BOBSMYTH Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I'm arguing last 15 tops. and one night in August is very important to DCI. very. 15 is better than 50, no doubt. In your business - don't they most often compare your results to last month, last quarter or last year (or perhaps this year's quota or budget)? How often do they go back further than a year when they make a comparison? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) I don't know about Jeff's, but in my business (investments) we look at the longest time frame available without a significant change in leadership, management, or direction of the business. 10 years is a bare-minimum for real long-term trends. The most-reasonable intermediate starting date is Dan A's beginning date. In the short-term, you could also begin a new measurement period with the formation of the G7 because it represented a significant leadership change. In the long-term it makes sense to go back to the beginning of DCI in '71/'72. I wouldn't consider comparing today's drum corps with the 40's or 50's, but you could say that lots of organizations grew consistently over that entire time frame. There seems some validity in those comparisons, but I don't think the financial condition or attendance numbers make valid comparisons. Comparing trends over short time frames introduces too much noise and static (as the G7 may prove to be) to make comparisons valid. IMO, of course. Edited August 20, 2011 by garfield 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I'd add to Garfield's wise approach one thing more, which is: Sometimes even apples to apples comparisions can be misleading. Modern DCI might be one of those cases. In this case, the availability of the quarterfinals cinecast and live Internet streaming of championship week events surely had an impact on DCI tickets sales. Technologies such as DVD also have an impact. You had to go to Montreal to experience finals back in the day. There really were no other options. Few of us even had VCRs then. CDs were almost decade away. Today, there are a variety of substitute experiences (lesser but significant nonetheless) to buying that ticket we're talking about. I don't know how you quantify all this so long as DCI doesn't talk revenue. Then again, even if they did, I'm not sure how you figure how much of DVD sales, to pick just one, to attribute to the finals accounting. The bottom line is the bottom line is it. It's not really relevant that DCI 2011 finals didn't draw the grateful quarter-million who sat spellbound and satisfied by the perfect acoustics in Montreal (was that paid attendance?). Huge crowds for late-season events like Atlanta 2011 or the TOC show in the Meadowlands accrue to the bottom line no matter their impact on Indy ticket sales. HH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted August 19, 2011 Author Share Posted August 19, 2011 It was 81 Dave, not 82. Geoffrey How much did 1982 fall off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaporch Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I've read many, but not all, of the posts in this topic. My thoughts on the whole thing are this . . . there were more people watching some great drum corps this summer! Paid, free, VIP, staff, members - who cares! There were more people watching! It might actually be better for DCI if many of these people were free/discounted tickets attending for the first time. Maybe next year they fork out a little more money and sit in better seats and another group of new people fill in the free/discount seats?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwscv87 Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 This forum is nuts! Attendance was up! Plain and simple! Please return to the "glory" days if you like. I prefer the present. Drum corps is better than ever despite the ravings of a few! Sorry to disappoint you! Wow, I am all for being positive, but that is pretty rosy outlook. Forget ancient history or the "glory years", how about 2000 and beyond? How about 2007-2009? The past two years have been anemic. I glad it is going in the right direction, but let's not overstate the significance. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwscv87 Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 DCI is a business that operates 365 days a year. The relative results of one night in August - while important - does not begin to give us any kind of meaningful glimpse into the "state of the union".... While it is not the be all end all it absolutely IS a meaningful data point. Sure DCI operates all year but significant portions of it's revenue streams are extraordinarily seasonal. I am quite certain that DCI relies less on ticket sales finals week than it did "back in the day". However, DCI promotes events and to say that ticket sales to finals, the flagship event of the year, tells us nothing about the health of the activity is silly IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 (edited) DCI is a business that operates 365 days a year. The relative results of one night in August - while important - does not begin to give us any kind of meaningful glimpse into the "state of the union" of the business as a whole. It continues to amaze me how many people go back 20 to 50 YEARS to make comparisons of these data points. The results for any VFW show from the 60's or Montreal in the early 80's is completely irrelevant to the results from 2011 in the environment that DCI operates in today. The conclusions drawn about the effectiveness of DCI as an organization - or drum corps as an activity - when making these selective memory types of comparisons defies logic. "Yup. IBM must really suck. Do you know how many millions of Selectric typewriters they sold back in the 70's? And their mainframe computer business hasn't been the same since the 60's. I'm amazed they are still around. They sure managed those businesses into the ground." I reread this comment a couple of times, but the comparison between attendance figures in one moment in time and another moment in time.... AND... the analogy comparison between a Company's product sales volume with one product with that of a completely different product's sales volume frankly makes so sense at all. The analogy is so poor and so totally unconnected in my view that it makes any sort of an attempt at a cogent and intelligent reply to this analogy and its observations pretty much impossible. And I have no idea what the comment means that " DCI operates in a different " environment " now. What " environment " ? ( the poster here never explains this " environment " change that he perceives, nor how it impacts this topic of attendance changes. ) So I'll let the comments here rest by simply stating I view this as a totally disconnected and rather confused analogy requiring little more than that follow up observation. Edited August 20, 2011 by BRASSO 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 How much did 1982 fall off? 1981's paid attendance was 550,749. 1982's paid attendance was 385,264. So the drop was significant. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 1981's paid attendance was 550,749. 1982's paid attendance was 385,264. So the drop was significant. Sardonic as h-e-double toothpicks. Funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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