garfield Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 Also, if I were "King of DCI", I'd commission an in-depth study of ticket prices. Because the DCI "circus", generally, travels together (show participant corps move in the same direction) it's very common for the same corps to perform, for example, on Monday night in Cincy, Tuesday night in Centerville, Wednesday night in Canton, Thursday night in Pittsburg, and Saturday night in A-town. Yet, the ticket prices for each of those shows - presenting the same corps in locations just several hundred miles apart, vary greatly. Why? Is the "show" much different between Cincy on Monday and Pittsburgh on Thursday? Because ticket pricing is left up to the local promoter/show director to establish based on his/her own requirements to pay for the contact owed DCI to "rent" the corps for the night. Wrong. The show should be priced based on its entertainment value and the ticket prices should increase over the season, not change (much) based on geography. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 3 minutes ago, garfield said: Also, if I were "King of DCI", I'd commission an in-depth study of ticket prices. Because the DCI "circus", generally, travels together (show participant corps move in the same direction) it's very common for the same corps to perform, for example, on Monday night in Cincy, Tuesday night in Centerville, Wednesday night in Canton, Thursday night in Pittsburg, and Saturday night in A-town. Yet, the ticket prices for each of those shows - presenting the same corps in locations just several hundred miles apart, vary greatly. Why? Is the "show" much different between Cincy on Monday and Pittsburgh on Thursday? Because ticket pricing is left up to the local promoter/show director to establish based on his/her own requirements to pay for the contact owed DCI to "rent" the corps for the night. Wrong. The show should be priced based on its entertainment value and the ticket prices should increase over the season, not change (much) based on geography. No idea if this is a reason for differing prices but don’t forgot cost of stadium rental. And you reminded me of something else I think DCI or Corps should look into. Contract with one bus company to handle multiple corps. Maybe it could be cheaper with one source handling multiple corps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 13 minutes ago, garfield said: Because the DCI "circus", generally, travels together (show participant corps move in the same direction) it's very common for the same corps to perform, for example, on Monday night in Cincy, Tuesday night in Centerville, Wednesday night in Canton, Thursday night in Pittsburg, and Saturday night in A-town. Yet, the ticket prices for each of those shows - presenting the same corps in locations just several hundred miles apart, vary greatly. Why? Is the "show" much different between Cincy on Monday and Pittsburgh on Thursday? Because ticket pricing is left up to the local promoter/show director to establish based on his/her own requirements to pay for the contact owed DCI to "rent" the corps for the night. Wrong. The show should be priced based on its entertainment value and the ticket prices should increase over the season, not change (much) based on geography. Maybe it should be, in a perfect world. But say you have two equal shows... except, one show host has a 100,000 seat stadium, while the other show has no facility in the area bigger than a 2,000 seat concert-side stand. Do you allow the law of supply/demand to set different ticket prices? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfgang Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 The top level is open for Saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cixelsyd Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 46 minutes ago, garfield said: If I were CEO of DCI and asked to establish a growth goal, I'd say that drum corps has attained "enough" status when fans produce enough gate receipts that the corps are able to function and thrive on the gate alone, and marching members are able to participate for free. That is not enough for me. (Vision of DCI achieving this by cutting back to 7 corps... ) But I see you added this caveat: Quote Doing so would require more participants and more shows on the tour, and charging higher ticket prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leanlion Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 30 minutes ago, garfield said: Also, if I were "King of DCI", I'd commission an in-depth study of ticket prices. Because the DCI "circus", generally, travels together (show participant corps move in the same direction) it's very common for the same corps to perform, for example, on Monday night in Cincy, Tuesday night in Centerville, Wednesday night in Canton, Thursday night in Pittsburg, and Saturday night in A-town. Yet, the ticket prices for each of those shows - presenting the same corps in locations just several hundred miles apart, vary greatly. Why? Is the "show" much different between Cincy on Monday and Pittsburgh on Thursday? Because ticket pricing is left up to the local promoter/show director to establish based on his/her own requirements to pay for the contact owed DCI to "rent" the corps for the night. Wrong. The show should be priced based on its entertainment value and the ticket prices should increase over the season, not change (much) based on geography. It's good to be the king! You were involved with the Dublin show that wasn't on this past tour. Was under the impression the show was successful so I can't help but wonder what led to this withdrawal. Was DCI's cut against potential gross just to much to bear for the promotion work involved and net proceeds to be worthwhile? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, garfield said: Also, part of "Grow" necessitates that there are A. More shows on the tour and B. Designing shows that appeal to all four sides of the field. Ahhh... memories of the Barnum Festival show in CT, where the front grandstand... the "concert side"... was full and the back grandstand mostly full. And it was a pretty good-sized stadium. Of course, the Barnum was a bit of a different situation, since the show was just one of several Barnum Festival events, and the drum corps contest drew a lot of locals since it was part of the overall festivities. I'm guessing some of those folks didn't know, or care, if it were a drum corps show or a tractor pull going on. In our current era, it seems that if you are a fan and sitting outside the 20-yard line... maybe even the 25 or so, depending on the venue and the vantage point... it's not a great, or even good, "live" experience. I have no idea what the answers are to any of this. Just an old-timer spitballin' here. LOL. Edited August 31, 2018 by Fran Haring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 (edited) 59 minutes ago, cixelsyd said: Maybe it should be, in a perfect world. But say you have two equal shows... except, one show host has a 100,000 seat stadium, while the other show has no facility in the area bigger than a 2,000 seat concert-side stand. Do you allow the law of supply/demand to set different ticket prices? Nope, the price should be the same. Does Cirque change its ticket prices based on venue? The Rose Bowl show is a fabulous venue and is probably more comfortable to sit in than Oceanside. Does that mean that, at the Oceanside show, the corps are less enjoyable because you're butt hurts from the metal benches? No, it means that the Rose Bowl show can charge a premium for their tickets. If the promoter at Oceanside gets the stadium for free, does the promoter price tickets at pennies on the dollar of the Pasadena show because he can and still cover the cost of his DCI contract? DCI has control of that metric because DCI sets the price to "rent" the corps. (Interesting to keep in mind here that DCI *IS* the corps, isn't it?) Rhetorical question: Do corps TEPs pay the same amount for a show lineup as Independent TEPs? Edited August 31, 2018 by garfield clarify "Indy" as not Indianapolis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HockeyDad Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 I think the drum corps activity diverged from caring about show popularity a long time ago, and chose to go down the navel gazing path which, in general, tends to appeal more to the high brow audience. If popularity were to become a goal, a sea change in approach would be needed. Think the guy in my avatar as an example. I think there's a zero percent chance this will happen. Oh as an OT aside, Mike Leckrone is now in his 50th season as UW-Madison marching band director. Quite an achievement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 31, 2018 Share Posted August 31, 2018 (edited) 40 minutes ago, leanlion said: It's good to be the king! You were involved with the Dublin show that wasn't on this past tour. Was under the impression the show was successful so I can't help but wonder what led to this withdrawal. Was DCI's cut against potential gross just to much to bear for the promotion work involved and net proceeds to be worthwhile? Very little to be said here but, no, it was none of that. Dublin was very popular and very profitable most years because we always bought the "Monday after Atlanta" show. We always had the DCI contract paid from pre-sale before show day. The benefits we had in Dublin (EIGHT schools, all ours to use, with the school administration STRONGLY behind the show (to the point of telling the coaches that, No, they could not use the practice fields on the FIRST DAY OF FOOTBALL PRACTICE (!))), were exceptional and our team of three loved doing it every year for the sole purpose of providing a great venue to both stay, perform, and watch, and DCI decided that all of that was worth sacrificing so they could promote the Centerville show by giving them the Monday after Atlanta. IMO, one of the preeminent "bone-head" decisions I've ever seen the DCI "tour manager" make and, to this day, I don't think she comprehends the impact of her decision. (Secretly, I believe that the pressure to end the Dublin show came from the Bluecoats who, IMO, covet the profit of the Dublin show. But that's my opinion and not substantiated by fact or proof (yet, keep watching...). Edited August 31, 2018 by garfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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