Attendance guesses anyone?

[bdlykdad]

I was there in '09, but I never got a look at how big the crowd was from our seats. I did see one pic that looked like the crowd was a good-sized crowd ..... seemed to be pretty full with a few scattered seats being empty. I remember thinking I was glad that it was a big crowd.

1982 in Montreal was the largest crowd ..... and this is based on hearsay. I had heard 46,000 for that year, but numbers can certainly get skewed. HORRIBLE stadium to play in ......

[Grumpy]

Are you serious? According to whom? I heard from one of the corps' board of directors that this may have been the lowest attendance at finals in several years, if not decades. Thus it's unlikely that DCI will publicize the number of ticket sales.

This seems corroborated by the photos of the stands (see the pictures posted on the Finals thread). I have never seen so many empty seats in between the 45s--even in the bottom section of the stadium. I've gone to several Finals in the 90s and 00s, and the seats between the 40s (much less the 45s) were always completely full on Finals night.

It was hard to tell from where I was sitting (Section 240) because it's tough to see the upper decks from there, but the last year of the Orlando run in the 90's was probably the worst in terms of paid attendance-IIRC, it was somewhere around 12K-15K. I doubt we'll get real numbers from DCI, they haven't released paid attendance for at least the last two Finals-but it wasn't the lowest "in decades" by any stretch.

[Rhumbline]

I was there in '09, but I never got a look at how big the crowd was from our seats. I did see one pic that looked like the crowd was a good-sized crowd ..... seemed to be pretty full with a few scattered seats being empty. I remember thinking I was glad that it was a big crowd.

1982 in Montreal was the largest crowd ..... and this is based on hearsay. I had heard 46,000 for that year, but numbers can certainly get skewed. HORRIBLE stadium to play in ......

Yes, Olympic Stadium in Montreal did host the largest crowd ever.... I went to Montreal to play in a hockey tournement in Lachine, and ended up at the Big O rather than getting hammered with the rest of the team. Had not seen drum corps in a number of years, and could not believe the crowd that filled the stadium. I still think about that crowd when I attend finals now !!!

[nick6063]

wondering if anyone would like to guess at the attendance for Quarters, Semis and Finals?

Don't forget DCI was offering to pay $25 for gas to get people to come during the last week. Desperatiion?

[StuStu]

I was on a volunteer DCI committee last year working with host schools to assist corps in their housing for nationals. I was unable to repeat this year, but hope I can help again in some way next year.

Anyway, IIRC, all of the promotions and "freebies" were given for Thursday night. Each school was given a number of free tickets (I think 100 each?) for Quarters, and had the option to purchase additional seats for $10 each. I can't say for sure the same was done in 2010, but I'd be surprised if they didn't

I do know that this year DCI issued coupons offering Indiana residents $10 adult tickets for Quarterfinals, and each ticket came with two free tickets for kids 12 and under. I don't know how succesful this was, but I think it is a FANTASTIC idea to get the locals exposed to drum corps. I've tried to talk the event up to friends here, but they were turned off by the high price of tickets. This way, a family of four could see the show for a net cost of $5 a head.

Unfortuantely, I found out about the promotion too late to get the word out to many people, but if they repeat it next year I'm going to talk this up like crazy. I'm not aware of any discounts or freebies for semis or finals.

Oh, on topic - I went on the field for Cadets' show on Finals night, and the concert side did look pretty full. I'd make a SWAG that attendance was in the low 20s.

Edited August 16, 2010 by StuStu

[ShortAndFast]

Oh, on topic - I went on the field for Cadets' show on Friday night, and the concert side did look pretty full. I'd make a SWAG that attendance was in the low 20s.

Sounds about right. Bigger than 08 and 09, not as big as Rose Bowl. That's how it looked from the stands.

[rmurrey74]

The crowd looked pretty strong. I ran into two locals that had no idea what DCI was after retreat (at two different times). Both watched all night and were asking tons of questions to me. They wanted to know how they could follow it in the future and find more shows. They thought the groups were tied to colleges.

[Eric Molho]

Another annual thread

The huge numbers often posted from the 80s and earlier are usually total attendance figures (every warm body that walks through the gate including comps and corps members) vs. PAID attendance figures (everyone who actually bought a ticket). DCI has released several years worth of numbers but hasn't done so since 2007. The PAID attendance for previous years (according to this thread: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/inde...p;hl=attendance ) is as follows:

1995 19,100 Buffalo

1996 13,771 Orlando

1997 13,773 Orlando

1998 12,693 Orlando

1999 19,931 Madison

2000 18,423 College Park

2001 16,406 Buffalo

2002 20,230 Madison

2003 18,865 Orlando

2004 22,047 Denver

2005 20,542 Foxboro

2006 21,232 Madison

2007 24,309 Pasadena

I couldn't tell if there were more or fewer than last year. Seemed about the same to me from my little corner of the building.

Edited August 16, 2010 by MBIBari

[MikeN]

Last year I think they said *paid* attendance was 13,000, but it was the 4th most profitable finals DCI has ever had. I think actual attendance was closer to 20k.

Couldn't tell you for '08 - I was there, and we made enough noise for 50k.

Mike

[skywhopper]

Only 15K to 20K in attendance at DCI finals???

Didn't finals in the 70's draw 40K?

If this is true, I don't understand why they don't drop the ticket prices significantly. Surely they'd do better to have bigger crowds at lower ticket prices even if it didn't balance 100% just for the concession and souvie revenue. I wonder if attendance will keep dropping after a few years of the same venue. Doing finals in different regions each year is probably better for picking up fence-sitters and non-fans than sticking to Indy for a decade or whatever.