BoyWonder1911 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 7th Regiment from CT is Open Class as are The Spartans from New Hampshire... And then there's the Crusaders. Virginia or Mississippi should get one IMO. Those are the only states in the lower 48 that don't border a state with a corps. Are you sure about that?? Or are you talking about all corps in general, including all age corps? Even if you have the population to have enough talent and membership to start a corps, it doesn't necessarily mean you are going to have plenty of money...a WC drum corps costs, give or take, $1mil a year to run - and even more to start out - have to get equipment trailer, cook trailer, four wheeler, corps vehicles, souvie trailer, etc - I would think that just to START a drum corps would cost $500k, and then plus whatever expenses are incurred over the touring season, whether touring heavily or not. Drum corps is very expensive......and that is why we don't have 200 drum corps like we did 50 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Other Mike Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Virginia or Mississippi should get one IMO. Those are the only states in the lower 48 that don't border a state with a corps. So the Jackson Generals are no longer around ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Or even a state like Utah where it is beautiful in the summer! Also, the ammount of Mormon families in the state could help with sustainability. Though it may be a generalization, Mormon families always seem to support their youth's activities to the bitter end. There are quite a lot of advantages to starting up a corps in Utah, starting with the fact there are currently kids from Utah in every single world class corps in the west and several open class ones as well. There are loads of other kids who are Mormon but live in other parts of the country and march in corps more local to them. Since is is pretty much fact that any Mormon from anywhere in the universe has some sort of family in Utah, it could be easy to draw these kids as well. On top of that, transportation options are excellent, facilities are very easy to come by and the area has the highest per capita support for the arts in the country. The point brought up about the Mormon influence in the community is both a strong positive and a unique challenge. The challenging aspects of this would simply be the unique culture of some parts of Utah where parents might exert pressure to modify the organization in specific ways (ex: no Sunday rehearsals, segregated sleeping arrangements, etc.). The corps would certainly need to be in SLC proper. Utah, Davis or Cache county would be unrealistic culturally. Were a new corps in Utah to attempt to adapt to cultural pressures, it would have difficulty retaining instructional staff and talent from outside the area in order to be even moderately competitive. As a result, the organization would need to be structured and operate in a way no different than any others across the country. The organization's approach to the local culture would simply need to be that if parents would not allow their kid to participate in a corps outside the area, then this would probably not be the right experience for them. The point was brought up in this thread about young men leaving from 19-21 to go on religious missions. I don't see this as having much of an impact at all, especially starting out. It would be the same as many other young corps losing a segment of their membership to more competitively successful corps. This could potentially slow advancement through retention (not everyone can do what Blue Stars did), but hiring the right staff would make this problem go away rather quickly (Star proved this lesson and advanced quickly, as the level of their instructional staff prevented a lot of their kids from moving to other corps). Anyway, I do believe a corps in SLC would do fantastically well, in that the issues that many corps struggle with are uniquely resolvable in Utah. - Rehearsal space/facilities are easy to get - Transportation is super easy (loads of cheap flights, bus, train... and public transport would go pretty much directly to a rehearsal/camp site) - Financial support is not much of an issue - Parental and volunteer support... you'd have more than you'd ever need Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Utah has tried on several occasions to start junior corps, most recently the Golden Angels, about 10 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Utah has tried on several occasions to start junior corps, most recently the Golden Angels, about 10 years ago. There has never been a serious attempt (even the name, Golden Angels, tells you they weren't thinking the whole thing through). The other attempt was Forte Regiment... which didn't go anywhere, for obvious reasons. Both were located in absolutely the wrong place (West Jordan & Provo) and neither group had founders or board with any experience in either drum corps or running a business, but were pretty much single individuals chasing an idea. Though both incorporated, neither had any equipment, assets or even held real auditions. They were essentially VaporCorps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 There has never been a serious attempt (even the name, Golden Angels, tells you they weren't thinking the whole thing through). You can't say there has NEVER been a serious attempt in Utah, because Utah was home to the Golden Spike Cadets (Brigham City), who competed at VFW Nationals several times in the 1950s, and the corps from Magna was a fixture at American Legion Nationals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 You can't say there has NEVER been a serious attempt in Utah, because Utah was home to the Golden Spike Cadets (Brigham City), who competed at VFW Nationals several times in the 1950s, and the corps from Magna was a fixture at American Legion Nationals. Utah, especially SLC, is very different now compared to when my grandparents were young. Really no comparison in terms of viability of drum corps then vs. now. For example, the Magna corps was likely sponsored by the copper company, as it was a company town. That is no longer the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 (edited) Canada (obviously not a state but I thought I'd jump in here) definitely needs more corps. AFAIK the only competing corps this year are Blue Saints and Stentor. Considering the Greater Toronto Area alone had two corps make DCI finals in 1976, this is a pretty sad state of affairs. Edited July 6, 2011 by Grandpa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 For example, the Magna corps was likely sponsored by the copper company, as it was a company town. That is no longer the case. Magna had nothing to do with the company. It was 100% Legion sponsored. Frank Herman, post commander was corps director. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCIfan90 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 (edited) Already have been trying to get a drum corps started up here in utah. Doesnt work, too many of men in the LDS community serve missions from 19-21. The exact same reason why I never was able to march. However, bigger states like New York and Texas you would think would have some corps... I mean if Oregon and Wyoming have them, Texas for sure should... In all honesty I wish that DCI would change the age level to 15-23. 21 is just too small of a cut off point, there are THOUSANDS (millions?) of Kids in college until mid 20's, it doesnt make sense to cut it off at 21 IMO. Texas has 4... Edited July 6, 2011 by DCIfan90 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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