The World Series of Drum Corps

[garfield]

I still wonder if they asked for the stars with the original proposal knowing they might end up with the moon, so to speak.

More like they asked for the stars and intended to make good on their threat. If they're prepared to go it alone, the whole presentation could have been conciliatory to say they "gave DCI the chance..."

[Jeff Ream]

ok my attempt to break out the numbers projected:

for San Antoniuo on 6/18

attendance budget: 2000

gross income $70,000

Stadium rental $8,000

Housing $10,000

event personnel $4000

adjudication $7,000

Direct Marketing $10,000

Other direct $1,000

Direct Expense $40,000

Gross proift $30,000

overhead $10,000

net to corps: $20,000

distribution ( per corps I'd assume) $2,857....a whole whopping what...$200 more than they get know?

that is just the first show. as the night goes on i'll try to get more up

Edited August 10, 2010 by Jeff Ream

[audiodb]

OK, seriously now....

The participants of the World Series of Drum Corps feel today that it is important to design and implement the series independently of the encumbrances of other organizations

As opposed to how they felt yesterday, when they said this:

"The G7 are interested in affecting change from within the DCI organization. We have respect for our history, for our product, and in most cases our corps have invested 25 or more years to assure the health and survival of the organization." (G7 PowerPoint power grab, p. 14)

Qualifications of Corps for Inclusion

Although the initial 7 corps (Blue Devils, Santa Clara Vanguard, Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment, Bluecoats, Cadets, Carolina Crown) will participate in this initiative based on a proven record of consistent performance and organizational excellence in recent years, a system was devised to allow additional corps to qualify for inclusion by performing at top 7 or better DCI position over a period of two consecutive years. Corps could also be disqualified from participation if those performance standards dropped below those levels over a three consecutive year period. Essentially, the system is designed to build these events exclusively around the very top levels of performer, performance and design.

This raises a number of questions....let's start with two big ones:

1. By what formula was "consistent performance and organizational excellence in recent years" evaluated to determine which corps had this alleged "proven record"?

2. If organizational excellence is as important as performance on the field, why will future changes in the "World Series" lineup be determined by competitive placement only?

The Future

The presenting corps of The World Series of Drum Corps – Blue Devils, Cadets, Cavaliers, Carolina Crown, Santa Clara Vanguard, Phantom Regiment and Bluecoats – continue to plan for the Series for the 2011 season. We are planning the Series as an independent subset of the drum corps community.

Independent? It follows the DCI tour like a stalker just before the temporary restraining order is obtained.

It is our hope that we can cooperate with Drum Corps International <line garbled>

I think this line was garbled intentionally.

Marketing capabilities

A review of the 7 organizations access to the universe of marching music enthusiasts is remarkable. In the aggregate, we have over 155,000 facebook friends, more than double that of DCI.

What is this, a campaign for 8th-grade class president? We have more Facebook friends, so vote for us?

So many reactions, so little time.

1. For starters, conflating the Facebook friend count of seven different orgs to compare against one is not a valid comparison. Who knows how many of the same people are counted multiple times for friending more than one of the G7 corps.

2. I can't wait for the usual DCP posters to remind us about how online polls cannot be extrapolated to say anything about a wider population.

3. I just can't believe that seven grownups could all be this fragile, vain and envious. It isn't just this item, either....I omitted some of the other infantile attempts to conflate past experience in preceding paragraphs. This piece, like the PowerPoint power grab, was probably written by one or two people.

It is fair to say that, when aggregated, this confederation of organizations has unprecedented access to the target market.

You forgot to define your target market. Oops.

Leveraging our Unique Capabilities

We have been highly successful in Merchandising, both traditional and online, as well as in developing new products and product lines for sale to our fans, students and music educators. The vast majority – estimated to be far in excess of 60% - of all drum corps souvenir merchandise sold in the US, and a considerable portion of such merchandise sold Internationally is created and sold by these 7 organizations.

What is "far in excess of 60%"? (I know...shorthand for "we really have no idea how much".)

Our ranks also include a comprehensive ticketing and fulfillment service, as well as organizations with experience and expertise in managing large scale events, adjudication systems, customer service, music education advocacy, development, finance and logistics. Although the supporting organization are of different sizes, each of the 7 organizations brings a different and valuable set of skills and capabilities to the table.

Why are parts of this piece written as if intended for an outside audience?

This paragraph is not the first one that sounds like it is intended to impress some prospective partner. If the G7 World Series of Drum Corps is so capable (bear in mind that these seven corps typically run over a dozen DCI shows each season), and they are only proposing running 9 shows carefully positioned to parallel the DCI tour and draw on proven drum corps markets, they will not need any outside partners. And they should not want any outside partners siphoning off shares of their precious profit.

If, however, they really want to partner with someone, might I suggest the following possible partners:

Boston Crusaders

Blue Stars

Glassmen

Blue Knights

Troopers

Colts

Academy

Madison Scouts

Crossmen

Spirit

Mandarins

Pacific Crest

Jersey Surf

Pioneer

Cascades

Teal Sound

Finally, these 7 organizations <garbled> corps; and enjoy the performances of all, it is the “headliners” who drive ticket sales. One need only watch attendance figures for a short time to see the positive correlation between the quality and number of the “top” corps in a show and gross income from ticket sales.

Still waiting to see those numbers. I don't think the 1700 that the G3 drew in Allentown proves their case.

[Jeff Ream]

6/18 Dallas Omaha 7/11 Dekalb7/18 Austin 7/22 Murfreesboro 7/29 Charlotte 7/31

attendance budget 2000 2000 3000 2000 4000 3000

gross income $70k $70k $105k $70k $150k $150k

stadium rental $8k $10k $15k $8k $37k $18k

housing $10k $10k $10k $10k $10k $10k

event personnel $4k $4k $4k $4k $4k $4k

adjudication $7k $7k $7k $7k $7k $7k

direct marketing $10k $10k $10k $10k $10k $10k

other direct $1k $1k $1k $1k $1k $1k

direct expense $40k $40k $40k $40k $69k $50k

gross profit $30k $28k $58k $30k $81k $100k

overhead $10k $10k $10k $10k $10k $10k

net to corps $20k $18k $46k $20k $71k $90k

distribution $2,857 $2,571 $6,857 $2,857 $10,143 $6,857

[Jeff Ream]

Akron 8/3 Annapolis 8/7 total average

attendance budget 3000 4,000 26,000 2,889

gross income $105k $150k $940k $104,444

stadium rental $15k $16k $135k $15k

housing $10k $10k $90k $10k

event personnel $4k $4k $36k $4k

adjudication $7k $7k $63k $7k

direct marketing $10k $10k $90k $10k

other direct $1k $1k $9k $1k

direct expense $47k $48k $423k $47k

gross profit $58k $102k $517k $57,444

overhead $10k $10k $90k $10k

net to corps $48k $92k $427k $47,444

distribution $6,857 $13,143 $61k $6,778

overhead allocation:

administrator/coordinator $30,000

Website $12,000

Marketing $33,000

office $5,000

travel $10,000

total $90,000

every number in my last 3 posts is directly from the paperwork that the hext I posted earlier is from.

[Jeff Ream]

OK, seriously now....

As opposed to how they felt yesterday, when they said this:

"The G7 are interested in affecting change from within the DCI organization. We have respect for our history, for our product, and in most cases our corps have invested 25 or more years to assure the health and survival of the organization." (G7 PowerPoint power grab, p. 14)

This raises a number of questions....let's start with two big ones:

1. By what formula was "consistent performance and organizational excellence in recent years" evaluated to determine which corps had this alleged "proven record"?

2. If organizational excellence is as important as performance on the field, why will future changes in the "World Series" lineup be determined by competitive placement only?

Independent? It follows the DCI tour like a stalker just before the temporary restraining order is obtained.

I think this line was garbled intentionally.

What is this, a campaign for 8th-grade class president? We have more Facebook friends, so vote for us?

So many reactions, so little time.

1. For starters, conflating the Facebook friend count of seven different orgs to compare against one is not a valid comparison. Who knows how many of the same people are counted multiple times for friending more than one of the G7 corps.

2. I can't wait for the usual DCP posters to remind us about how online polls cannot be extrapolated to say anything about a wider population.

3. I just can't believe that seven grownups could all be this fragile, vain and envious. It isn't just this item, either....I omitted some of the other infantile attempts to conflate past experience in preceding paragraphs. This piece, like the PowerPoint power grab, was probably written by one or two people.

You forgot to define your target market. Oops.

What is "far in excess of 60%"? (I know...shorthand for "we really have no idea how much".)

Why are parts of this piece written as if intended for an outside audience?

This paragraph is not the first one that sounds like it is intended to impress some prospective partner. If the G7 World Series of Drum Corps is so capable (bear in mind that these seven corps typically run over a dozen DCI shows each season), and they are only proposing running 9 shows carefully positioned to parallel the DCI tour and draw on proven drum corps markets, they will not need any outside partners. And they should not want any outside partners siphoning off shares of their precious profit.

If, however, they really want to partner with someone, might I suggest the following possible partners:

Boston Crusaders

Blue Stars

Glassmen

Blue Knights

Troopers

Colts

Academy

Madison Scouts

Crossmen

Spirit

Mandarins

Pacific Crest

Jersey Surf

Pioneer

Cascades

Teal Sound

Still waiting to see those numbers. I don't think the 1700 that the G3 drew in Allentown proves their case.

[BRASSO]

I have repeatedly demanded that the proponents of the G7 plan provide some sort of quantifiable justification for their baseless claims of being "the draw". Every time I have made this request, it has gone unanswered.

But now, in this new proposal for the "World Series of Drum Corps", we have the answer to my request....undisputable proof of the drawing power and market value of the activity's top corps known as the G7....and a mechanism by which to quantify their superior drawing power and determine precisely how much more they are worth to show sponsors individually, or as a group:

Number of Facebook friends.

Based on this new information, I have no choice but to lend my total support to the "World Series of Drum Corps" concept.

The Madison Scouts have more audience drawing appeal than any single Corps in the G-7.

The G-7 is flawed in so many ways. For one, they make the incorrect assumption that competitive DCI excellence is the same as " audience appeal and drawing power ". They state as an important goal " audience appeal ". Who are they kidding ? No one denies the Blue Devils possess competitive excellence. But it is certainly debateable that they generate more " audience appeal " than ( for one example ) the Madison Scouts.

I think the battle begins when the DCI Board and membership votes this proposal down by stating that it is is not in keeping with their current policies and regulations, mission statement, nor short and long term plans they all agreed with. I believe that the other non G-7 Corps will not allow themselves to be disenfranchised in any manner. I see no compromise possible with the non G-7 DCI Corps on this, nor should there be. They'd be crazy to go along with this, as it would permanently create a group slotting system in the World Class Division that would tilt the competition field even MORE in the G-7 direction. After reading this, I believe that there is a 50-50 chance now that the G-7 or some Corps will bolt. I hope it does not happen. But if they are so insistent, then I 'll wish them well, and DCI moves forward with a nucleus of good Corps where the cupboard is by no means bare. I don't think the G-7 can make a go of it on their own, outside of DCI. But if they are hell bent on trying, then be gone.

Edited August 10, 2010 by BRASSO

[GUARDLING]

I still wonder if they asked for the stars with the original proposal knowing they might end up with the moon, so to speak.

I've been saying this from the beginning, a typical business tactic. Then they get what They REALLY wanted and the others who have been opposed think they won. MAN transparent to me anyway. Seen it soooooo many times.

[BRASSO]

I still wonder if they asked for the stars with the original proposal knowing they might end up with the moon, so to speak.

They just might get someone to give them the moon... so to speak.

[audiodb]

The Madison Scouts have more audience drawing appeal than any single Corps in the G-7.

The G-7 is flawed in so many ways. For one, they make the incorrect assumption that competitive DCI excellence is the same as " audience appeal and drawing power ". They state as an important goal " audience appeal ". Who are they kidding ? No one denies the Blue Devils possess competitive excellence. But it is certainly debateable that they generate more " audience appeal " than ( for one example ) the Madison Scouts.

But they have more Facebook friends.