Would the end of football mean the end of drum corps?

[N.E. Brigand]

I have been following a series elsewhere on the 'net about the growing concerns over concussions in football, and the question of whether the NFL and/or NCAA have been covering up information on brain injuries that players suffer. Naturally, commentators have made various predictions as to the sport's future, not just for the pros and colleges but also at the high school level, where liability costs might force a radical change in the sport, at the least (to something like flag football, for instance). Is it unimaginable that there would be no high school football? If not, what would that mean for drum corps?

I know of a few schools in western Ohio who field marching bands despite not having a football team, but I don't think that's very common. Many h.s. marching bands who excel in competition are nonetheless obligated to play at football games, as well. Would most high school marching bands disappear if their football programs shut down? Would they start playing at the soccer games instead? Some people here on these forums have said that competitive scholastic marching bands have taken the place of the local corps of old: the base from which members for at least the junior corps are now drawn. Is that so? Could drum corps survive if there were no marching bands?

Edited April 2, 2012 by N.E. Brigand

[Michael Boo]

In my community, the school district is begging for more money, stating that without it, they will have to cut programs. Just months prior, they announced they were going to spend over a million dollars to replace a natural turf football field that was less than ten years old with one that is synthetic.

Bottom line: For the most part, schools that have football programs are not going to eliminate them because the community would go ballistic. An occasional head trauma here and there isn't considered as big a threat to national security as no football on Friday nights.

They might send schoolchildren around town with a photo of a puppy that is captioned, "If we don't get more money out of you, this puppy gets it," but they won't get rid of football.

Music, art, drama, science fairs, home economics (or whatever it's called this week) and drivers ed can all go straight to Hades, but football will remain king.

Not that I'm bitter.

[The Other Mike]

Hasn't hurt the music programs in Japan

< insert rimshot>

[Galen]

As Mike mentioned, if high schools in general cut their football programs, they would have no reason for building new facilities and/or maintaining their current ones. Since those facilities still make up the majority of the performance venues on the DCI calendar, DCI and local show coordinators would have to secure other facilities (college or professional, which tend to have much higher rental fees). So if football disappeared at the high school level, we'd be screwed, but we'd probably still be ok if it just disappeared at the college/pro level.

[rkfdPRphan]

Even if our traditional 'football' would disappear because of growing concerns about injuries, there would always be 'football' in the other sense - we Americans call it soccer. This sport seems to be gaining fast in Northern Illinois.

We have HUGE soccer tournaments.......little to none when it comes to traditional football.

Might be time for Americans to build soccer fields with viewing stands/stadium seating.

Even the big, pro stadiums we currently have could be easily converted to soccer fields.

And, soccer field are easily striped for drum corps - aren't they?

It would just be the viewing stands, or lack there of if the sport doesn't bring out a lot of fans in the future, that might be a problem for the fans.

......and a wild thought, there might be some current stadiums that could become drum corps home fields! Imagine a drum corps owning its own stadium? Cities might sell them real cheap.....

Edited April 2, 2012 by rkfdPRphan

[Plan9]

Besides....without head trauma, where would we get our Corps Directors??

[3rd Glasgow BB]

We used to march on "soccer" fields without the yard lines. In fact proper "grid iron" yard lines were unheard of.

The yard lines were marked by little wooden signs along the frontline with the yard numbers painted on them.

Straight lines were tricky.....

[WPendergrass]

Call me crazy, but I think that WGI type programs are the "wave of the future". They more closely resemble performance art that people are used to seeing... like blast, dance competitions, stomp, variety shows. These programs are also farther from marching band, so a lot of the stigma is removed.

The death (although it will probably just be a downturn, not death) of football, will put more people in seats of sports that involve less contact... high school basketball. Which is where these indoor groups will swoop in. Basketball already exists on a wide scale, WGI has been growing; it just seems like a perfect fit.

[actucker]

Football is a multi billion dollar industry. Its not going anywhere. The fact is, we haven't progressed as a species quite so far from the days of the Gladiator as we might think. Football is just the modern day equivalent. Sure, people will get up in arms, and there will be new rules that are barely enforced, but people will still buy tickets to see the big hits, and football will still make billions of dollars every year. Its too engrained in our culture to become extinct.

That said, if by some freak chance, football were to go away, there are far too many factors to consider regarding the ramifications. There is certainly a possibility that marching band would suffer, and possibly die. If that were the case, who knows what would happen to drum corps.

[Piper]

Just for the record the term "football" (i.e.soccer) originally earned it's name because the game was played on foot rather than horseback like polo, not because it was played with the feet. "Soccer" was derived from the English "football association" abbreviated "assoc." With that said if it weren't for American football fields Drum Corps would be relugated to marching in parades all summer and with our luck following the horses.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Piper