HollywoodNeoCon Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 As the (largely) drunken hordes here in Chicago celebrate the Blackhawks' second Stanley Cup Championship in three years, I cannot help but think back to October 2007, in the days just prior to the death of Bill Wirtz. Stick with me here. I'm going somewhere with this... Back then, the 'Hawks' were being consistently outdrawn by our local American Hockey League team, the Chicago Wolves, had one of the worst attendance records in the NHL, and a season ticket base of about 4500. They also weren't televised or broadcast anywhere, a decision Bill Wirtz stubbornly clung to, believing that to do so would only further damper his club's dismal ticket sales. All that changed, however, when Bill died. His son, Rocky, took over, and with the help of new CEO and team president John McDonough, the two began what would ultimately become one of the greatest, and quickest, turnarounds in professional sports. From the linked article: In October 2007, just days after the death of Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz, his son, Rocky Wirtz, the team's new chairman, made a phone call to the folks at Comcast SportsNet Chicago, the regional sports network. Wirtz wanted to discuss the idea of putting the Blackhawks on local television. "They thought I meant next season," Wirtz said at the time. The now-legendary phone call had CSN Chicago ask Rocky, "Where do you want them? TV? Radio?" "EVERYWHERE," came his reply. Wirtz knew that you can't market what people can't see, and disregarded those in his family who felt that hockey was simply "too niche" to succeed on any level appreciable enough to justify what they saw as "giving away" their product to people who obviously weren't interested enough to actually go to the games, anyway. "Tell that to NASCAR," he said at a press conference shortly after the call. Six years later, and the Blackhawks have, for the fourth straight season, led the NHL in home attendance, and sold out their last 202 games. Now, fully understanding that an Original Six NHL team and DCI are hardly similar, an ineffective marketing strategy is an ineffective marketing strategy; wasteful at best - cancerous at worst. For decades, Bill Wirtz clung to the notion that keeping his team off TV would indeed translate to more robust ticket sales. Instead, what he got were hockey games so eerily quiet, you would swear you were actually watching a practice. WGN-TV's Mark Suppelsa recalled taking his young son to a game back in 2004 or so, and was gobsmacked to realize he could hear the puck being hit off the sticks. In doing some research for this screed, I happened upon the infamous CNN G-7 article from a few years ago. I hadn't read it previously. Heck, I didn't even know it existed, but this stuck out for me: Skyrocketing costs and a mobile economy has eroded local support for these community-based groups, corps directors said. Costs to field a competitive 150-member drum corps, a traveling entourage of instructors and support staff now eclipse $1 million a year for top groups. Most participants are college-aged music education or performance majors who pay as much $3,000 in fees to train and perform with top groups.The growth of year-round school programs presents new logistical problems in finding available facilities for corps to rehearse and sleep while on the road, said Dan Acheson, DCI executive director. And fluctuating fuel prices, as corps log 12,000 miles a summer, add to the worries. "Transportation alone costs a corps about $180,000 a year," Acheson said. The problems of drum corps "shows up as lack of finances, but it's actually about management ... the ability to comprehend and react to all the demands of running a $1 to $3 million non-profit organization," [George] Hopkins said. "Most (corps directors) were teachers; there is no training ground for this, really. "The whole evolution and transition from community service organizations to non-profit organizations has been difficult. I think that's the main reason why most drum corps have passed away, for lack of a better term." A few things here. First, while I loathe Mr. Hopkins for trying to take over the civilized world 11.5 minutes at a time, I think the man raises some very valid points about why La Musica Cosa Nostra has dwindled to 50 or so active corps. No, this isn't 1972 anymore, and while some corps have been successful in making the necessary adjustments over the years, far too many more failed. So, you get what he have here, which is the way George wants it. Well, he gets it, and I don't like it anymore than you folks do. Unless he finally lets the corps play Rocky Point in it's entirety, in which case, I'll drink whatever Kool-Aid he's serving that particular year. But I digress. My larger point here is that whenever the subject of DCI on TV comes up, I invariably hear "too niche" as one of the biggest reasons why we're all now faced with two options come Nats: book a vacation to Indiana, or go sit in a movie theater for Prelims somewhere and pray that nobody along the line screws anything up. Otherwise, we get a Fan Network subscription and wait a day or two to see the VOD. Hopefully, we've got a wicked-fast broadband account, a decent laptop with A/V output and a big HDTV. But that's us. We're already fans, and we're not the ones I'm interested in. No, I'm talking about growth, and growth does not occur by referring to yourself as a "niche activity," as I've read dozens of people on this very forum claim proudly. "Niche," to anyone with any sales training, is a four-letter word. It is limiting, self-defeating and ultimately, gives the prospect a reason to tell you no. Competitive putt-putt is a "niche." The PGA? Not so much. "Niche" is an excuse, not a selling point. So with this in mind, I cannot for the life of me understand why DCI has, for all intents and purposes, geared its marketing campaign exclusively (or so it seems on occasion ) toward that demographic already disposed to awareness of the drum corps brand. And make no mistake, drum corps is a brand, and one that deserves a far wider audience than it presently enjoys. It is a uniquely American art form that has enriched the lives of countless young men and women around the world, and an even larger number of folks who, for one reason or another, never got to experience it from the starting line. Having said that, and as a film producer with numerous projects in various stages of development, I would submit that if DCI were to market itself as savvily as all of us in "the industry" are compelled to (if we want to raise the ridiculous amounts of money we need to get our projects made, that is), I'm quite certain it wouldn't have any significant problems finding enough advertisers to justify pitching it to a network. It can be done. It has been done. Heck, I've done it, and with far less saleable a product than the Madison Scouts. In conclusion, Bill Cook. Were it not for a DCI telecast, none of us would still be arguing about Star of Indiana 20 years after they packed up their act and took it to Broadway. Call me, Dan. Let's do lunch. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seen-it-all Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 If you're really being sincere about pursuing a much broader audience for drum corps in this country (especially as it relates to getting more exposure on television), be prepared to see more changes that you might not be all that happy with to the activity you claim to love. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 (edited) If you're really being sincere about pursuing a much broader audience for drum corps in this country (especially as it relates to getting more exposure on television), be prepared to see more changes that you might not be all that happy with to the activity you claim to love. What" more changes" ( changes that regretably did not save us from losing both live and taped TV exposure) will get us live or taped TV for Finals back in the future, in your opinion ? Edited June 28, 2013 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammaster Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 If you're really being sincere about pursuing a much broader audience for drum corps in this country (especially as it relates to getting more exposure on television), be prepared to see more changes that you might not be all that happy with to the activity you claim to love. ding ding ding ding! Winner winner chicken dinner! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 I don't see broadcast/cable television as a reasonable option these days. It's too expensive for whatever benefits you might get. Maybe if you put older shows out there in smaller chunks? But in general, today there are just too many channels to be able to get any attention. Back when PBS was one of four of five channels in most homes, being on TV was a huge thing, but now, I don't think very many people would find it. The important audience (young people) has long since moved to on-demand consumption and won't be reached via TV broadcasts. DCI's new initiatives of Drumline Battle and Soundsport hold a lot of promise for exposing more people to the activity, and getting them to know DCI via these smaller scale activities that far more people can participate in. There ought to be Drumline Battle competitions during breaks at high school sporting events, at minor league baseball games, at fairs and carnivals and festivals of all sorts, anywhere and everywhere, and make sure those audiences find out about DCI and any upcoming nearby shows in the process. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seen-it-all Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 (edited) What" more changes" ( changes that regretably did not save us from losing both live and taped TV exposure) will get us live or taped TV for Finals back in the future, in your opinion ? Some possibilities: - Something along the lines of what we already saw (and many diehard fans complained about) with the ESPN broadcasts. It's the current Olympics model where they show less and less of the actual events and more and more of the human interest stories. Compelling TV when done right, but I'm afraid that's not what the OP and many old school drum corps fans are looking for - Something along the lines of American Idol or the movie Drumline, perhaps with celebrity judges? Or perhaps drum corps becoming back-up groups to celebrity artists? Take a listen to what passes for popular music these days. Is that what you really want to hear drum corps play more of? - Shorter shows (or more heavily edited versions of existing shows) so advertisers can air more commercials - Look at drum corps in its current form. Now ask yourself how relevant the things which make it unique would be to advertisers or a more broad viewing base? Would they care about the traditions? Would they care about the instrumentation (or the "look" of the groups, with uniforms, rifles, etc)? If the activity was asked to CHANGE some of those things in order to expose it to a much wider audience, would you be OK with that? Even if it meant more electronics? Or eliminating the bando uniforms? Or use your imagination. Think about what a TV focus group of 40 or 50 average Americans who don't know a thing about drum corps would say about the activity when shown, for example, the 2012 DCI Finals and asked what changes would they like to see if they were to watch this on prime time national TV? Think about that and ask yourself, is this really what we want? Edited June 28, 2013 by seen-it-all 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris ncsu Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 (edited) If you're sincere, get to the friggin point in your letter! Edited June 28, 2013 by chris ncsu 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollywoodNeoCon Posted June 28, 2013 Author Share Posted June 28, 2013 (edited) If you're really being sincere about pursuing a much broader audience for drum corps in this country (especially as it relates to getting more exposure on television), be prepared to see more changes that you might not be all that happy with to the activity you claim to love. That's ridiculous, and entirely representative of the sort of cynical myopia I was talking about. Celebrity judges? Shorter shows? Focus groups? Not likely. Now, corporate sponsorship of individual corps? That's a heckuva lot more likely. Edited June 28, 2013 by HollywoodNeoCon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 Interesting OP and as a hockey fan (GO AHL!! ) there is another piece to the turn around that I caught on TV (NHL Net of course). The new owner also went after two icons of the teams history (Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita) and asked them to be ambassadors for the team. Turns out the previous owner (owners? not sure) treated them with less respect than they deserved and the bad feeling was mutual. Think the general feeling like "You're part of the past, who needs ya". Now more respect for fans, past players, current team, etc, etc for the betterment of all. And nice statues of the two also.... Fit that into Drum Corps anyway you want.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c.l. Posted June 28, 2013 Share Posted June 28, 2013 As the kids say, TL,DR. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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