Attendance guesses anyone?

[rkfdPRphan]

1. I was sitting near the 50 yard line, in the lower (100's) level for all 3 shows.

2. I was watching the live DCP postings and saw the 'picture of the crowd in the stands' when it was posted. IT WAS EARLY IN THE EVENING at Quarterfinals. There were a lot of empty seats. DCI's fault? Not entirely. A lot of paying fans were out in the lots listening to their favorite corps warmup or finishing dinner/fighting traffic jams/finding a place to park. For Quarterfinals there are a large number of people who just come to watch 'their corps' and do not come in until then - leaving when their corps is finished.

3. The bottom rows might not have ever filled on Thursday, but there were a lot of fans in the seats after the first INT.

4. Most of the bottom rows were filled on Friday.

5. ALL the rows were filled at the bottom on Saturday. Some of the corps members were running up and down the steps trying to find a spot to watch the final 7 corps. There was no empty seats. A couple of my friends got up for bathroom breaks and immediately someone jumped into their seats! (But they agreed to leave when the ticket holders returned, thank you!)

6. The way Lucas Oil Stadium is set up, with layer after layer of overhanging seating - HOW can you see how many people are in the crowd.

7. At Finals on Saturday, after INT, the place was packed from endzone to endzone and up as many levels as I could see when I stood up and looked around.

8.....perhaps most important to remember, this event is held in the Midwest where unemployment and under-employment is highest. I believe a lot of people who would have come to the event didnt, because they didnt have the money for expensive tickets, parking, food, travel and lodging. I spent over $500 for just myself. Cant imagine what some families spent!

9. Want more ticket sales? More people in the stands? LOWER THE TICKET PRICES!!!!

Overall, I think the crowd was excellent. Maybe there has been larger but I felt there were a lot more filled seats than last year.

[BigW]

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

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

the 1982 FInals in Montreal drew 32k, I was there and that what was announced- and it was announced as a DCI recordat that time.

[byline]

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

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

DCI reported the attendance at the 1981 championships in Montreal at over 40,000, which I believe is the record. However, as others have noted, this is not paid attendance; this reflected the total attendance, which as we all know included non-Top 12 corps members and staff, volunteers and so on. I'd be willing to bet that 15- to 20,000 in paid attendance was probably pretty close to the mark back in those days, too. There were just a lot more corps competing back then who didn't make finals and so could fill up the stands.

[Michael Boo]

I remember there were so many people attending in Montreal, they had people sitting on other people's laps, then they had to let people stand on the overhang and finally they had to relent and rented blimps to carry the excess.

[tariq.shah]

I have queried DCI on their official ticket sales and attendance estimates. I will inform you of their reply when (if?) I receive one.

[Tom Brace]

Indy was great. Attendance was good.

Semis looked over 10K.

Finals looked very full.

The stadium was great. Good sound overall for in indoor arena. Much better than San Antonio. I don't know it is better sounding than Atlanta because I have not seen a show in Atlanta.

DCI played this finals right. I didn't see any glaring flaws in how they pulled off finals in Indy. We had a really great time.

The only complaint I have is that people continually tried to get into their seats after a corps started performing. If you can't get back in time from the concessions time...you sit out a corps performance. In our area, it was on TVs out near the concessions anyway.

It's just courtesy for the rest of us fans.

Anyway, I was there for semis, open class finals and World Finals.

My estimates were total crowd in house...let's not quibble right now about paid attendance or not. Only DCI will know that number.

Semifinals - over 10,000. Probably not 12,000.

Open Class Finals - about 3,500 - 4,000 - NOTE...this is way better than my last finals (2006 in Madison) Way better, Thank you drum corps fans.

World Class Finals - probably about equal to Bloomington (2008) at 17,000 - 18,000.

That's my take.

[BRASSO]

DCI reported the attendance at the 1981 championships in Montreal at over 40,000, which I believe is the record. However, as others have noted, this is not paid attendance; this reflected the total attendance, which as we all know included non-Top 12 corps members and staff, volunteers and so on. I'd be willing to bet that 15- to 20,000 in paid attendance was probably pretty close to the mark back in those days, too. There were just a lot more corps competing back then who didn't make finals and so could fill up the stands.

So..... if there were 15-18,000 total attendance estimated for Finals this year, and we had ( say ) half the number of 15,000-20,000 you estimated for Corps marchers now compared to to 1982, would this make the paid attendance at Finals this year about 8,000 to 10,000 paid ?

If DCI had about 8-10,000 paid fans at Finals, that's not a lot of fans at all, imo.

I've got old Drum Corps News articles where routinely local shows in June, July had between 12-20,000 PAID in attendance for 5-9 Corps in competition according to different reporters at different shows. ( The Calvalcade of Champions, Barnum Competition, etc for example ) Just prior to the formation of DCI, there were paid Crowds at NON VFW, AL Convention Drum Corps competition shows of between 25-30,000 paid. ( The Dream, NJ for just one example ) The Veteran Conventions drew large crowds for the Drum Corps Competitions... upwards of 45,000, but to be fair, some got in with tickets to Convention too )

Edited August 16, 2010 by BRASSO

[byline]

So..... if there were 15-18,000 total attendance estimated for Finals this year, and we had ( say ) half the number of 15,000-20,000 you estimated for Corps marchers now compared to to 1982, would this make the paid attendance at Finals his year about 8,000 to 10,000 paid ?

That's assuming that half of this year's attendance didn't pay, and I'm not sure that's a valid assumption. Remember how many corps were competing back in the late '70s and early '80s, and how many of us got in for free. There are far fewer corps competing nowadays, so I'm guessing -- of course, I'm guessing just like you -- that the percentage of non-paid attendance isn't as high as it was back then.

[BRASSO]

That's assuming that half of this year's attendance didn't pay, and I'm not sure that's a valid assumption. Remember how many corps were competing back in the late '70s and early '80s, and how many of us got in for free. There are far fewer corps competing nowadays, so I'm guessing -- of course, I'm guessing just like you -- that the percentage of non-paid attendance isn't as high as it was back then.

That sounds about right, byline.

The bottom line is that ( for whatever reason ) DCI Finals of 12 Corps now, has about half the number of paid fans as it did for 5-9 Corps at some of the local shows in July in earlier years.

Edited August 16, 2010 by BRASSO

[Jerseyboy]

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.

Attendence was bett than last few years.

thats a BIG stadium to fill. One of its problems.

I would guess

8k-quarters , 10k-semis , 20k- finals = 38 K

where I was there were NO empty seats. people lining the walls.

lucas oil was not AS BOOMY as 2009. and with the extreme heat people were GLAD the roof was closed.

Just too big a venue .

what does it seat concert side ???

what is attendance for BOA ?