DCI Attendance Figures Released

[Jeff Ream]

Then there is the old (ca 1930s) story of when the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to put games over the radio. People totally flipped that it would kill attendance as fans would stay home for free. Compromise was only the third period was broadcast for home games.

End result? Really built up the fan base and attendance as people who never really followed the team got hooked.....

Of course big difference is paying to get into the theater but it's another opportunity to get new fans or draw the current fans in deeper.

look we're crowing about 18k.

but we also know there are many folks that won't go because of cost, family and the venue. and I'm willing to bet a lot of people would pay to waych it online.....so DCI can get money from that, or continue getting no money like they do now.

I'd really love to see DCi release the following:

Number of Fan Network subscribers for the season, regardless of level

number of people that did a one time purchase to see each regional or live broadcast.

I think right there are some very telling numbers on what DCI could expect if they released them

[Kamarag]

I'd really love to see DCi release the following:

Number of Fan Network subscribers for the season, regardless of level

number of people that did a one time purchase to see each regional or live broadcast.

I think right there are some very telling numbers on what DCI could expect if they released them

I'd love to see this two. And imagine what the Fan Network (all flavors, not just DCI) could do if they actually put some effort into marketing it.

[glory]

So much dopeyness (dopiness?) in this thread I don't know where to start. So in no particular order:

1. Paid attendance increased. That's all there is to it. Here's the quote from Atcheson in the press release some chuckleheads somehow don't understand: "We are very pleased to post a modest year-over-year increase in paid attendance across the three events at Lucas Oil Stadium." The comp ticket issue is blather. The increase in paid attendance is the bottom line.

2. The prelim cinecast is a success. While it's heart-warming to see some practice their division skills for us, they aren't delivering any insights worth hearing. Might as well average finals ticket sales by all possible zip codes. The issue isn't geographic distribution; that's the cinema companies’ concern. The only issue relevant to us is total sales, which were great. Besides, using 2004 as the baseline is foolish. With finals in geographically distant Denver that year, the cinecast results were bound to be inflated. Indeed, a fair argument might be made that the growth in numbers through the Indy years owes mostly to the additional theaters.

3. The cinecast concept works BECAUSE prelims are on Thursday. That’s a weak night for movie sales, so theater owners are willing to hold one screen open for marching band. Any plan that contemplates marching band in the prime Friday/Saturday evening slots would likely be too expensive for us.

4. Too expensive is why there is no broadcast on PBS or ESPN. There is no reason why DCI should underwrite that expense when technology now allows for it to derive more income by distributing its premier content through the Internet (or by the cinecast and DVD). Techology has opened new and bigger channels. And money still matters.

5. Still on economics. Sales for finals in Indy have been largely stable through a period of prolonged economic distress. That has to be considered a success for DCI. The downbeats of DCP keep drumming the many negatives of finals at LOS and Indy. Unemployment and uncertainty are abundant. And yet DCI has managed to keep and sometimes grow sales for its biggest events, including the championship. That’s great.

6. Reality check. Drum corps fans as a group are stupidly negative.

HH