contraBand Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) Interestingly, there are tons of companies out there that are constantly looking for ways to reduce their profits; on the tax forms a charitable contribution is worth about 2.5 times the cost of paying taxes on profits. A corporation that funds a drum corps utilizes the leverage of "above the line" deductions whereas a simple gift to a corps is "below the line". Perhaps there's a business in finding those companies and selling "profit harvesting" methods that benefit both drum corps and the company. . . . I could go on with a dozen or so companies that fit nicely into a drum corps resources. There are lots of ways to make a business support a corps that don't require the millions it would take an investment portfolio to do the same thing. Now I'm just a lowly college student with comparatively little understanding of business and such, but it seems to me that it could be a slippery slope from this to corporations sponsoring even the names of corps themselves- imagine the "Coca-Cola Cadets" or the "Toyota Cavaliers" taking the field. I may just be playing devil's advocate here, but that is basically what came to mind when I read this post... Edited November 8, 2012 by laser.lemon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Now I'm just a lowly college student with comparatively little understanding of business and such, but it seems to me that it could be a slippery slope from this to corporations sponsoring even the names of corps themselves- imagine the "Coca-Cola Cadets" or the "Toyota Cavaliers" taking the field. I may just be playing devil's advocate here, but that is basically what came to mind when I read this post... In the distant past, there were corps sponsored by major companies..Ballentine beer sponsored the Ballentine Brewers senior corps, 7-Up, or their bottling company, sponsored a junior corps on Long Island, the Islanders. They had a patch with the 7-Up logo on their uni jackets, and their colors were 7-Up green and orange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) In the distant past, there were corps sponsored by major companies..Ballentine beer sponsored the Ballentine Brewers senior corps, 7-Up, or their bottling company, sponsored a junior corps on Long Island, the Islanders. They had a patch with the 7-Up logo on their uni jackets, and their colors were 7-Up green and orange. Thought of 7-Up but forgot which corps it was. Also on the Sr side (before anyone else sez it) Hamms/Schlitz Indians, Hormel (they make Spam) All-Womans Corps and few others I can't remember at the time. Also Pittsburgh Rockets were supposed to be sponsored by an aerospace company but the deal fell thru (but kept the "spacey" name). All 1960s and before but remember Steel City Ambassadors having Wendys patchs on their sleeves so who knows. Edit: I'll get kicked if I don't mention the Hershey (yeah that Hershey) Chocolatiers. But not sure how much $$$ the company kicked in or if a lot of chocolate workers belonged to the AL Post that sponsored the corps. (Get kicked because I'll be in Hershey this weekend for a meeting.) Off topic kinda: Was at Guam in the 90s and there was an eight team amateur basseball league there. Each team used the sponsor in the name so sports was announced: "Pepsi Cola Tigers beat the Athletics Foot Cougars 9-3 last night...". We tried to buy one of the team jerseys in the local shops but they weren't for sale to the public Edited November 8, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Matczak Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 In the distant past, there were corps sponsored by major companies..Ballentine beer sponsored the Ballentine Brewers senior corps, 7-Up, or their bottling company, sponsored a junior corps on Long Island, the Islanders. They had a patch with the 7-Up logo on their uni jackets, and their colors were 7-Up green and orange. don't forget the K-Mart Cadets,............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troopers1 Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Interestingly, there are tons of companies out there that are constantly looking for ways to reduce their profits; on the tax forms a charitable contribution is worth about 2.5 times the cost of paying taxes on profits. A corporation that funds a drum corps utilizes the leverage of "above the line" deductions whereas a simple gift to a corps is "below the line". Perhaps there's a business in finding those companies and selling "profit harvesting" methods that benefit both drum corps and the company. On the one hand, this makes sense, because I've seen clients go through major contortions to shelter profits. But if that were to hold true, I wonder why companies no longer have captive sports teams (The Philips 66 Basketball Team used to play in the mountain west region, for instance), or music groups (the Railmen were originally the Union Pacific Railroad's weren't they?). But the easiest way to do this is to incorporate in Bermuda, isn't it? You rent an office and pay a lawyer to sit in it and file paperwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiga Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 don't forget the K-Mart Cadets,............. LOL---For the "youngins", he is not joking! There was a year in which the Cadets actually carried a K'Mart flag with them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) On the one hand, this makes sense, because I've seen clients go through major contortions to shelter profits. But if that were to hold true, I wonder why companies no longer have captive sports teams (The Philips 66 Basketball Team used to play in the mountain west region, for instance), or music groups (the Railmen were originally the Union Pacific Railroad's weren't they?). But the easiest way to do this is to incorporate in Bermuda, isn't it? You rent an office and pay a lawyer to sit in it and file paperwork. UP Railmen were orginally for the employees kids and dropped when UP was cutting costs (as per History of DC Vol II). LOL, had to look up the 66ers.... supposedly a team made up of "employees" Actually a lot of Legion and VFW posts had their own sports teams along with corps and in my area some still have baseball teams. Cost, loss o fmembers and lack of interest are the main reasons for the decline from what I understand. Edited November 8, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Freedman Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Actually a lot of Legion and VFW posts had their own sports teams along with corps and in my area some still have baseball teams. Cost, loss o fmembers and lack of interest are the main reasons for the decline from what I understand. Yeah, there's a lot of that going around... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Freedman Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 You make valid points about responsibilities and benefits, but an index fund? Really? Even if you mean "investments" and not literally an index fund, the potential returns on a risk-adjusted basis of an investment portfolio can't compete with the risk-adjusted return of owning a business. Even if one assumes the (fictional) 10% returns of long-term investing it would take $10-million to fully fund a corps annually. That same $10-mllion could be multiplied 3 or 4 times due to the leverage available to corporations that are not available to investors. Companies use gross revenue to run their businesses, but investors only grow based on net profits. I mean investments. As to choosing an investment, on Wall Street Week or whatever it's called now, Maria Bartrilomo always asks her billionaire investor genius guest for stock/bond advice for the viewers, and they often advise not to buy individually, but to buy an index fund. I personally don't make enough to bother researching it. However, your logic seems flawed. The corps could only benefit from the profits, not from the gross revenue. Where ever you draw the line between the corps and the business, everything on the business side of that line has to be self-sustaining, and it requires most of the revenues to accomplish that. And I never heard of a reliable start-up business model that multiply $10 million dollars 3 or 4 times in any speedy time frame. Staying in business at all is the first trick, and it's very difficult. Then you go on to suggest several excellent business/fundraising ideas for drum corps. These seem to involve using the corps members to perform work, so presumably they would be compensated with a reduced tour fee? Still, they would be cheaper and hopefully more reliable than hiring new. Also it would be mostly the local members, since the traveling ones will be busy during the tour. And there don't seem to be as many local ones these days. Has there been a thread on side business ideas for drum corps fundraising? I would love to see all your ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Now I'm just a lowly college student with comparatively little understanding of business and such, but it seems to me that it could be a slippery slope from this to corporations sponsoring even the names of corps themselves- imagine the "Coca-Cola Cadets" or the "Toyota Cavaliers" taking the field. I may just be playing devil's advocate here, but that is basically what came to mind when I read this post... Perhaps it's a slippery slope to more corporate funding but, at this point, can the activity actually turn away from ANY funding, corporate or otherwise? Does it really make a difference when we have so many corporate sponsors of the activity now, and their banners hang prominently around every DCI show? So what if they're on the field, too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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