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


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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

Very true, Gary. That's a concern. Just from TV, I could also see sprinkled empty seats in Sahlen Stadium's center. That's a reality that could be prevented by ushers. I've been to several baseball and football events in big stadiums where ushers prevented cheaper ticket holders from entering higher priced sections throughout the entire event.

Maybe it's time to bring up a problem I witnessed in 2006. That was the unfortunate behavior of some corps to actually abuse staff badges and wrist bands by throwing them over the fence to undeserving people out on the street. I was stuck up on the VIP level with plenty of issues there but did have time to shout at violators from above, not that it helped much. It was a common occurrence,sadly. Hope that's been fixed! Lots to improve, I guess.

Edited by Fred Windish
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Price Point, Fred. A lower price point would avoid folks tossing ID badges to the plebes. :satisfied:

Hey, at Clifton, some friends came up in the largely empty VIP section and hung with me for some of the show. :exclamation:

Did I mind? No. I like to see them a lot. :satisfied: I figured I shelled out for all of them and myself, again, more added value to the ticket. :wink:

The problem with all of that is one I learned in a Music Marketing course. You have X seats, you know it will cost Y money, you have to do hard calculations to make sure you make money for the event.

Don't know if this will interest any readers, but the lady in charge of all of that at the Hershey Theatre- which is actually a pretty serious venue for a lot of stuff- told us that usually, whatever performing group or person tells them how much tickets will cost for which seats and how much money the Theater will make if they come to there. Even showed us one of the event maps one of the groups provided them as part of the contract, which also showed them how much money they'd make if the event was sold out.

In specific cases- David Copperfield for instance, they even tell them what seats aren't allowed to be sold, and under no circumstances are people allowed to be seated in them, period. In that case- the angles from those seats would have given away how the illusions are done.

Does DCA do things this way when figuring out attendance and prices for the seats so they make money? Don't know.

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Maybe it's time to bring up a problem I witnessed in 2006. That was the unfortunate behavior of some corps to actually abuse staff badges and wrist bands by throwing them over the fence to undeserving people out on the street. I was stuck up on the VIP level with plenty of issues there but did have time to shout at violators from above, not that it helped much. It was a common occurrence, sadly. Hope that's been fixed! Lots to improve, I guess.

My big concern with staff Sunday was those members of some corps' guard staff who had to cheer and clap for seemingly every single successful catch at Finals. Why is it always only guard staff who do this? You don't hear brass staff cheering every chord that played in tune. And don't they realize that:

(1) When only a very small group of people is cheering every ten seconds, that it sounds forced, or like they're trying to juice the crowd?

And

(2) Their cheers often happen during what are supposed to be quieter passages of the show, often ruining the moment?

And

(3) By cheering for every successful catch, you're implying that we should expect your corps to regularly drop?

Fortunately, this was only a notable problem for three or four corps in the earlier part of the evening. The most egregious offenders were the . . .

well, I'll just say it was an Open Class corps.

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BigW-

I don't know the current thinking used to determine DCA ticket pricing. It does seem to me, as crowds decreased prices automatically went up per year following. There's a limit to that practice, I believe.

I also believe, there is NO excuse for corps performers, staff, and other officials stealing from the normal revenue stream at a paid event. People with that mindset would probably still cheat all performing corps, including their own, if seats were only five bucks.

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Nobody wants to give their product away but there may have to be a larger macro view to 2016 that includes introducing new customers that can translate into a more successful 2017 event . If you offered a $25 all access wrist band good for general admission all weekend while still keeping your 40 to 40 premium seats at a premium rate is it possible that enough buzz and revenue and value would be created with new customers to have them come back again next year? if you ran this as a promo and kept a running count down of tickets sold on the Facebook page website or other portal it would create its own demand Imo

Edited by wishbonecav
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Perhaps, its time to adopt a new selling policy. theatre and concerts (and airlines now as well) do a priority seating cost. You buy early, the seats are cheaper. Once demand picks up, the price increases marginally. And so on... and so on...

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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:

I said that earlier as well in many ways, and also used it linking to Winston SAlem as an example.

todays ticket prices are not friendly to the current curious visitor. and yes, shows are designed for between the 40's, which has the smallest number of seats.

Sure Aquinas packed em in BITD....when you started on the goal line and slowly worked your way to the other one.

Frontier had a huge crowd, but shows were designed for the 40's like usual...and the people there had the worst seats in the house because of how they set the field up! You were closer to the action on the 20 than on the 50 for god's sake! Scranton may have been a baseball field, but they set it up so you had a sideline that ran along the seats....same with Syracuse. Frontier had the Dm's podium set up by the mound, and the front row 50 spectators seats were behind the plate!

I do agree the groupon thing worked will in MD, should be done all the time. Allentown often does a buy one get one deal for DCi East that moves some tickets.

for all of the numbers listed about participants, people with them etc....a lot of those people are wrist bands, so they get in free. it never fails comes finals weekend staffs grow and so does the volunteer/support team...hello! free way in for finals!

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Very true, Gary. That's a concern. Just from TV, I could also see sprinkled empty seats in Sahlen Stadium's center. That's a reality that could be prevented by ushers. I've been to several baseball and football events in big stadiums where ushers prevented cheaper ticket holders from entering higher priced sections throughout the entire event.

Maybe it's time to bring up a problem I witnessed in 2006. That was the unfortunate behavior of some corps to actually abuse staff badges and wrist bands by throwing them over the fence to undeserving people out on the street. I was stuck up on the VIP level with plenty of issues there but did have time to shout at violators from above, not that it helped much. It was a common occurrence,sadly. Hope that's been fixed! Lots to improve, I guess.

I wont mention names but....

someone somewhere tied to a show somewhere said this summer :"wrist bands, staff passes and DCA passes are like candy.....ask and ye shall receive".

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Perhaps, its time to adopt a new selling policy. theatre and concerts (and airlines now as well) do a priority seating cost. You buy early, the seats are cheaper. Once demand picks up, the price increases marginally. And so on... and so on...

Dynamic pricing.

Also used for sporting events.

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