Small Market Corps

[somerville]

Hi Granny,

Look at you with that chart-you go girl.

[rainshdw08]

The larger cities, such as NYC, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Houston, etc. do not have strong band programs. The band programs that would have potential recruits are located in the suburbs. Another concern might be the high crime rate in some of the cities. Does anyone remember the problems some corps faced when the championships were held at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas?

I think it's hard when you reference the larger cities, to me your just talking about he inner cities correct? As you said the recruits are usually located in the subs for sure. The inner city HS's usually don't have the money the Subs do. To be fair, I think the OP would have to add all the surrounding cities/towns

Take Seattle for example, Seattle metro is big, but all the cities from Bellingham, west to Bremerton, south to Olympia would need to be included in those numbers. Same for San Fransisco...you'd have to go from SF, to San Jose to Edenvale up to Concord then to Vallejo to get an accurate number. And Chicago and LA would be stupid huge!!

I do agree recruiting is the way to go but I think its us that need to do the recuiting, to a point. See a kid that like music and or plays an instrument, take him or her to a show. I know Corps today recruit from all over and the Madsion Scouts do not live in Madison, but...I also think DCI has fallen off the wagon to a point too, there are numerous kids that could play at this level who haven't been exposed to Drum Corps.

Edited July 3, 2014 by rainshdw08

[Precious Roy]

Here's where someone with some GIS skills can step up. Plot a map with the points for the home location of each DCI corps. Using those points, create Thiessen polygons that show the areas where each of those corps' home cities are the "closest" corps. Then calculate the population within each Thiessen polygon. What you end up with is an analysis of population that is considered the closest to each corps.

Areas where there are greater clusters of corps (such as northern IL and WI, or the northeast) would have smaller polygons, whereas corps out by themselves (Troopers) would have a larger area to draw from.

[HornTeacher]

And yet, a smaller population within that larger polygon...at least I would surmise.

[Fred Windish]

Geez, that sounds like an upcoming drill design by the Blue Devils!

(P.S. It's a joke, BD. I even loved you last year)

[HornTeacher]

I'll be duly impressed when there comes a year when a corps based out of Honolulu, Hawaii qualifies for finals. To be charitable, their Thiessen Polygon could be extended to include the entire Pacific Ocean region -- 7 million square miles (give or take a few acres) -- yet the population within this area still wouldn't reach the levels existing for many of the continental corps.

I would doubt that, outside of talent being developed on the performance of conch shells or hollowed coconuts, much DCI-level talent is being developed on Fiji.

Edited July 3, 2014 by HornTeacher

[Splooie99]

Oregon Crusaders are based in Portland in address alone. There is little support form Portland at best.

[drumcorpsfever]

Fair point.. I don't think Phantom Regiment has had more than a dozen marchers in any given year in their Corps from Rockford, since the Rockford Files was on TV... and this is no special indictment of Phantom, as they are just doing what every World Class Corps do.. take marchers from all over the world now, not just the country. A few years back, Boston had more marchers one year in their Corps from the continent of Asia, than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Crown had more marchers from Massachusetts last year than BAC did... yet Boston had more marchers from the South than Carolina Crown or Spirit of Atlanta did. How about that ? Most of the Bluecoats Drumline is not from " Canton ", nor " Ohio " either. They're from California. And on and on. Go figure. Memberships in Corps now come from all over. Its all changed..

It has changed. But not in a bad way. If you think about any great symphony orchestra (say the Cleveland Orchestra for example), there's few, if any, performers from the local area. As a world-class orchestra, you wouldn't expect it to be comprised of local players. If it were, it would probably be the local community band - 2 very different groups!

As a world-class drum corps, it's a priviledge to be able to attract members from all over the world. It's a testiment to the corps that generates that type of interest. If the corps is good and attractive to others - both performers and fans alike - it doesn't matter where they are based out of. If you have to travel, you'll travel anywhere.

[BRASSO]

For what its worth, its only now a matter of when, not if, we will see a Corps from outside North America make DCI's World Class Division Top 12 Finals. The Cadevaliers will continue to rule the roost, but its inevitable that in time, the DCI outreach and progress we are seeing abroad in Drum Corps will bear fruit there. Such Corps will be able to develop abroad without threats of their marcher movement to the perennial and current Top 12. Such a non North America based DCI Top 12 Corps's Finalist success won't happen in the next decade, but it most surely will happen eventually, imo at some point in the lives of most of our younger DCPers on here.

Edited July 3, 2014 by BRASSO

[84BDsop]

I think it's hard when you reference the larger cities, to me your just talking about he inner cities correct? As you said the recruits are usually located in the subs for sure. The inner city HS's usually don't have the money the Subs do. To be fair, I think the OP would have to add all the surrounding cities/towns

Not really...ever since Prop 13 in the late 70s, California band programs have been decimated, since arts programs are always the first thing that gets cut (God forbid a school should even THINK about touching the football programs). It's not just an inner city problem...plenty of schools in the suburbs have struggling band programs.