DCI Travel Question

[Quad Aces]

I was thinking about the shows this weekend (going to Rockford and looking forward to it), and a thought occurred to me. Why did DCI set this weekend up in such a way where Cadets, Cavaliers, and Santa Clara are all traveling from Lisle, IL (a suburb of Chicago) on Friday, all the way to Minneapolis, MN on Saturday, then back to Rockford, IL (another suburb of Chicago, although a little further away from the city)?

Had the weekend been arranged a little differently and these three corps were able to stay in the Chcago area over the weekend, the drive from Lisle to Rockford is probably an hour or so.

With gas prices the way they are and the economy in general the way that it is, why would DCI do something like this when they are laying out the season schedule? Seems like a pretty wasteful use of resources imposed on the corps in the instance. Also, how many other examples of something like this are on the tour?

[fsubone]

I was thinking about the shows this weekend (going to Rockford and looking forward to it), and a thought occurred to me. Why did DCI set this weekend up in such a way where Cadets, Cavaliers, and Santa Clara are all traveling from Lisle, IL (a suburb of Chicago) on Friday, all the way to Minneapolis, MN on Saturday, then back to Rockford, IL (another suburb of Chicago, although a little further away from the city)?

Had the weekend been arranged a little differently and these three corps were able to stay in the Chcago area over the weekend, the drive from Lisle to Rockford is probably an hour or so.

With gas prices the way they are and the economy in general the way that it is, why would DCI do something like this when they are laying out the season schedule? Seems like a pretty wasteful use of resources imposed on the corps in the instance. Also, how many other examples of something like this are on the tour?

Gas prices are actually getting pretty low around the country, so that's not as much of a risk as it used to be.

While the Rockford show is on Sunday, after the regional, there are corps coming in from Wisconsin as well. The regionals have always been on Saturdays, and the TOC shows are pretty brand new. So I'm sure that the Lisle show and regional were already set up on those days before the Rockford show became a TOC show last year

[bstar82]

I was thinking about the shows this weekend (going to Rockford and looking forward to it), and a thought occurred to me. Why did DCI set this weekend up in such a way where Cadets, Cavaliers, and Santa Clara are all traveling from Lisle, IL (a suburb of Chicago) on Friday, all the way to Minneapolis, MN on Saturday, then back to Rockford, IL (another suburb of Chicago, although a little further away from the city)?

Had the weekend been arranged a little differently and these three corps were able to stay in the Chcago area over the weekend, the drive from Lisle to Rockford is probably an hour or so.

With gas prices the way they are and the economy in general the way that it is, why would DCI do something like this when they are laying out the season schedule? Seems like a pretty wasteful use of resources imposed on the corps in the instance. Also, how many other examples of something like this are on the tour?

The only thing I can think of is the Minneapolis show has which every World corps is in has been more the cause of this. Rockford's Show of shows has always had a pretty strong lineup and from there the corps can start making there way down to Texas. I've been to both the Lisle and Rockford shows. I would just make it it a long weekend to catch them and Minneapolis.

For quite some many years, there has been a Dallas area and a Houston show on Thursday /Friday nights, then San Antonio the next day only to have some corps head to either Denton (a Cavie sponsored show) and others head towards Louisana.

[Quad Aces]

Just checked out the distances - Lisle to Minneapolis back to Rockfird is about 750 miles. Lisle straight to Rockford is about 80 miles (I was a little off on about an hour's drive here).

Just seems like an awful lot of extra miles, extra gas, and extra time. I'm betting that this could have been planned out better. If there are a lot of examples of this, I'm not surprised that there are lots of financial challenges for this national touring model.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Quad Aces

[skywhopper]

This is the Traveling Salesman Problem, which is hard enough to solve for one entity. But when you've got 20+ traveling "salesmen", shows with their own scheduling concerns, regionals that have to be on Saturdays, and various other timing issues to consider, the problem is unsolvable. You can optimize the driving patterns but you'll wind up being unable to schedule as many shows as you might like. I'm guessing the gas money is more than made up for in performance fees and souvie sales for the corps performing at Rockford anyway.

[friceox]

The TOC payout is probably enough to either make the travel cost a wash or make a profit.

Why not, if that's the case.

[tja273]

...regionals that have to be on Saturdays

This is the issue. Unless Rockford or Lisle is willing to be on a Thursday (probably lower turnout), there isn't much choice. You could move the TOC events to Saturday (G7 anyone?), but then where would you put the regional? Minneapolis has always been a strong drum corps venue, hence the selection for a major regional. With the plan to have all world class corps for this regional, there is little choice unless you can find other close locations that would support major shows leading into or out of this major regional.

Personally, I think DCI has done a good job of coordinating these major shows, even if it has resulted in some long travel times and a major lack of "big" shows in California. While it sucks to have to travel each year to see any of the corps at their best, I'm not sure what other options are realistically available.