (upward trends, records broken, etc.), and issue a press release listing just those items.  Downward trends, record lows, and other negative news are not included.  If there is no good news to report, then there is no press release.  This has been an annual tradition ever since there was such a thing as DCI.org.

Since DCI only releases the positive portion of the data, an impression is created that attendance is always rising.

I'm in investments and money as my profession, not marketing.  And, in my business, "fair and balanced" is the dictate on any public communications.  Things like "We did good, but that doesn't mean we'll do good in the future" kind of statements.

Seems unrealistic to expect DCI to put out something like "Hey, attendance went down, but how about those Blue _______!".

 

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12 hours ago, drpepper said:

I have to respectfully disagree with this.  I think it's become like it is because the judges are rewarding it. If the judges didn't reward a show where the hornline plays less than four minutes, then designers wouldn't design those shows. 

The activity will go wherever it goes, but I'm having a hard time remembering many shows in recent years where the audience was on its feet after the opening hit like Crown's Rach Star show, or ones where the standing ovation starts with 30 seconds left in the show. Bluecoats this year was the first time I can remember seeing that in a while.  I feel like most standing ovations today are out of politeness.

I'm sure this is not a new idea but I would like to see an effect judge involved whose back is to the field and they simply judge how apes**t the crowd goes.  If corps were rewarded for effect based on that I think you'd have a lot more entertainment value.  Have all the props you want, but get rewarded based on doing something cool with them rather than just them being there.

 

The fans continue to come. 

I would not want fan appreciation to be a point category. That gives an unfair advantage to whichever corps is closest and has the biggest following for that show. It would also encourage everyone to sit on their hand when their favorite show isn't playing. I would like to see shows written for the crowds instead of the judges, but I don't see any way to do that unless you go into the season realizing that you're going to be shooting for a 10-12 placement.

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WGI influence has changed DCI no doubt about it. 

Someone posted above that DCI was just a spectacle to pay homage to the America Flag. That is a sad statement. No one on this thread has said it needs to go back to having a standard-bearers or flag-bearers. That was a really long time ago.

No one is being disrespectful from what I have read on this thread with respect to having opinions against the upcoming or perceived direction of DCI. 

I have reduced my actual interest in DCI over the years, I assume I might end up further from it with each and every change. I'm not sure what would make me stop supporting DCI but some changes keep pushing me to the edge. 

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If we go back to the end of the 80's - look at the amount of shows and corps - compare that to now does it tell us anything about the Drum Corps activity? 

It will not be long until the number of corps is down to about 40 , oh wait. ummm err. 

Drum corps Canada might not be around ,,,, ummmm errrrrrr

 

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22 minutes ago, garfield said:

I'm in investments and money as my profession, not marketing.  And, in my business, "fair and balanced" is the dictate on any public communications.  Things like "We did good, but that doesn't mean we'll do good in the future" kind of statements.

Seems unrealistic to expect DCI to put out something like "Hey, attendance went down, but how about those Blue _______!".

True.  But DCI is an unusual case.  BITD, the drum corps press (yes, there were actual newspapers like Drum Corps News, or Drum Corps World back before they went vanilla) would call out press releases that were exclusively rainbows and unicorns, and delve deeper with interviews and additional fact-finding.  Now, those endeavors are relegated to Internet forums.

By the way, was there ever a press release for 2018 attendance boasts?

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