Michael Boo Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 oldtimefan . . . I'm with you on part of your post. Doing Indy live will never work for everyone, and the reasons why not vary greatly. I want to suggest you purchase one of the Pay-Per-View broadcasts from Indy. I did this year and found the corps to be FANTASTIC when presented in that format. Maybe that's DCI's future. In this respect, I ask you, and others " How important is actual IN-PERSON attendance in today's world? " In other words, if in-person attendance at Indy (or any other city) reduces down to 10,000 seats sold, but has 75,000 others purchasing a Pay-Per-View, should DCI, and its fans, feel satisfied and upbeat about the future of this activity? My answer . . . Absolutely! I can't disagree with your analysis, and certainly, everyone who would love to be at Finals in person can't be, for any number of reasons. Still, for those who can, there is NO substitute for the awesome glory that is live drum corps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drilltech1 Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Good question, and I don't know the answer to that as far as how much DCI makes profit-wise from ticket-holders vs stream. I know average ticket price was MORE than the stream for Finals, and while DCI got my money from FN no body got my money at concessions (I know: not DCI's problem but the more $$ concessions make the happier Indy is with DCI) or at the souvie stands. And as yet, no one in DCI has figured out how the members performing hear the cheers, applause (or even boos) of those sitting in the theaters or at home on FN or livecast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barigirl78 Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 (edited) 2. Directly from the article, "A significant portion of the additional audience for finals can be attributed directly to a sizable increase in local Indiana residents attending the event." This could somewhat financially troubling, if only because Indy residents were offered VERY deeply discounted tickets. I bought my ticket from the ticket booth for finals that night. As I was approaching, several people walked up to me saying they had a coupon for me if I was an Indiana resident. I'm not an Indiana resident, so I had to turn them down. It's certainly a sign that more people knew about the Indiana discount. I'm saddened by the decline in semifinals attendance. We had a nice fight for the 12th place position and the quality level in the corps who ranked lower than 12th was quite high this year. Edited August 21, 2013 by barigirl78 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barigirl78 Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Question regarding: "The paid attendance for the three-day series totals 37,461. This figure does not include what is estimated to be more than three thousand corps and staff members who entered the stadium after performances with wristbands or staff/VIP credentials. Read more: http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=5bd83bc2-2fd0-43df-b3eb-1808c64d4ecd&utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2013%2E08%2E21+DCI%2Enow#ixzz2cdkArCYB" Does paid attendance also include tickets that are given to sponsors and other "friends of DCI". I got a ticket last year from a guy who was a show sponsor. It had a value on it. I'm assuming it does since they probably count paid attendance by numbers of tickets scanned. A complementary ticket of the type I had was scanned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Looking at the trends of seating, looks like the domed stadium isn't really killing Finals attendance. Would appear that having Finals in Orlando, which is a huge travel destination did. Last year in Orlando to this year's attendance is an 8,000 person swing. That's a lot of people. With the Open Class numbers, I wonder if it has something to do with the scheduling and distance of it. Until 2011?, the Open Class Semis and Finals were on the same day as World Class, and usually at the same place with the exception of 05 and 07. Since it would now involve people coming out three days early, and then renting a car or arranging transport between Indy and Michigan City, less are likely to travel. I know in Open Class, it was cool to perform at the same stadium as the WC corps, even though it was pretty empty. Those big stadiums are something we rarely got to experience. I would think that having it on different days like that has done more damage than anything else, since most people can't afford to take that much time off and fly out three/four days early to Finals week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alumniof Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I bought my ticket from the ticket booth for finals that night. As I was approaching, several people walked up to me saying they had a coupon for me if I was an Indiana resident. I'm not an Indiana resident, so I had to turn them down. It's certainly a sign that more people knew about the Indiana discount. I'm saddened by the decline in semifinals attendance. We had a nice fight for the 12th place position and the quality level in the corps who ranked lower than 12th was quite high this year. Semis are unnecessary. Put Open Class finals on Friday night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alumniof Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Put your alumni corps, sound sport, ensemble winners and showcase all that other stuff. Entertainment...variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Semis are unnecessary. Put Open Class finals on Friday night. How about you tell that to any corps that moved up from 13th to 12th on Semis night. Pretty important to them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barifonium Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 Not to be a debbie downer or anything but I've got to wonder how many of those new BITS are corps members from corps that have recently folded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I was on a camping trip over the weekend, and missed this thread, apparently closed for gratuitously and incoherently attacking Music City (not to mention citing footage of World Class Prelims as proof of poor attendance at Open Class Finals; a little actual footage from Michigan City can be seen ; crowd shots at 0:04 and 0:59), but I think that danielray's suggestion therein is worth further consideration: go back to having the top corps compete at only the last two days of championships--as was the case until 1989--reserving Prelims for the lower-tier corps, and start it later in the day, so that the corps who won't make Semis get to have their last performance later in the day. (As he said: "The purpose of Prelims is to determine which groups make it to Semis, yet the last corps to not make the Semis went on just after lunch for a show that ended at midnight.") And do whatever is necessary to increase the Prelims attendance, including free tickets to students whose contact information is collected. (I'd add: don't let anyone sit outside the 40-yard lines at that show!) Thoughts on that idea? The major problem that jumps to mind is what to do about the cinema show. Garfield protested that "many of us go to see the WC corps three times", but surely he uses the word "many" rather loosely in this instance, given the attendance at Prelims even at the evening's end. He also wondered about fans valuing a free show as worth nothing. That's certainly a concern I'm familiar with in the theatre (a colleague's slogan is "live by the comp, die by the comp") but even so we find occasions when it helps to "paper" the house, usually to build word-of-mouth when early sales are slow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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