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When will drum corps be popular enough? How would we know?


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10 hours ago, Bluzes said:

Had season tickets changed to the Jets when they moved out of the Polo Grounds To Shea Stadium because of the low flying Jets around the stadium. Being a sports fan I was in Nam when the Knicks, Mets & Jets won in 69. Jets & Mets were in Shea Stadium

Polo Grounds was great just across the walkway over the hyw from Yankee Stadium could go to two games w/o moving your car for both football and/or baseball. I can't spell because we mostly cut school to go to games.

You quoted someone else’s words tied to my name. Please learn how to use the site or stop trying to use the quote feature 

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4 hours ago, garfield said:

How many thousands of marching band programs are there around the country?  I think the last answer I saw was MikeD's; somewhere in 20,000s?  Could it be correct to so that the average membership of those programs is 50?  If correct, that's 1-million participants.  Plus parents and family to come watch them perform, let's call it 1.5mm pairs of potentially interested eyeballs of just the participants and their families (and not including those who go just because they enjoy the shows).

Let's say just half of those care about marching arts enough to go participate and watch a show.  750,000 participants and fans, potentially.

44 corps, 150 members (100 average membership?  125?)  That's about 6000 performers today.  DCI advertises that over 100,000 fans watch the 100+ shows each year in person and online.

6000 performers compared to the hypothetical pool is less than 10% of the hypothetical participants.  100,000 viewers is about 40% of hypothetical viewers.

Is drum corps popular enough to support itself?  The 990's show the answer and I'd say definitively NO.

ANY activity that is not growing is slowly dying, and the history of DC since DCI was formed backs that notion.

Does every major-league baseball team wish every kid played baseball?  Yes, it's not popular enough until that goal is reached, correct?

Does every NFL team, basketball, hockey, soccer, needlepoint club, traveling choir, church, senior/community center, symphony orchestra, ballet company NEED to grow by becoming more popular (and successfully attracting viewers/participants)?  No, not if they don't care about a slow death on life support where the wires and tubes are removed one at a time until the patient can't support its own life.

Whatever plan DCI has to drive its business, it had better focus on the business of becoming more popular and growing.

According to the (maybe inaccurate) numbers above, there's room to grow - LOTS. 

If "Popularity" equals growth, then No, drum corps is definitely not popular enough.

 

A lot of pro sports health is attributable to huge tv rights

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3 hours ago, kkrepps said:

That's probably true, I never even heard of DCA until 2 years ago, and only because of getting back into DCI. DCA events are like ninjas, unless you're looking for them you never see them coming, or notice they were there.

Run like a mom and pop shop, you get those results 

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2 hours ago, Fran Haring said:

"Put the locals on the 5-yard line. They'll get it, and want to return."  :laughing:

At $50 a head 

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2 hours ago, wolfgang said:

"Expanding" World Championship attendance sounds good but in reality is silly insofar as Lucas Oil Stadium is concerned. For several years, people have been sitting with end zone views.

Even in the best possible listening environment in any stadium, an end zone seat is not good if you like the music.

If the mythical 1981 Montreal crowd did appear next year, where would they all sit? Now, if expanding means more corps (looking at Battalion and Columbians), then yes, that is great.

The key isn’t a bigger finals crowd. It’s bigger crowds at all of the other shows. It’s increasing online viewers and theater attendance. 

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1 hour ago, garfield said:

Of course, you're right.  I didn't include a YUGE part of the non-participants because the activity is PAID for, at the corps level, by MM dues, not gate and not charitable contributions.  If drum corps just attracted the majority of participant kids who care, they'd likely double or triple participation, and eyeballs interested in seeing will follow.

Also, without participants, the tour won't be bigger and the opportunity for fan eyes diminishes.

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. 

Doing so would require more participants and more shows on the tour, and charging higher ticket prices.

 

 

Living and dying solely on gate is death. It’s finding ancillary revenue sources. Merchandise marketing/license agreements, ad revenues....

 

as i tell band boosters that run shows if you wait for ticket sales to make money, you won’t. Your show pays for itself if you fill you program with ads and sponsors. Ticket sales is extra icing on the cake

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17 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

You quoted someone else’s words tied to my name. Please learn how to use the site or stop trying to use the quote feature 

I will should have stopped doing that a long time ago, I had to play defense in football because I couldn't get the plays down, was a heck of a hockey player not much to think about just throw your weight around, had a scholarship but the grades were not there, no surprise.

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1 hour ago, garfield said:

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?

Rhetorical answer:  You tell me.  You have TEP experience.  :hehe:

Things I have read in the DCI policies/procedures give the impression that a number of corps TEPs have special deals negotiated, the likes of which are not available to outside TEPs.

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41 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

Living and dying solely on gate is death. It’s finding ancillary revenue sources. Merchandise marketing/license agreements, ad revenues....

 

as i tell band boosters that run shows if you wait for ticket sales to make money, you won’t. Your show pays for itself if you fill you program with ads and sponsors. Ticket sales is extra icing on the cake

I remember Bob Murray of the Caballeros telling me a few times... "The show's paid for before we even open the gates, thanks to the program book."  The ticket sales were a bonus.

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1 hour ago, Jeff Ream said:

Living and dying solely on gate is death. It’s finding ancillary revenue sources. Merchandise marketing/license agreements, ad revenues....

 

as i tell band boosters that run shows if you wait for ticket sales to make money, you won’t. Your show pays for itself if you fill you program with ads and sponsors. Ticket sales is extra icing on the cake

Not in Dublin :tongue:

We stopped printing the program and selling ads, and our profits increased immediately.

I would contend that to follow your advice is evidence that tickets are not priced correctly.

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