2B or not 2B Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 No I do not think it is too long. DCA is pretty much "Week End Only". Now more than ever it takes longer to get the shows to the Top Quality of a DCA Corps. I know each year DCA becomes more and more like DCI. For better or worse. That seems to be the direction things at DCA are going. The High School - College age DCI Corps get to work at it 7 days a week. They can develop their shows to a higher quality, quicker. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melligene Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Too long ? Really ? DCI Corps' perform 7 days a week. If you put it in perspective....the DCA season is abt a week and a half long. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomPeashey Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 a couple of things... one the college kids were a problem in the late 1960's when they moved it to Labor Day weekend... no different today... we worked it out then they work it out now... and.... as for the season being too long my complaint is it's too short... Most corps can NOT properly polish there programs and develop them to the highest degree with only 5 shows... Further, as a former corps director, I have a HUGE problem with that from a financial stand point... let's say your budget is $200,000 - which is about right for an all aged corps... like most DCA corps you do a few other things (parades and exhibitions) but in reality the only reason to exist is the summer competitions... if you do 5 shows... each show costs you $40,000 - you have to be kidding me... and the sponsors scream at paying from $1500 to $4000 to get you to their show... I thought it was bad when we had 13 shows a summer... bad in that it cost us too much money... so frankly... if I had a corps and only did 5 shows a year... I simply couldn't justify the expense... which is exactly why there will most likely be no corps in Western New York after next week. What was seen as the salvation for some corps has spelled the end of others... There is NO easy solution 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 I'd say it starts too late in the season but know it's not possible to do Memorial Day starts anymore with member distance and complexity of shows. But never thought about what Tom said about financing coming from number of shows. And I was with a corps that preferred to come in last at DCA shows than 1st in RCA shows. Why? Because we made more money coming in last at DCA..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidwestGiant Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 I would have to say yes. I think that having it done earlier frees up the final weekend of the summer for people with families, makes the school/college transition easier, and connects the drum corps audience better to DCI. I think that having it three weeks later isn't as strong of connection to the main audience for our activity. They've moved on to Marching Band. Certainly, we could figure out how to prepare our groups to and earlier end of the season, and not lose shows. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 a couple of things... one the college kids were a problem in the late 1960's when they moved it to Labor Day weekend... no different today... we worked it out then they work it out now... and.... as for the season being too long my complaint is it's too short... Most corps can NOT properly polish there programs and develop them to the highest degree with only 5 shows... Further, as a former corps director, I have a HUGE problem with that from a financial stand point... let's say your budget is $200,000 - which is about right for an all aged corps... like most DCA corps you do a few other things (parades and exhibitions) but in reality the only reason to exist is the summer competitions... if you do 5 shows... each show costs you $40,000 - you have to be kidding me... and the sponsors scream at paying from $1500 to $4000 to get you to their show... I thought it was bad when we had 13 shows a summer... bad in that it cost us too much money... so frankly... if I had a corps and only did 5 shows a year... I simply couldn't justify the expense... which is exactly why there will most likely be no corps in Western New York after next week. What was seen as the salvation for some corps has spelled the end of others... There is NO easy solution White Sabers going away???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 I doubt it. Many corps develop their shows over the course of the summer, adding and tweaking as things go along, so that they peak at the end. That scheule would just be reconfigued. If the implication is that the staffs would make all that growth happen sooner with a shorter season I respectfully disagree. Most DCA corps are working hard all summer to try to peak at Labor Day. To me the decision should be pure economics - if DCA studies and finds out that they would do better financially closing up a week earlier, then so be it. The world has changed quite a bit over the past 4 decades. Maybe it's time. I never thought we'd get past having Wildwood weekend (the week after Labor Day) disappear for drum corps, but it's gone and life goes on. If the championship can make more money eariler then it's a good thing. If not? But let's not make the decision based on the idea that the corps could peak sooner if they wanted to... it's gotten hard enough to get them on the field by July 4th (almost 6 weeks later than the 70s). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Dansville is not in Western NY, more like Central NY White Sabers going away???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeDz Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Given the expansion of some DCA corps after the DCI finals, is it possible that the question should be "is the DCI season too short?" Joe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabalumnidrummer Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 In recent weeks several fellow alumni corps members and I have been reviewing copies of our schedules from the 1960's and 70's. We have all said the same thing: "The current DCA season is way too short!" We had an average of 14 to 16 contests a season when I competed. There was at least one season where we had four contests in June alone. July and August were also pretty much solid with respect to a contest every weekend, and sometimes two, notably the Dream contest weekend. Now, eight or nine contests is the norm for many corps, and a few do even less. Economics/finances aside, I think it's a shame there are so few opportunities for corps to compete, though I do understand the financial burdens and difficulty of maintaining a rigorous contest schedule. Shorten the DCA season? I don't think that's a good idea, and if it ever came to fruition, I believe it would signal the beginning of the end of the circuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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