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When will Eastern corps travel (Mid)West?


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I think every corps in DCA has "the good of the activity" at heart but they also have the good of their corps at heart first and it should be that way. It all comes down to $$$$$. I'm sure Reading, Hawthorne, Bush, and Hurricanes would happily venture south or west if it were financially possible. Kudos to MBI for being able to that. They must have financial wizards keeping their books.

You have to have the Northeasterner's perspective:

When Hawthorne travels to Philadelphia they've traveled to another region.

I used to work with a senior corps (that shall remain nameless) that would have 50 ankle bracelets start alarming when they went over the George Washington Bridge...

It's all perspective.

Keep traveling MinniBrass. We all love you! Plus you're missing those Robin sized mosquitoes while you're back East.

Place it in this perspective: Let's make most all DCA shows occur between MN and CA with the DCA finals forever being in the San Fransisco Bay area thus forcing Reading, Hawthorne, Bush, and Hurricane to 'always' travel west. Start traveling ya east coast corps; we all love you!

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Currently "DCA" is made up of 7 voting members from the Northeast, 2 voting members from the Midwest and 1 voting member from the South. (I have to wonder about Empire. Will they hold onto their voting rights in 2014 even though they are inactive?)

In any case, either 6 or 7 out of 10 voting member corps are from the NE: Bucs, Cabs, C2, Empire, Fusion, Bush & White Sabers. There are also at least another 5 or 6 non-voting member corps from the NE region as well. It is likely that the 6 active voting-member corps will host 8 or 9 contests throughout the summer. Throw in Barnum and Scranton and the Hurcs home show, and the summer is already booked with well-established, decent paying shows. It would not make financial or logistical sense for these corps to roll the dice and head out West and/or down South without a reasonable guarantee of breaking even.

The answer for the non-NE corps is to continue to build corps and shows in their respective regions. High Country Brass, Minnesota, Govies, Chops Inc, Kilties, Cincinatti Tradition and Lakeshoremen could find a reasonable middle ground, maybe Chicago for a Midwest Regional in August, especially if a corps could take hold in Chicago or somewhere in Illinois. There are lots of DCI WC and OC corps in the Midwest. Maybe talks could happen with some of them to follow the Cadets2 model? Phantom, Cavies & Madison all have strong alumni organizations. Could a DCA corps come out of these groups? Maybe.

Sun Devils, Tampa Bay Thunder, CV, Alliance, and maybe Gold & Sound (although they are maybe closer to the NE) could have a Southeren Showdown in August. There have been corps out of Nashville area. Maybe with support, one of these could take hold and Nashville or Severeville could be the hub for DCA South?

If these regional shows are developed to the point where they can afford to pay a NE corps like Cabs or Bucs to make the trip, so be it. If not, it makes no sense to take the risk just "for the good of the activity". Look at the long list of corps that are no longer around. A big reason for this was that the money dried up. In some cases, these corps were traveling a lot more than their budgets allowed. Maybe if they would have been more conservative, some of them could have weathered the storm a little better.

Honestly...the Southern SHowdown with NE corps attached should have happened near Annapolis the last 2 summers to draw interest. I know DCA the organization really doesn't want to run shows, but it does with Boston and Scranton, and this would have ben a no brainer to draw local interest as well as travelers. Yeah, Navy's stadium may have been too steep for the day, but there is sveral good high school stadiums in that area that could have been used.

And it would have gotten a lot more local people interested and knowledgable

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Lets see.

Shenandoa Sound a corps with a really small budjet has made the trip up North several times.

Shenandoah Sound isn't that far away from the NE pool of shows. Don't act like they are. I checked Mapquest to make sure. Nokesville's a 3 hour drive from Central PA on easy highways. I made the drive myself this summer.

They're 190 miles away from Reading and 165 from Downingtown. Westshore traveled farther to get to contests in Connecticut, Western PA, and Ohio in the late 70's early 80's for Lord's sake. Crusaders traveled farther to get to shows in Central and Western PA. We're not talking the 750 to 800 miles from Reading to Racine here or 775 to 800 like Reading to Atlanta. Add more to that for the Cabs.

Heck, I think White Sabres have a farther drive to those contests than Shenandoah Sound. Let's see:

Dansville to Reading, 234 miles, Dansville to Downingtown, 280 Miles. Oops! Got to know the geography better up in this neck of the woods....

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Honestly...the Southern SHowdown with NE corps attached should have happened near Annapolis the last 2 summers to draw interest. I know DCA the organization really doesn't want to run shows, but it does with Boston and Scranton, and this would have ben a no brainer to draw local interest as well as travelers. Yeah, Navy's stadium may have been too steep for the day, but there is sveral good high school stadiums in that area that could have been used.

And it would have gotten a lot more local people interested and knowledgable

I'd also think there has to be a reasonably sized Cumberland MD/Scranton HS type stadium with a good all weather surface down in VA somewhere. Where, I'm clueless. Haven't ran into it in my travels down there.

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:ph34r:/>/>/>

I am reading these posts watching the disparity of the persons who have either seen the possibilities that CAN occur if and when the Northeastern DCA corps venture out beyond the tether lines of their 'safety zones' and those that will probably look to find more and more excuses to 'sit on their thumbs'.

Some posters seem to be against the idea of the effort it has taken groups from outside the NE to COMMIT - PLAN & BUDGET both their organization and it's members to "risk" something outside their normal summer routine.

I would agree with my friend, MidwestGiant..His response to the question about whether or not MBI makes money on the trips out East was surely more discript and less sarcastic than mine would have been, since both he and I have been a part (albeit my share much smaller of late) of the progress and struggles of MBI and our fellow Midwest corps to remain both competitive among ourselves, and DCA as well as offering a high-level Drum corps experience for the members and fans they have developed over the years.

"It ain't rocket surgery" ($1 to Mike Meyers - Mystery, AK) to figure out that some of those increased costs will have to be passed on to members, but it SHOULD be the responsibility of each unit's BOD and management teams to get creative when it comes to doing what fundraising may be needed to make a 'once in a while' trip to points West, in order to expand their own fan base, not just help out the other circuits.

I just love to butt heads with those that continue to harp - "grow the regions"..and that only can carry SO much weight. Since MBI made top 10 back in '86, members and alums have only been able to try and spin yarns about the legendary corps in the East, having not seen any of them in this area in almost 40 years..It becomes difficult to try and "grow the regions" describing the level of "those guys out East" when most people west of Rochester, NY never get to see and/or hear them.

It doesn't make recruiting any easier when prospects in local bands and corps-age college kids cannot grasp the impact when all they get to see here is the two or 3 shows we have along with the few DCI shows MBI and others get to play in.

A majority of folks have come out to support the local Midwest groups, but even the Eastern corps must realize that circumstances in the activity require everyone's creativity from a collective group to brainstorm small but tangible steps to be fiscally responsible to themselves, but to the ENTIRE circuit, even those who spend between 20 and 40K to travel into the 'heart of the beast' to produce and perform for the folks there..

No more time for the fear-mongers to run and hide..Competition isn't the only thing. Last time I went to business school, there was an adage: "You have to spend money to make money"..Since it still appears by the opinions of some of the posters that doesn't apply to the NE groups..

Social networking and media can only prime the charge for the South and Midwest fans to become bigger fans of DCA brand entertainment...Too bad one of the leaders in that area has decided to leave the arena..

Hey Jeff - it might TAKE the possibility of winning the Powerball jackpot and someone's then to be deep pockets to "break the grip of fear" among so many in the East about now being almost 150 years after Horace Greeley's famous utterance...

OK - bias rant off... :tongue:/>

Pat

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Shenandoah Sound isn't that far away from the NE pool of shows. Don't act like they are. I checked Mapquest to make sure. Nokesville's a 3 hour drive from Central PA on easy highways. I made the drive myself this summer.

They're 190 miles away from Reading and 165 from Downingtown. Westshore traveled farther to get to contests in Connecticut, Western PA, and Ohio in the late 70's early 80's for Lord's sake. Crusaders traveled farther to get to shows in Central and Western PA. We're not talking the 750 to 800 miles from Reading to Racine here or 775 to 800 like Reading to Atlanta. Add more to that for the Cabs.

Heck, I think White Sabres have a farther drive to those contests than Shenandoah Sound. Let's see:

Dansville to Reading, 234 miles, Dansville to Downingtown, 280 Miles. Oops! Got to know the geography better up in this neck of the woods....

We are a South corps that participates in Southern shows. It has a lot to do with how we were accepted early on by the South. That being said, we annually travel at least twice to other south shows, particularly Florida, which would not have had enough corps for a show if we didn't participate. Yes, we are fortunate enough to participate in 2 PA shows recently, but we plan our travel budget for our regional circuit. I would say that annually we travel more miles than any other DCA corps.

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Having a couple big name open class corps at a show doesn't necessarily result in hordes of spectators showing up. Having MBI at Downingtown was awesome this year, and we're ecstatic that they made the trip. However, even having MBI at the show only brought about 200 more people in the gate than the prior year's attendance. The show was duly advertised locally in the Downingtown newspaper and on radio, as well as in the Reading newspaper and radio, ads were in DCW, constant reminders were placed various Facebook pages and on DCP (and advertising isn't cheap).

Bringing in a top notch corps from far away more than tripled the total fees paid to the corps over Downingtown's inaugural year, but the attendance sure didn't triple. Having to sweat out the gate because folks want to wait for the show day's weather report is a sponsor's nightmare. You don't know if enough people will show up to cover those corps fees and other expenses. Shows get cancelled because presales are weak, no matter that the spectators had every intention of buying a ticket at the gate. If there's bad weather the night of the show, those people don't show up, and the sponsor is in trouble.

Ticket prices aren't bad at $15 and $18 for a six corps show when you break it down to $2.50 per corps for general admission seating and $3 per corps for reserved (in comparison, the Reading Pops/Symphony Orchestra charges $40 a ticket). It was a beautiful evening as far as weather, there were hotels and restaurants within 15 minutes of the stadium, and all the corps rehearsed onsite, so it looked like a perfect day to attend a drum corps show.

What it boils down to is to travel that far, the corps is going to lose a ton of money on bus rentals and truck expenses. The sponsors have to come up with way more than the usual corps fees to entice a long traveling corps to want to make the trip and not get into financial trouble. I don't have a solution, just stating the facts.

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When the last Eastern Corps, came to Wis. it was tied into DCI Championships in Madison. As far as advertisement I do not know if DCI really participated with advertisement,for the Senior Show. I may be wrong. I do know that as soon as the show was over we had to load the sovie booth up and get the heck out, I'm not sure that we even allowed to set up in the stadium commons. Hardly any vendors ( if any at all) were set up to sell any food.

A friend of mine who bought tickets For DCI Finals, only happened to stumble across the Senior show.

Maybe DCI and DCA have come a lot further,but back then it wasn't a happy marriage,

Edited by JCSeymour
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Maybe DCI and DCA have come a lot further, but back then it wasn't a happy marriage.

DCI's website and mass-email advertised DCA's championships. Several all-age corps performed at DCI shows this year, including Minnesota Brass, Atlanta CV, Carolina Gold, Govenaires, Cincinnati Tradition, and SoCal Dream.

Edited by N.E. Brigand
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DCI's website and mass-email advertised DCA's championships. Several all-age corps performed at DCI shows this year, including Minnesota Brass, Atlanta CV, Carolina Gold, Govenaires, Cincinnati Tradition, and SoCal Dream.

Kilts annually are involved in DCI shows; 2013 involved in 3: Middleton, Whitewater and Salem.

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