Move DCI to Santa Clara!

[CrownBariDad]

Probably about as much effect as it had in 77, 78 and 04 as well as every year at DATR. Unless of course the Rockies are still pushing upward at a noticeable rate.

The problem I was thinking about is altitude sickness--a real problem for those of us who hang around sea level.

If you figure 23 WC Corps at 150 members (or so), that's over 3000 members. Just throwing out a WAG (wild a** guess), if 0.5% can't take the change in altitude that's around 15 members. Even if it's only one, if that one is your lead sop, featured guard, center snare, DM, etc., it probably won't be good.

But we all know that members, unfortunately, get injured and the show must go on. Just something to consider.

[soccerguy315]

Are there stats on how many audience members fly to finals and how many drive to finals? I envision most people flying, but maybe that's not true... In 2004, I flew to finals as a spectator, and in 06 and 07 my parents flew as spectators. It seems like the vast majority of marching members fly home on Sunday (vs. driving home with family). I'd also be interested to know what percentage of marching members have family in the stands during finals week... is it close to 100%? or is it more like 40-50%? or lower?

[perc2100]

Not everyone. For many of the corps and their staffs, 07 was a nightmare, with the locals stealing everything that wasn't nailed down (and even some of that), the traffic casuing many hours of lost rest and rehearsal time, and the crowds dull and disinterested for most corps except the west coasters and a few of the top corps.

(ASBESTOS SUIT ON!!)

You can literally make this argument for almost all of the venues DCI has hosted Championships; even traffic around Madison sucks, and housings sights for some corps could be pretty far away.

As for the crowds, in 2007 in Pasadena the crowds I was around were pretty hyped for all the corps. Of course they were louder for west coast corps, but you get that everywhere. For as sacred as Allentown seems to be, I think that crowd is one of the worst crowds in DCI unless you're Cadets (and used to be Crossmen).

[perc2100]

The problem I was thinking about is altitude sickness--a real problem for those of us who hang around sea level.

If you figure 23 WC Corps at 150 members (or so), that's over 3000 members. Just throwing out a WAG (wild a** guess), if 0.5% can't take the change in altitude that's around 15 members. Even if it's only one, if that one is your lead sop, featured guard, center snare, DM, etc., it probably won't be good.

But we all know that members, unfortunately, get injured and the show must go on. Just something to consider.

But corps staff generally do a great job training/physically prepping their members to deal with the higher altitude. With corps typically pulling into Championships by Monday (sometimes even earlier), this would give the members plenty of time to adjust.

When my corps (located east coastish) marched in Drum Along the Rockies, we had a few rehearsal days before the show to adjust to the different altitude. We didn't have any issues adjusting, and we certainly didn't have anyone sit out DATR because of altitude changes. I would suspect my experience is very similar to the average corps' experience in Denver

[perc2100]

I think if it made financial sense DCI would have taken finals out west more than once. That's the only reason I can think of why they wouldn't do it esp. with the likes of BD & SCV being based there.

A week in Southern California would be lovely but not at the expense of financial stability.

This is the crux of the argument, IMO. The history of drum corps is one mostly of Darwinism, where only the strong survive. Corps with the business sense to thrive financially continue to exist while corps without the business know-how fold: it's really that simple. Blue Devils, SCV, Mandarins, etc. have been able to figure out how to continually travel to the east coast and mid-west wile still being financially solvent. Many corps have folded because they could not financially sustain themselves.

As much as I would LOVE to have DCI Finals on the west coast; as much as I think California (Southern or Northern) is a beautiful destination for drum corps fans; as much as I want to play the "but BD, SCV, Mandarins, Troopers, Blue Knights, Crusaders, PC, Impulse, VK, etc. have to travel a lot every year" card; as easy as it would be to use attendance numbers from 2007 as the most attended DCI Championships in decades. DCI should do NOTHING, including holding Championships on the West Coast, that isn't the be best financial interests of the organization. That's really the end of this debate: if holding Championships in San Francisco is not in DCI best financially interests, then it shouldn't be done.

[84BDsop]

It isn't like DCI and some member corps weren't in financial trouble well before 2007...

[fifer]

Rather than "Move DCI to [x] location" I say, alternate finals around the country like we used to!!! I'd love to travel to Santa Clara every four or five years for finals; I would not love it every year (heck, I don't love the idea of going back to Indi for the next 6 years even though it's 1000+ miles closer to me than Santa Clara).

Put Madison, Denver, DC-area, etc. on the list and alternate between the sites. Over a four or five year period, corps' travel distances will balance out a little better, "the locals" will be able to attend finals a little cheaper every couple years, the "travelers" will have somewhere different to visit (even 4-5 years between returning to the same place makes that place somewhat "new" and interesting), etc.

Return to alternating finals sites and everyone is happy (well, at least every couple of years). Yes this brings up other issues which resulted in the change to a fixed location for 10 years, but it still feels like there are more positives to moving finals between a small number of locations versus the negatives of keeping it repeatedly in the same area of the country.

[fsubone]

I like the idea. The weather is pretty nice out there year-round, and there's next to no humidity to speak of. I know that it will be tough on some of the eastern corps, but going all of the way across the country is tough on the west coast corps too. And having DCI on the west coast only one time in 40 years isn't really good. The 2007 Finals was one of the best attended of all time, so why not try and capture that audience?

[WWonka]

Even though I only live an hour away from the ThunderBarn I'd 100x prefer to spend the money to fly to California and see finals in a venue like that.

Of course, I'd 1,000,000x prefer to be able to walk to finals, have Crown practicing across the street from my wife's office, and see the BD semi blocking a major intersection like I did in 2008.

ThunderBarn

That's pretty good. I'll have to use that one. I'd heard lots of names for the place, the echo, etc but it does look like a big barn.

(And yes I have been to finals there. Try going during the week when the place is 3/4 empty. Stuff bounced around for what seemed like eternity.)

[perc2100]

Rather than "Move DCI to [x] location" I say, alternate finals around the country like we used to!!! I'd love to travel to Santa Clara every four or five years for finals; I would not love it every year (heck, I don't love the idea of going back to Indi for the next 6 years even though it's 1000+ miles closer to me than Santa Clara).

Put Madison, Denver, DC-area, etc. on the list and alternate between the sites. Over a four or five year period, corps' travel distances will balance out a little better, "the locals" will be able to attend finals a little cheaper every couple years, the "travelers" will have somewhere different to visit (even 4-5 years between returning to the same place makes that place somewhat "new" and interesting), etc.

Return to alternating finals sites and everyone is happy (well, at least every couple of years). Yes this brings up other issues which resulted in the change to a fixed location for 10 years, but it still feels like there are more positives to moving finals between a small number of locations versus the negatives of keeping it repeatedly in the same area of the country.

I liked this, but I think in the last few decades it was increasingly more difficult finding housing on a yearly basis. Now corps can build relationships with high schools and colleges and stay in the same place every year vs trying to coordinate that huge task in a different region annually.

That being said, I think if we had a set rotation where the same city & arena were on a four year rotation (say Indy, Boston, Kansas City, San Francisco) it might ease the corps a little bit and maintain some stability.

I think another huge issue is DCI having their headquarters in Indy. I'm sure this makes their logistics significantly easier to manage, and is a huge factor of why DCI has the current long-term relationship with Indy.