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DCA '15, 35 corps, great performances, not-so-great attendance


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Edited by wishbonecav
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I have regularly heard from people I talk to in the stands at DCI shows that they were attending because they saw the show publicized in local media.

DCA has made some efforts in this regard. They sold tickets via Groupon at Annapolis; I remember seeing the line for that option, and it was pretty long.

great.

how many butts does that put into the seats this past year or next year?

Ads in Annapolis or Indiana dont solve the current problem.

Doesnt seem like that big a deal at this point.

Edited by wishbonecav
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I know it was mentioned MUCH earlier in the thread, but I was disappointed with the updates, or lack of, on the website. My wife and I attended the mini corps event on Friday night, after spending the majority of the day on the road, we left after the last performance rather than waiting around for the scores...I figured I would do as I have done at DCI championships in the past and just check the website back at the hotel. When I checked right before going to bed, nothing...not even on DCP! The following day, I was able to get the scores-from DCP, nothing on the DCA site. Similarly, I kept checking the site during the day Sunday in hopes of getting a Finals performance schedule, but with no success. We didn't even know when or if there was a scheduled intermission, or that the first performing corps didn't hit the field until 5:40. The DCA booth had no updates to provide, either. Obviously, there were no results from the prelims posted...which didn't really matter, I already knew but if I hadn't been able to make it for prelims or watch on FN there was no way to know who ended up where or with what score. As has also been mentioned earlier, a little advance publicity in the area wouldn't have hurt...just for s & g, when I received the e-mail from my hotel "reminding" me of my upcoming stay about a week and a half before our arrival, I went to the hotel website and checked out the "local events and attractions" and there were a handful of local events listed, but nothing about the DCA championships.

I was noticing this year that even at our hotel, there didn't seem to be much of a drum corps crowd. At Allentown, breakfast was always full of fellow drum corps folks...everybody had dc shirts, Heat Wave even used to practice out in the hotel parking lot...stayed at same hotel as Cabs Alumni one year in Scranton, Sky Alumni and Bush stayed at same hotel we did in Annapolis. I didn't see ANYONE at our hotel this year who was clearly in town for DCA (Alliance stayed in hotel next door to ours, that was about the closest connection I could make). Clearly, the local community has to get more informed and involved. Back when DCI championships returned to Madison in the late 90's after an absence of several years, there were signs in our hotel "Welcome back DCI!" and the desk clerks at the hotels were all wearing buttons expressing the same...the local newspapers had front page pictures and stories every day on the previous day's results, the evening news always had something. Even in past years in Rochester, the championships usually at least warranted a mention on local news...nothing this year.

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I disagree with your theory that it is the fault of the Bucs winning so many times because quite frankly every other group has become more competitive because of the Bucs. It isn't their fault they are doing it better than the rest are. The shows that won 10-15 years ago would never come in the Top 5 now.

Your theory is like saying people stopped going to baseball games because The Yankees have 27 rings. Nope. That isn't the answer Lee. It sounds great to drag it out and repeat it as the reason, but it is far from the solution to the problem.

Curiously, it's usually people who are opposed to parity measures that cry, "You can't compare drum corps to sports" in these discussions. So let me note that there are reasons to question your comparison here. For instance, 20 of those 27 Yankees wins happened more than 50 years ago, so even if there were a connection between single-team dominance and overall attendance, time would probably have rendered negligible the effect of those championships. In the past twenty years, the Yankees have "only" won four times. The Yankees are the Brigadiers, not the Buccaneers, of recent MLB history. No one right now is the Buccaneers of MLB.

That said, I agree with you that DCA attendance woes (if such they are) probably have little, if anything, to do with the Buccaneers' dominance. It's only been four years since someone else won. As recently as last year's Prelims, the Caballeros held the lead and Bucs were in third. And the other corps, as evidenced for example by Dan's post, are still hungry and hopeful.

However, if we should have another four years like this one, in which Bucs went undefeated, it wouldn't be so surprising if some corps start to think, "We'll never advance." To the degree that recruiting members and soliciting donations depends on getting people to believe you have a chance of success, single-team dominance probably can hurt. But we're not there yet.

And it's very funny that the greatest hope for an upset right now appears to be George Hopkins.

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I do admire Joe's enthusiasm to discover a path to greater attendance in Rochester. However, using Joe's figures for Sahlen Stadium capacity between the goal lines, and the sight estimates of a likely paid crowd of about 3000, I have a different take on the matter.

Sahlen Stadium is too small, and always has been. The current crowd size has adjusted itself to utilize the available 'good' space.

Even if changes in marketing are successful, the level of audience growth is limited to about 1000-1500 more purchasers. That's a nice gain, of course, but those seats are a much tougher sell than center seats to established DCA fans. Even seating in the first couple of rows up to the 25 yard line are less appealing. Our productions are what they are, that is, all about central seating.

To move the additional 1000-1500 seats, the focus MUST be placed inside the local Rochester community. That will require having some DCA promoters living inside Monroe County. People who understand and take advantage of all local marketing resources. Volunteers to man DCA information tables at related local gatherings, distribute window signage, appear on local radio with ticket giveaways, interact with small businesses for cooperative ad space, etc. Unfortunately, both Empire Statesmen and Crusaders organizations have been lost. Yet, selling those remaining less than ideal seats will require the efforts of people on the ground in Rochester.

Are you one of those, wishbonecav?

Also remember, the remaining outer seating is likely still priced too high for curious local families. If they do put down the money, they might not want to do so again the next year. Sitting low outside 20-25s isn't so hot. Perhaps, 2006 was the high-water mark for this very reason.

I do know 2006 Rochester quite well. :wink:

Edited by Fred Windish
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non-finalist corps members pay for tickets to finals...........while I believe many alumni and mini corps and/or members leave town when done, and do not attend prelims or finals,.................maybe the participating alumni and mini corps should have some sort of obligation in this regard.

For an outside the box idea,............DCA could be a little more organizationally friendly to the exhibition and mini corps by way of having some structure for these groups to associate under the DCA umbrella,.........sub organizations if you will. Marketing could improve by this type of broadening of the base. The alumni spectacular could also be broadened to include other exhibition type corps. It really is a no brainer IMO. Many of these types of groups are relied upon for filling show bills during the regular season.

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Like I said it's going to take some forward thinking people who are not stuck in the past .

Which statement is completely ironic considering how you look back on the days of old when senior corps didn't have any of those young whippersnappers in it that came along and ruined all the fun of the activity.....AND how your thought of moving DCA finals up a month would remove those same young whippersnappers from the DCA ranks...

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You may not wNt to hear this but I'll say it:

Rochester all the time for many people is far less appealing than Bucs winning. I still found a way to get to Annapolis her first two summers of life even if I drove down every day. Rochester isn't a day trip for a majority of people that live within an hour or so of the majority of NE corps. Annapolis is. Other places mentioned are.

Attendance had been slowly shrinking up there since the start in 06. Plus with how the stadium is built, you can only get so many seats between the 30's. Pay $60 to sit on the 20? No thanks. Scranton for all its faults had better seat options than that.

I don't know what official attendance was in 12 or 13, but I'm pretty sure it was at least as good if not better than the last two years up there.

I'm not bashing Rochester. I'm just stating a fact people don't wNt to hear. It may be a great deal for the corps, but the fans are very "meh" about it

DITTO.

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Fred, There were way too many empty seats in the center in Maryland, and people that purchased cheaper seats simply walked over to the middle section undeterred,................not a good situation either

The first year, yes.

The second year... the Groupon promotion certainly helped. Anecdotal, I know... but it sure looked like a considerably larger crowd in 2013.

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