MotoSurfBass Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) * The metro-area of the hometown is a bit misleading. Cadets have a tiny area, but recruit pretty much everywhere (even back in the 80s) Not to mention that they are probably the closest corps to the NYC area as well. Also, I live 30 minutes from Allentown. I played high school football games at J. Birney Crum before I even knew what drum corps was. I wound up marching at a corps 2.5 hours from my home and later auditioning for a corps almost 1000 miles away. IMHO, market in not a factor in recruiting. It's all about profile, which is also one of the big reasons that there is this "rich getting richer, poor getting poorer" feeling around DCI sometimes (i.e. That-Group-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Name). It's about getting your name out there, and showing that you are a prime destination for showcasing the best marching and playing ability. Edited July 3, 2014 by MotoSurfBass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Right. To put this in context there there was a question on another thread as to why the Troopers had very few kids marching from Wyoming. Whereas, in the distant past they had a pretty good percentage of Wyoming young people that marched. If my office is located in a large metropolitan area with many quality high school and college music programs it should be significantly more efficient to recruit. Whereas if you're in the middle of the state of Wyoming or Iowa, you're going to have to exert more energy to draw kids (hence the reason the Troopers do a lot out of Indiana and therefore have few Wyomingites). Having said that, I also realize that this chart isn't as relevant as it once was. Move along folks...there's nothing to see here. I believe that the best corps can hope for now is to attract regional members. There's no reason that the Troopers shouldn't be able to attract members from Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, where there are quite a few larger programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric24 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 NY CITY..........Yes NYC with a very large metropolis and income, doesn't even have a competing junior corps in the state. Figure that out!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Windish Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) Just a little push for my local Lehigh Valley region. The greater Allentown metropolitan area is about 850,000 people. It's becoming rather dense as people flee high tax states like NJ and NY. It's the fastest growing area of PA. It has pretty much blended together with Philadelphia. Regardless, it appears marchers in all top corps have very little local participation. I doubt the Cadets have more than 2-3 Lehigh Valley kids. Maybe someone can verify that. IF anything, this demographic speaks to how wide the reach of DCI really is. It attracts high level talent nationally, and throughout the world. That's pretty cool! The chance of a significant amount of young people coming from any one corps' mailing address region, then making the final cut, is pretty small. Maybe the stiffest competition is for the 'spot,' rather than the highest score. What a wonderful position for top DCI groups to occupy. Edited July 3, 2014 by Fred Windish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranintothedoor Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 NY CITY..........Yes NYC with a very large metropolis and income, doesn't even have a competing junior corps in the state. Figure that out!!! Probably costs a billion dollars for weekend rehearsal space. Why base a corps in NYC when you can base it in Jersey for half the cost? ... or Allentown, for that matter...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleveland1 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 While i like the idea, I think overall its flawed. For the bluecoats you include the akron-canton area, but its just barely outside of the "greater cleveland" area, many people combine the two areas. This would add about 2.8 million people to the bluecoats. And this is only for the bluecoats, I can only imagine that at least a few other corps are close to other metropolitan areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcikon2 Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbandguy Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 For what it's worth...I live near Columbus, Ohio. Very few of The Ohio State University football team, basketball team or BAND come from Columbus, Ohio. Many do not come from Ohio. Same thing is true of the Columbus Symphony or the Columbus Blue Jackets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Coffey Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 For all intents and purposes, as well as in keeping with the point of the OP (ie, ease of drawing talent locally) - Rockford can be considered part of the Chicago metro area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 What we can learn from all of this is just how astounding it was for a corps such as the Argonne Rebels to have put out such great brass lines in the early 1970s, with literally all local members from a city with less than 20,000 people. Of course it didn't hurt to have Sandra Opie as a brass instructor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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