Lucas Oil Stadium Director Discusses 'Sound Ideas'

[Jeff Ream]

And your opinion would be quite incorrect. I joined this forum during the summer while on tour.

It's interesting how when someone disagrees, personal sniping becomes the norm. That's the main reason I don't bother with many online forums as this is too often the case.

I never said that the sound was perfect in LOS. I also listed several other stadiums that have pretty decent acoustics. Actually my favorite sound in a stadium was Harvard quite a few years ago.

My point is that to beat the sound issue to death is pointless since, again, it's a football stadium. It was built to be a football stadium. It will never be anything but a football stadium regardless of what happens inside. Colts fans can complain all they want as the stadium was built for that team. DCI is merely a guest, sure, a paying guest, but a guest nonetheless.

With all the issues facing drum corps these days, complaining about the sound in one football stadium is really a waste of time and energy. Why not spend that time and energy trying to improve the activity in general for the benefit of all?

you do realize there are enclosed football stadiums and open football stadiums right?

and you realize fans complain 99 to 1 against the enclosed ones right??

look at what stadiums get the overwhelming amount of complaints about.

the enclosed ones

[Jeff Ream]

The main reason numbers would be down would be the ongoing recession.

Location plays a very large part in attendance as well. Remember Jackson, MS?

Complaining about something that none of us has any chance of changing does no good either.

the recession works for 09. not so much for 2010. and if it weren't an issue, DCI wouldn't be going all out with the spin.

why? single tickets on sale now. betcha numbers are lower than this time last year

[perc2100]

I read both the article on the LOS stadium director and the snips from the article quoting the judges (does anybody have a link?). A few thoughts:

• First, as a PR/web communications guy, I gotta say DCI may have flubbed it with the article from the judges. The way it seems to be interpreted is that they're trotting the judges out to set things straight with the unwashed masses - see? this venue really is outstanding!
  
• But! It does sound like DCI really is aware that the acoustics issue at LOS is a problem and that they're trying to address it.
  

I read that article more as DCI judges confirming that a) the issues are manageable/acceptable and b) the acoustic qualities of LOS did not in any way affect scoring/ranking. DCI has seemingly had zero problems in the past 12+ months addressing the acoustic issues of holding DCI in an indoor arena, and have constantly been trying to brainstorm practical ways to better the situation.

I agree that it is very easy to become confused with the way DCI has published their stories in the past few months (story 1 = we're doing our best to address acoustic concerns of fans, story 2 = judges think acoustics are fine so maybe the problems not that bad, story 3 = we're still doing our best to address acoustic concerns).

I appreciate that DCI is doing their best to come up with a solution that that is best for all involved, and I hope they can work things out for the 2010 Championships.

[perc2100]

People closely associated with BOA and ISSMA act as though it was pre-ordained by God that their finals be held in Lucas Oil. Of course, since their finals are held in November, LOS is the best stadium for the job. However, some of the people trying deflect criticism of LOS as a venue have carried over this "pre-ordained" sensibility to drum corps, and claim that it's drum corps itself that needs to change, and not the venue - as though we were locked into the stadium for eternity (which is quite possibly the plan) rather than for a decade. That kind of thinking is completely backwards.

Anyways, people who have devoted years of their lives and significant chunks of their fortune to drum corps have the right to complain if the culmination of the drum corps season isn't to their liking. Telling them "just don't go" is as ridiculous as that "America: Love it or leave it" argument. Yes, we're stuck with Lucas Oil for a while, but that's no reason to be complacent, and no reason to ignore the problem, or to pretend that there's nothing that can be done. The impact on ticket sales will most likely not be as great as some are predicting. The cheap seats will be as packed as ever with band students, friends and family of the members, and recent vets. But good luck filling all those $125 seats, because the people who buy those tickets are the ones you're telling to "just don't go".

On the other hand, it is absolutely stupid for designers to NOT design for the most important competition of the season.

When I was in high school, Green Day was just a club band. I first saw them as an opening band to a GREAT punk band, then saw them a few times the same year headlining a large club tour (they toured in a Bookmobile). Then, at the end of the summer, they played the MTV Video Music Awards, and then I saw them play their first big outdoor venue: they went from playing 2,500 seat clubs to 25,000 seat venues. Now, if they were to approach their sound set up the same for the 25,000 seat places as their 2,500 seat clubs, the fans in the cheap seats would be livid at not being able to hear them well. Of course, they had a march larger sound set up to accommodate the change of venue, and everything went fine (even paid $5, snuck up to the front pit area, and they sang happy birthday to me).

My point? Of course DCI designers will design their shows for LOS: they would be irresponsible not to.

[perc2100]

Obviously, every football field is not the same. Most have fine acoustics for drum corps. DCI managed to pick a truly wretched one for finals over a 10-year lease. To their credit, they have acknowledged the problem and are hopefully looking for solutions. I know it's crazy of some of us to hope that it will involve more than adding more curtains or having the judges say how wonderful everything is while at the same time going out of their way to talk about how LOS officials are completely aware of how wretched it is acoustically and the measures they're talking to remedy it...which involves more curtains and special tweaking of a mountain of amps to compensate the problems.

I would say that MAYBE half of the venues the years I marched drum corps were adequate for shows. So often shows were in small or mid-sized high school stadiums, an occasional baseball field, fields with dirt instead of grass, stadiums where the front of the field was not parallel to the stands (I'm looking at you Cooper Stadium, Columbus OH), etc. Heck, the holiest of holy stadiums, Allentown, is not a great stadium IMO.

Do those stadiums look better compared to LOS? Perhaps (and I know most of the people not happy with LOS will say that all outdoor stadiums are better). I also agree that unfortunately we'll need to look at the LOS Championships with different degrees of acceptance: it has been mentioned by most that LOS is better than most other indoor venues on the DCI tour, and that the city of Indy was a better host than a lot of other cities. Is that ideal? Probably not for most. Is that (different levels of tolerance vs. complete satisfaction) enough for people to drop money on attending finals? We'll see.

But it seems like DCI/LOS are probably doing all they realistically can to make the environment the best it can be for Championships. Make no mistake that short of a HUGE catastrophe (and your personal dislike of the situation doesn't count), LOS and DCI will be partners for the duration of their contract. Judging from what I've heard from a few insiders, and the way DCI has approached things, the financial incentives are too beneficial for DCI to pass up. At least DCI is doing their best to address the problem, and not sitting behind closed doors telling DCI fans to suck it easy

[perc2100]

the recession works for 09. not so much for 2010. and if it weren't an issue, DCI wouldn't be going all out with the spin.

why? single tickets on sale now. betcha numbers are lower than this time last year

Ha; do you think the recession is over?! I know that's a public perception, but things are really only MARGINALLY better this year than last from an economic standpoint. I think things like DCI will be hit harder in the following year than last year, as they will a) be the last things to recover and b) not as high on the priority list as other expendable income type things.

I will be interested to see if we're talking about a slight drop or a sharp one as far as attendance.

[Lance]

I would say that MAYBE half of the venues the years I marched drum corps were adequate for shows. So often shows were in small or mid-sized high school stadiums, an occasional baseball field, fields with dirt instead of grass, stadiums where the front of the field was not parallel to the stands (I'm looking at you Cooper Stadium, Columbus OH), etc. Heck, the holiest of holy stadiums, Allentown, is not a great stadium IMO.

Do those stadiums look better compared to LOS? Perhaps (and I know most of the people not happy with LOS will say that all outdoor stadiums are better). I also agree that unfortunately we'll need to look at the LOS Championships with different degrees of acceptance: it has been mentioned by most that LOS is better than most other indoor venues on the DCI tour, and that the city of Indy was a better host than a lot of other cities. Is that ideal? Probably not for most. Is that (different levels of tolerance vs. complete satisfaction) enough for people to drop money on attending finals? We'll see.

But it seems like DCI/LOS are probably doing all they realistically can to make the environment the best it can be for Championships. Make no mistake that short of a HUGE catastrophe (and your personal dislike of the situation doesn't count), LOS and DCI will be partners for the duration of their contract. Judging from what I've heard from a few insiders, and the way DCI has approached things, the financial incentives are too beneficial for DCI to pass up. At least DCI is doing their best to address the problem, and not sitting behind closed doors telling DCI fans to suck it easy

Most of us would take them over any indoor venue and especially over a terrible indoor venue like LOS.

Also, your personal take of the situation "counts" just as much as anybody else's. Make no mistake about that. It's fine that you think that people are singling out LOS irrationally when half the other venues in DCI are just as bad. You're entitled to that opinion. But your opinion is no more "correct" than those who disagree with you.

I agree that we're probably stuck with LOS. We'll see how that goes. I hope DCI really tries to fix the problems they have openly acknowledged.

[perc2100]

Most of us would take them over any indoor venue and especially over a terrible indoor venue like LOS.

Also, your personal take of the situation "counts" just as much as anybody else's. Make no mistake about that. It's fine that you think that people are singling out LOS irrationally when half the other venues in DCI are just as bad. You're entitled to that opinion. But your opinion is no more "correct" than those who disagree with you.

That's true, and I marched over a decade ago and the tour might be greatly different venue wise now. I just think that most of us remember the great stadiums of the summer (Madison, for example), and forget many of the tiny, mediocre high school or baseball fields we performed on. Personally I'm THRILLED that I never had to perform indoors (I think my age-out year was the first year of an indoor regional, but that was back when most of the regionals would be half the corps in, say, San Antonio and the other half in Indy, and we were at the outdoor place).

What I meant by personal opinion counting, is that DCI is not going to break their contract (I bet that's a pretty expensive proposition at this point) short of, say, a DCI BoD's revolt, the stadium burning down or coming under gross disrepair, etc: otherwise, it's going to reman in Indy, fan outrage or not.

[Lance]

The frequency of press releases regarding LOS and sound from DCI is pretty high.

There's obviously a problem. We'll see how DCI actually deals with it outside the realm of PR.

I am hopeful.

[Jeff Ream]

Ha; do you think the recession is over?! I know that's a public perception, but things are really only MARGINALLY better this year than last from an economic standpoint. I think things like DCI will be hit harder in the following year than last year, as they will a) be the last things to recover and b) not as high on the priority list as other expendable income type things.

I will be interested to see if we're talking about a slight drop or a sharp one as far as attendance.

no the recession isn't over.....but it is getting better. I would imagine it would keep the same people away this year that didn't go last year. But I bet the bad PR about the place will be a bigger reason why attendance drops if it does.

look at it this way:

08 promised the place didnt deliver. many people mad.

09 finally in the place, lots of people mad.

seeing how we havent even seen the 08 attendance numbers, and with rumors of anywhere from 12-15k paying customers last summer, I'd say they are doing all they can to boost sales now, because 10k or below will not only be embarrassing, it will also seriously hurt the pocketbooks.

and if they decide in 2011 to jack up regional prices to compensate, it will really #### some people off