DCI story on CNN.com

[Tyler C.]

I was waiting to see a quote from Jeff Ream.

You, sir, win this thread.

[oldschooldbc]

The NFL of today is the product of one man's vision. That man was Pete Rozelle. He convinced the owners of the NFL franchises to engage in revenue-sharing. Most of the television revenue, under his plan, was shared equally between franchises. This gave the smaller market franchises (see Green Bay) a fighting chance, both financially and competitively. Rozelle wanted to create a national league with a national following, and the only way to do this was to create a balanced financial plan. This would allow franchises across the nation to flourish - not just in the major cities.

Rozelle was a visionary. His model helped propel the NFL into the single most popular sporting league in the U.S., whereas previously it was languishing behind baseball in popularity. He is still widely considered the most successful manager of a sports league in U.S. history.

==================================================================

Now compare his vision with that of Lord Voldemort....err, Gordon Gecko....err, Emperor Palpatine.... err, Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross. I meant G1.

G1 wants decreased revenue sharing, decreased national coverage, decreased marketing focus, and increased centralization of power. His marketing and business plan for G7 is the antithesis of what Rozelle wanted to do.

So I must ask this question: who would you rather follow, as a business leader? Hopkins or Rozelle? I don't know if Hopkins' plan will work, but I know that Rozelle's did.

Yes, I already know your response, so I will type it for you. Pro football and drum corps are very different products, with very different customer bases. I get that. But business models can be successfully transferred between industries. Rozelle essentially took the business plan that was created by many consumer goods companies after WWII, and applied it to sports. It worked brilliantly.

Edited August 14, 2010 by oldschooldbc

[chasgroh]

Mason has the best advice to the G-7... " I have a professional group. Leave this ( DCI ) alone. "

There is " no compromise " with the G-7 vision. It's a selfish, self serving power grab to establish a permanent group slotting system within the World Class Division of DCI and kill off the Open Class Division while in the process. It would serve as a death panel to the Drum Corps activity as something separate and distinct from the Band activity. It's in keeping with the Hopkins long held vision of the morphing of the Drum Corps idiom into band in which the end result will be only..... band.

Either give up this arrogance, or leave and pursue your marching and peforming band vision thingy on your own.

Those are the choices.

...YUP!

cg

[chasgroh]

You are SO very wrong I have no idea where to begin.

Today Jim might be able to raise his own capital. Back then, he was DCI corps director...period.

The Star kids who were eligible mostly came back for Brass Theatre in 1994. They were encouraged to go elsewhere if they wished to continue competing. As for all the young people in Indiana, where I live; by the time Star stopped competing, it had become like so many other corps that became successful...the base of membership became quite diverse geographically. Back then when corps could have no more than 128 members, even if every one was an Indiana resident, that's barely scratching the surface of available talent in the state.

As for Jim cannibalizing Star to make his own professional thing, it took three years of Brass Theatre to get to Blast!, and it was a risky process that could have blown up in his face any number of ways.

Did Jim kick your puppy?

Mike...was it Mason's decision to quit DCI, or Star's primary funder/founder Bill Cook? I think the latter...

cg

[txorchdork013]

Mason has the best advice to the G-7... " I have a professional group. Leave this ( DCI ) alone. "

There is " no compromise " with the G-7 vision. It's a selfish, self serving power grab to establish a permanent group slotting system within the World Class Division of DCI and kill off the Open Class Division while in the process. It would serve as a death panel to the Drum Corps activity as something separate and distinct from the Band activity. It's in keeping with the Hopkins long held vision of the morphing of the Drum Corps idiom into band in which the end result will be only..... band.

Either give up this arrogance, or leave and pursue your marching and performing band vision thingy on your own.

Those are the choices.

Why would the G-7 kill off the Open Class when two of its members support successful open class programs, BDB, BDC and SCVC? If they wanted they could kill those two programs without going through all this trouble...

I am a woodwind player and I don't agree with woodwinds in corps. To the person who, and I am paraphrasing, said woodwinds would not learn anything by being in corps and really don't want to march corps....who are you to make such a blanket statement. I wanted to march corps, but didn't. Not because of the instrumentation, I understood and accepted the requirements. I could have done pit or learned a brass, but because of finances and distance.

The problem I see with DCI is that the touring route is pretty much set in stone so depending on what part of the country you live in, corps is a pipe dream that you may hear about from a band director or have seen on video. Most of the touring still happens more to the East and Southeast. Even with all the Cali Corps and their regionals, the bulk of competition touring is far away. Then there are the corps like Blue Knights (Colorado) and Academy (Arizona) that have to travel to everything. One local show for BK, drums along the Rockies. How many WC Corps from the East make it down to Denver? And we shouldn't forget our Canadian neighbors who don't come out and play as much as they used to. If you are Open Class, the touring is tough. You are playing a time game with evolving school calendars and distance to available Open Class venues. Think about a corps like Genesis in Texas. The closest competition is in Odessa. The rest are across country.

I want to make it clear that I don't necessarily agree with the G-7 but the reality is, the top World Class Corps are already reaping many rewards from DCI. Everyone else works with the scraps. At least if you are a World Class Corps you get more adequate exposure through the big regionals and the Fan Network VOD's. Every one else, who is also trying to get a foot in, including the top Open Class Corps, International Corps and All-Age Corps, usually have to fend for themselves when it comes to getting people out to the shows. When DCI truly starts to give the same attention to all their representative bodies and not just the World Class, someone might be able to convince that change is not necessary....

Edited for typos....

Edited August 14, 2010 by txorchdork013

[kickhaltsforlife]

How is that possible?

When you sign a contract with a corps, don't you sign a letter, stating that you cannot march with another corps, until the following season? I distinctly remember signing one of these back when I marched, and I am 99% sure that my son had to sign the same.

Doesn't DCI require these letters to be signed, and this rule to be enforced? Or is it all just being treated as one big joke now?

As long as you have no monetary debt to another corps you can march wherever you want whenever you want. That is the rule, as I understand it.

[GUARDLING]

As long as you have no monetary debt to another corps you can march wherever you want whenever you want. That is the rule, as I understand it.

Yes its true BUT there are a few in that top 10 I know of that kids owe money to other places....those kids need to be rid of!

[kickhaltsforlife]

Yes its true BUT there are a few in that top 10 I know of that kids owe money to other places....those kids need to be rid of!

Or the corps need to cut costs so they don't have to charge so much. Cutting costs doesn't seem to be on the agenda in DCI.... Maybe... if my corps didn't have to pay for 3 synths.. a ton of amps.. and an oversized sound board, I could have been able to march my age out. (That among other things that they DIDN'T HAVE TO pay for.... and not just my corps is guilty of this... for sure).

Also, there are MANY reason to leave a corps mid-season. Injuries to just not liking what is going on.

I really think looking back to our past might save the activity right now. There is a lot of unnecessary money being spent right now by all corps. It's time to scale back. You don't need a uni alteration EVERY YEAR. You don't new horns and drums every year. You don't need busses with satellite tv and wi-fi on them (although from what I understand it is a good deal).. you don't need to repaint the trucks every year, you don't need MICS and AMPS and SYNTHS and SOUNDBOARDS and mac books to power your pit. You don't need props all over the field. Anyway... I could go on for a while. Most of the new rules changes in recent years have done NOTHING... NOTHING!!!!!!! to save money. I don't want to hear any of the G7 ##### and complain about not getting enough money. Hey YEA! You'd save some money if you werent haggling my mom with phone calls all year long... just because she bought a ticket for a show a couple of years ago. Hey YEA! Your fancy full color brochures and postcards aren't needed to raise money. Hey G7 directors.. FIGURE IT THE #### OUT already.

I'm tired of this bull ####.

I JUST WANT TO BE ENTERTAINED... and I'm too busy rolling my eyes at stupid #### right now to actually enjoy myself.

Edited August 14, 2010 by kickhaltsforlife

[kickhaltsforlife]

HA! Guardling...

Sorry that rant is not directed at you... I'm just a sourpuss... and in fact.. those kids should have paid their debts in full. Lol

[kstein]

You are SO very wrong I have no idea where to begin.

Today Jim might be able to raise his own capital. Back then, he was DCI corps director...period.

The Star kids who were eligible mostly came back for Brass Theatre in 1994. They were encouraged to go elsewhere if they wished to continue competing. As for all the young people in Indiana, where I live; by the time Star stopped competing, it had become like so many other corps that became successful...the base of membership became quite diverse geographically. Back then when corps could have no more than 128 members, even if every one was an Indiana resident, that's barely scratching the surface of available talent in the state.

As for Jim cannibalizing Star to make his own professional thing, it took three years of Brass Theatre to get to Blast!, and it was a risky process that could have blown up in his face any number of ways.

Did Jim kick your puppy?

No, Mike, Jim was instrumental in destroying a drum corps I gave my ageout year to help start for his own selfish reasons. I, along with many others who had marched the Bloomington show for several years with other corps, believed the area was ripe for a corps of its own and Bill dangled the possibility of doing just that and we jumped at it. As ageouts and veterans of other corps, we truly believed we were starting something that would be enduring and wonderful and would give so many kids the opportunity to march that we had enjoyed.

We had the same dreams as many long time drum corps members: to see our corps grow and improve, and to see generations of kids take it to new and different levels. You know, the stuff you got to do with the Cavaliers. We would love to be sitting in the stands year after year, comparing our thoughts on how the new crops of "kids" are doing and pointing out whose youngster was finally old enough and talented enough to march this year. We never got that opportunity.

I think you are well aware of just how "Indiana-centric" Star was for all of its years. Many other top corps are now benefiting from the deep pool of talent that school music systems produces, but parents (including many of my friends) now have to decide if they are comfortable with their kids going to BD, PR, or the Blue Stars, for example, rather than sending them just down the road to Star.

You have been a consistent Mason supporter and apologist, so I suppose this response is to be expected, but the "kick your puppy" comment was truly uncalled for and beneath someone of your ability. If you don't realize how many people were adversely affected by his decision years ago, then I'm certainly not going to convince you otherwise. Who knows; maybe we could have seen a 300 person Star Alumni performing last night next to their wonderful, enduring, active DCI corps? I think you and your fellow alum got to do that just a few years ago. It would have been nice if we had the same opportunity.

I'm not wrong, Michael, and I think you're honest enough at heart to know that. But you and I will never see eye to eye on this issue for a myriad of other reasons, so I'll end my comments here. I think perhaps that anti-G7 team could come up with a better, more credible flag waver for preserving DCI than Jim, but that's not my fight to fight.

I hope you and the rest of the gang enjoy the performances tonight,

Karen