Kamarag Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 All of those corps died out because of two things. 1) While the folks running those corps were good drum corps people, they were not good business people. If you cannot run a viable business, it dies. 2) Fewer interested kids, due to the massive propagation of other engaging activities. Many years ago, the local corps might have been the only game in town, quite literally. I'd wager that #1 above was responsible for 75% of the corps that folded in the last 40 years. This is one reason DCI has established such a rigorous evaluation process for perspective World Class Corps. Just ask Jersey Surf and Teal Sound. I wish DCI would require every existing corps to go through the same process. DCi itself, new equipment, rule changes, and the like were not responsible for the folding of one single corps. Not one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I agree. i do feel touring didnt help in some cases, but most of the expensive toys really came into play the last few years...after an overwhelming majority were already gone. I just wish the oversight had been put into place about 20 years earlier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I agree. i do feel touring didnt help in some cases, but most of the expensive toys really came into play the last few years...after an overwhelming majority were already gone.I just wish the oversight had been put into place about 20 years earlier True, but I bet most of the corps that ended up folding never would have made it through the evaluation anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 All of those corps died out because of two things.1) While the folks running those corps were good drum corps people, they were not good business people. If you cannot run a viable business, it dies. 2) Fewer interested kids, due to the massive propagation of other engaging activities. Many years ago, the local corps might have been the only game in town, quite literally. 3) Rising costs of things, even beyond regular inflation. I remember gas prices about tripling in teh 70s was a huge blast against corps budgets. 4) Corps in smaller local areas has few options in fund raising, you can do only so many things before people get sick of seeing you. Also if the home area takes a big hit in jobs the fundraising possiblities go down as people have less money and people in the community move out. Also corps members leave the corps because of jobs or move out of the area all together. Note: My knowledege is more about local 70s Senior drum corps that died out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearlsnaredrummer77 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 3) Rising costs of things, even beyond regular inflation. I remember gas prices about tripling in teh 70s was a huge blast against corps budgets.4) Corps in smaller local areas has few options in fund raising, you can do only so many things before people get sick of seeing you. Also if the home area takes a big hit in jobs the fundraising possiblities go down as people have less money and people in the community move out. Also corps members leave the corps because of jobs or move out of the area all together. Note: My knowledege is more about local 70s Senior drum corps that died out. It's oversimplification to just blame DCI for the hundreds of dead corps. That's not what I'm doing-coming from the rust belt, I can tell you that deindustrialization hit a lot of communities hard. However, DCI policies didn't do much to slow or help the process. National touring models, and the adoption of much more expensive and in some case superfluous instrumentation added costs and difficulties. Instead of publicizing the activity as one friendly to all, a lot of kids seem to regard DCI for music majors. Just look at the ages-if you look through the historical pic thread, alot of the marchers were YOUNG!. I beleive that demographic is the one that has been decimated through the propagadna policies, etc. Now a lot of fans hate the synths: DCI should get rid of them-the acitivity doesn't NEED them. Some folks will not patronize because of it. I doubt anyone will not go to a drum corps show because they are parking the Korg Triton or Fender Strat for the evening! The folks that like synths and rock bands integrated into marching music always have BOA to patronage. Lucas Oil statidum-if a sizable portion of the DCI paying fans hate the stadium-bail on it!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 No, they did not die under DCI's "oversight". They died out because of many economic and social changes, but DCI was in no way responsible for the hundreds of little corps that could not survive.That's like saying MLB is responsible if a town's Little League teams fail. ....only if the Little League teams played in MLB games. Sorry, Mike, but the local/regional/national levels of drum corps competition had some overlap. As a result, DCI's policies/decisions affected all the corps participating in DCI events (which the majority of corps did at various times), and even some who didn't. Some local/regional circuits adopted DCI rules at the urging of corps that also did DCI shows....thus, those rules now applied to corps that didn't participate in any DCI events. Now of course, "DCI" did not purposefully slaughter each of these departed corps one by one. But to say they had no effect on the activity's attrition is not accurate either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Also, start targeting recruiting people 15-18 again. Take a look at the folks in the historical pics thread: A lot of us were very young, but still got the job done!!!! Not sure if you are aware, but DCI targets the 15-18 demographic more than ever before. There are behind-the-scenes efforts going on all over the place to stage clinics for HS band kids, and to bring these kids to DCI shows by the busload. Many of these kids catch the drum corps bug in this manner, and go on to march....but they often wait until their college years for at least two reasons: 1. The way school schedules typically are, college students run into fewer conflicts with drum corps than high-school kids would. 2. Many HS kids are already experiencing a competitive marching activity while in HS (i.e. marching band), but not while in college. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearlsnaredrummer77 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Not sure if you are aware, but DCI targets the 15-18 demographic more than ever before. There are behind-the-scenes efforts going on all over the place to stage clinics for HS band kids, and to bring these kids to DCI shows by the busload. Many of these kids catch the drum corps bug in this manner, and go on to march....but they often wait until their college years for at least two reasons:1. The way school schedules typically are, college students run into fewer conflicts with drum corps than high-school kids would. 2. Many HS kids are already experiencing a competitive marching activity while in HS (i.e. marching band), but not while in college. As long as the marching major league model remains in place the trend will continue to be a downward spiral. Too little too late? I don't know..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 True, but I bet most of the corps that ended up folding never would have made it through the evaluation anyway. and...a few did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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