Move DCI to Santa Clara!

[Contra94]

1334170480[/url]' post='3131912']

Not a DCI answer, but SoCal Dream and Renegades shared a semi truck to get their gear to Rochester for 06 DCA.

We did the same thing this past season with the Freelancers Alumni (Thank you Freelancers!)

[oldskl3rings]

I don't see how rotating finals could be bad. It keeps things fresh. Exposes the activity to different people. Gives current fans another reason to go, or just the means to go in many cases. Travel isn't easy for anyone. I know it is a pain to fly to and from Indy out of Philly. After 08 I ended up getting home after someone who drove from Indy because of layovers and delays. Getting out West would probably be easier. Just looking up prices via southwest for finals weekend, it's not bad. I searched 3 San Fran area airports. SJC being the cheapest. It's about $200 more total to fly out west. Not bad honestly. I could probably try a little harder and find better deals. And there were a couple non-stop flights. Easier than flying out to Chicago, then back track to Indy.

And the best I could make a family vacation out of it. I've only been to LA on a band trip. I'd like to explore some of No. Cali also. Hear it's like a different state.

And the corps would just have to plan for it. Like they did in 07. Like the corps in 04 did for TOC (right??) Have one east and one west coast show. A couple midwest shows. Kansas? Or even do finals in Texas again.

And don't start #####ing about the heat. The whole country gets hot during the summer. I remember it being like 10 degrees hotter and 100% humidity up in the north east one summer compared to Texas.

But choose like a 4 or five city rotation. If the corps know where they are going each year they can plan for it. And figure it out. We can even go back to the oil can every 3 or 4 years or so. Even though I don't really like the place. Nice stadium. Not for drum corps. And the city is quite a bore! lol

Side note: our corps had stuff stolen in 09 at our Indy housing site....

I agree with everything you say except it gets hot everywhere in the summer. Santa Clara very rarely gets hot and is never humid. Before the Santa Clara Valley became Silicon Valley it was one of the largest producers of cherries in the world. Cherries will only flourish in a mild climate. In fact, the Santa Clara Valley has what many consider the best weather in the world. It never gets really hot and never gets really cold. In fact if DCI ever holds finals in Santa Clara, they may never want to leave!

Edited April 11, 2012 by oldskl3rings

[Contra94]

1334179652[/url]' post='3131953']

I agree with everything you say except it gets hot everywhere in the summer. Santa Clara very rarely gets hot and is never humid. Before the Santa Clara Valley became Silicon Valley it was one of the largest producers of cherries in the world. Cherries will only flourish in a mild climate. In fact, the Santa Clara Valley has what many consider the best weather in the world. It never gets really hot and never gets really cold. In fact if DCI ever holds finals in Santa Clara, they may never want to leave!

During finals week, our temperature in Santa Clara is usually lower 80s to high 80s

[MotoSurfBass]

You know what... I had a long, drawn out argument written over whether Pasadena put corps under and what not... It was rambling and annoying, and to be honest as a person who didn't even start watching drum corps until 2006 I'm sure I had a lot of "facts" wrong about it... so I've instead decided to just put some thought into the entire situation rather than just saying "you're wrong, I'm right, blah blah blah..."

Corpsreps.com listed 48 corps competing in DCI last year... as of this afternoon, 43 junior corps have shows scheduled for DCI events this summer. The remaining five are Revolution and Forte (which are currently under evaluation), the Yokohama Scouts and Jubal (which are international corps and as of right now are not listed as coming and competing this summer), and Imperial Sound, which is not planning on competing for 2012. In addition, Platinum is trying to make a comeback as well, so when all is said and done (assuming there are no International Class corps, Revolution and Forte are allowed to compete, and Platinum makes a return), there will be 46 competing corps this summer.

Half of those 46 corps are listed as World Class. As far as I can guess, when evaluating whether a corps is ready for World Class, DCI looks at their financial stability. I figure that any corps in World Class is run by people smart enough to budget a trip to the west coast when given time to prepare. I'm not saying Open Class corps aren't prepared either, but with World Class it should be a guarantee.

That leaves the 23 Open Class corps... ten of those corps can say that they toured extensively (at least ten shows plus OC finals and WC prelims) in 2011: BDB, SCVC, Oregon, Genesis, Legends, Colt Cadets, Forte, Spartans, Racine Scouts, and Revolution. These corps apparently operate on large enough budgets to go to a large number of shows, and more than likely can allocate money to a west coast trip if need be (I know the Colt Cadets skipped Pasadena in 2007, but there's nothing saying they couldn't go now). The Velvet Knights apparently will be added to that list if all goes well in 2012.

OK, that leaves 12 corps... how many of those corps made a "long" trek (over the Rockies, at least) to get to Pasadena in 2007 and could theoretically do a long trip wherever again? Only two: Raiders and Spirit of Newark.

That leaves just 10 Open Class corps: Blue Saints, 7th Regiment, Les Stentors, Music City, BDC, Thunder, Gold, Impulse, City Sound, and Platinum. All of the others for one reason or another could theoretically make a trip to Championships wherever it might be held. Now comes the fun part: Google Maps!

The furthest any of the remaining corps that traveled to Indy had to go last year was 970 miles by Les Stentors. However, in 2007, Spokane Thunder traveled to Pasadena, over 1200 miles away. As such, we'll say that any corps within 1200 miles of Championships should be able to go without issue. Conversely, the closest corps to Indianapolis that did not go last year was, coincidentally, Spokane Thunder, at 1991 miles away. We'll round up and say if any of these corps are more than 2000 miles away from finals, it may not work financially for said corps to travel to Championships.

Essentially, this is the formula: Yes!< 1200 Miles < ??? <2000 Miles < Probably No. (It's very crude and vague, but for our purposes it can work as a basic guideline.)

Let's apply this formula to our ten Open Class corps in relation to three sites: Pasadena, the site of the 2007 Championships, Santa Clara, the proposed site in the OP, and a "central" location, Kansas City, MO. Miles to site are in parenthesis.

PASADENA

Yes- BDC (371), Thunder (1201), Gold (130), Impulse (342) (NOTE: All four of these corps DID go to Pasadena in 2007), City Sound (10)

???- Music City (1996)

No- Blue Saints (2645), 7th (2901), Les Stentors (2928), Platinum (2537)

SANTA CLARA

Yes- BDC (54), Thunder (903), Gold (466), Impulse (4), City Sound (345)

???- None

No- Blue Saints (2807), 7th (3063), Les Stentors (3090), Music City (2267), Platinum (2807)

KANSAS CITY

Yes- Music City (555), Platinum (1081), Blue Saints (1135)

???- 7th (1335), Les Stentors (1416), BDC (1785), Thunder (1612), Gold (1679), Impulse (1840), City Sound (1618)

No- None

NOTE: Platinum, at 626 miles, would be able to go to Indianapolis with little issue.

What we have is a fun little paradox... for those corps that couldn't make it to Indy, any of those three spots are a better choice, but for those who could, anywhere else actually makes it tougher. Obviously, this is a stalemate of epic proportions, as evidenced by the many pages of this thread.

The clearest answer here would be to go in the middle and go to Kansas City. However, another problem rears its head here... Most of the DCI Regional Championships (with all or almost of the World Class corps) are east of the Mississippi, and none are further west than San Antonio. Surely, driving east and coming back west is a far more daunting task for west coast corps than east coast corps.

So, I went searching for a way to even out total driving miles as much as possible. My two guinea pig corps I used were BDB and Spartans. Again, this was a very, VERY crude comparison, as BDB has many more shows that it goes to, plus it goes east to meet up at midwest shows, while the Spartans are much closer to their shows. After a lot of fiddling around and number crunching, I came up with the following: When BDB and Spartans first meet at Paw Paw, MI this summer, BDB will have logged 3350 miles, while Spartans will only have 1375 miles. They then share the same shows for the remainder of the season. The key was to find a city that, when returning to their hometowns, the mileage total would balance out (i.e. Spartans' return being 1975 miles longer).

Believe it or not, there is a very large, very prominent, very air-conditioned stadium that is 2711 miles from Nashua and 732 miles from Concord, resulting in a difference of 1979 miles. As a result, the total trip length in miles would be a mere four miles longer for the Spartans. This stadium?

The University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ

Perfect, right? Arizona in August? No?

Okay, I've lost even myself by this point. It's an endless debate, and there's no perfect answer. Every bit of math and trickery I've tried to pull here has been dumb and can be torn to shreds in a second by people who actually know things about money and math. I've spent the entire day going on a stream-of-consciousness rant, and I can't say that I'm closer to an answer than when I started.

Thanks for listening anyways, guys, and don't rip me apart too much for this.

EDIT: Holy Mary Mother of Jesus! I just went back and read that, and I think I might need to check myself into a hospital somewhere for insanity!

Seriously guys, I started out trying to be serious, but by the end I was just going off of whatever. Please don't rip me a new one for this

Edited April 11, 2012 by UP Drumline

[MotoSurfBass]

*doublepost*

Edited April 11, 2012 by UP Drumline

[84BDsop]

The only possible way West coast corps can cut miles is by never making it to the East coast. Maybe they drop out on Allentown and Atlanta for a year? And not do an East coast tour at all.

Just sit back and watch the screaming if THAT ever happens....

[corpsband]

actually many of us get that. We're just wondering why one group has to do it every year, but no one else does.

geography?

seriously....that's the beginning and end of the issue.

everyone knows what DCI's Tour looks like when they start a corps.

if you want to have your corps on the West coast you're gonna travel a lot more.

there's not really any "fair" or "unfair" about it. you know the story when you sign up.

Edited April 11, 2012 by corpsband

[Jeff Ream]

geography?

Well no offense, but the West Coast has more corps than the East Coast easily.

[corpsband]

Well no offense, but the West Coast has more corps than the East Coast easily.

I refer you again to http://goo.gl/AJIOp . To make that map more interesting, add the entire DCI Tour to it. The center will move east.

Edited April 11, 2012 by corpsband

[DCIHasBeen]

Other than the prospect of a gigantic earthquake that could turn the Santa Clara Valley into Lake Tahoe West, I don't see any downside ... I mean, hell, after Birmingham, Dallas, and, <gulp> Jackson, who wouldn't want to come here for Finals?