Professional Drum and Bugle Corps league/organization

[LegalEagle50]

I would love to see comments on this, and what others think.

I think I'll have whatever it is you're drinking when I get out of work later.

Fun and interesting ideas. Impossible to be acheived. There is no financial backing for such a venture.

[Jeff Ream]

I think his proposal just gave every business manager of a DCA corps a heart attack!

I'm thinking more along the lines of a laughing fit

[jonasquad]

The pragmatist in me knows that we are tremendously far from having the financial capabilities and general popularity to make this happen.

But it's not going to keep me from daydreaming about it.

I'd love to see DCP posts like "Can you believe they drafted a quad player with their 1st round pick?!" or "with that payroll can ANYONE beat SCV?"

[Kamarag]

Once again, setting aside the absurdity of the whole affair...

I don't see a league like this using a draft model. It would, however, be free agency on a massive scale. What you'd see is an NCAA-like recruiting process. And there's salary...do you cap it or let corps pay according to their means? Is there a league minimum?

You think the DCI rule book is wonky now, start this and you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[Fran Haring]

To be inclusive of all the people you are looking to attract, you would need to include WW in the groups, which often make up half or more of scholastic instrumental music programs.

Somehow I knew I would see this reply.

[BigW]

Heck, we can't get a sustainable Professional Women's Soccer league in the US and the WNBA is questionable. The only reason the WNBA exists is because of NVA backing. I have to wonder if any of those teams are profitable.

This would be a for profit business. That changes the rules of the game innately.

The closest thing we had to this was BLAST! and it had some success, but it ran its course.

This kind of connects to the whole Edge thread. You'd need a huge fan base willing to turn out and spend serious cash on tickets and have enough top end venues and compatitions to make this worthwhile and remotely profitable. There's not enough mainstream interest, and I would say there will never be. The Mainstream barely understood BLAST! and supported it....

[BigW]

Also, I think a lot of these discussions and attempts come from a deep seated desire from many of us to have what we do more readily accepted by others and not thought of as nerdy/geeky/stupid.

I've accepted that and can happily live with the fact it's not mainstream and never will be. I think more people need to stop worrying about being socially accepted as mainstream and just enjoy what is there and what we do regardless of mainstream acceptabce.

[cdm]

Well, I am not surprised there are a lot of naysayers coming out of the woodwork. That is the nature of humanity. However, if the people who can do, and have done, amazing things in the past had listened to the naysayers, we would still be reading by candlelight, and listening to a oracle recite the events of the past around a bonfire.

Naysayers said that same things about::

1.The Wright Brothers. ("man was never meant to fly, and if mans was meant to fly, god would have gave him wings.")

2.Nascar, as one poster has stated as a example. If the ignorant hillbillys(and that is not far from the truth, because I know some, and they are truly ignorant) that were driving modified stock cars up and down dangerous dirt mountain roads had listened to every cop that was successful in stopping them, and putting them in jail, Nascar would not exist.

3.Major League Baseball, which started with one professional team, the Cincinnati Reds. Many people felt baseball was a kids game to played on empty lots.

4.The US Patent office. In 1899 the head of the U.S. Patent Office sent his resignation to President McKinley urging the closing of the office because "everything that could be invented has been invented."

5.Email: the inventor of email was told that is was useless, and no one would want to use it.

6.a various and sundry other inventions, ideas, and concepts that have gone one to become major products, or parts of society.

As for where the money would come from, maybe a Professional Drum corps League could start by following the example of Major League Baseball. Many original pro baseball teams were sponsored by companies, and the players were paid only during the season.

My business model (yes I have thought about this for a while.) would be to start a new music instrument company/music store, and try to hire up to 25-30 people to make instruments for the general market, with part of their job description being that they have to march in the drum corps on weekends during the summer season. That way, they would generate revenue to pay for the expenses of the summer weekend shows, and would get income from their jobs. This may work for one, maybe two, of the corps. (I don't think there is enough market for 25-30 new music instrument companies, but I may be wrong.) A corps of 25-30 people could compete professionally to start with, and management could be disciplined, and grow the corps as economics dictated.(just like some corps do now.) There could be other ways/business models to fund a new professional drum and bugle corps. (ie,: a event/entertainment company that would have as part of it's job descriptions that the employees have to march, and compete in professional drum corps, something like a touring version of Blast, where during the summer, the members compete in a professional Drum Corps League, and perform a theater show the rest of the year.)

I may have made a mistake in saying that a Professional Drum corps league could be as big as the NFL (me being optimistic, and pie in the sky) , but it could be bigger/more marketable than it is now. I think such a league could follow the example set by Pro sports, and not re-invent the wheel. It could borrow some of the marketing people from Pro sports in order to have experienced people promoting the league. And if the people continue to think of Drum and Bugle corps as a "Niche" product, it will forever be a "Niche" product.

As for a fan base, it already exists. If it did not, there would be not such thing as Drum and Bugle corps/DCI/DCA. A professional league would only have to build upon what already is there.

Looking at the concept, it looks like all it would take would be creative, motivated people who would want to do it/ have vision, and good marketing campaigns. By taking a slow, careful growth tactic, who know where a Pro Drum and bugle corps League could be a hundred years from now.

To all the naysayers, I say look at the Delorean. The company fell apart in the eighties, and and almost disappeared....... BUT, a few people who believed in the car, and had vision, have revived the company, and now they are making new cars, developing a electric version, and have 5 offices around the world. (I know about them, because their factory is 10 minutes from me.)

[camel lips]

I think even "if" you got the financial backing for this and got it off the ground you would find over a short period of time what the BIG BAND scene found out years ago.

Its more profitable to hire electronic musicians.

Ive been playing poker a lot on the tourist strip in Downtown Nashville as of late. Almost every club has some sort of 3 piece or 5 piece band playing. Ive have yet to see a brass or woodwind player. WHY???? Not because their quality is much better without them...but because at the end of the night 3-5 musicians pockets are a lot heavier than it would have been if it was a 20+ Piece big band.

Professional drum corps groups would figure this out pretty quick and everyone would want a larger chunk at the end of the day. I can hear it now. " If we don't take the guard with us to Detriot that's a extra $100 in everyone's pocket". Pretty soon you would have competing professional drum corps groups cutting other professional drum corps groups legs our from under them by offering to play for cheaper. Pretty soon you would be left with nothing but 5 piece band.

Nice thought though.

Edited May 24, 2012 by camel lips

[cdm]

I think even "if" you got the financial backing for this and got it off the ground you would find over a short period of time what the BIG BAND scene found out years ago.

Its more profitable to hire electronic musicians.

Ive been playing poker a lot on the tourist strip in Downtown Nashville as of late. Almost every club has some sort of 3 piece or 5 piece band playing. Ive have yet to see a brass or woodwind player. WHY???? Not because their quality is much better without them...but because at the end of the night 3-5 musicians pockets are a lot heavier than it would have been if it was a 20+ Piece big band.

Professional drum corps groups would figure this out pretty quick and everyone would want a larger chunk at the end of the day. I can hear it now. " If we don't take the guard with us to Detriot that's a extra $100 in everyone's pocket". Pretty soon you would have competing professional drum corps groups cutting other professional drum corps groups legs our from under them by offering to play for cheaper. Pretty soon you would be left with nothing but 5 piece band.

Nice thought though.

You are thinking about the current, "musician for hire", model. If a league was modeled after Professional sports, with competitions, then that is another, totally different, animal. Big bands never competed against each other in a organized competition, and didn't have the excitement factor of a possible winner at the end of the day.

Blue Devils......Ya Gotta Try

Edited May 24, 2012 by cdm