When is it too much?

[Fran Haring]

On 7/6/2019 at 4:51 PM, Cappybara said:

What the Cadets did was extremely exposed and extremely poorly done. They never were clean and spanned the length of the field sometimes diagonally, sometimes dressed down. It was very easy to see any mistakes being made. They were also obscenely heavy and didn't seem to have enough members dedicated to pushing them around. 

Contrast that with BD's stages they used the year after where things were put together pretty much perfectly show to show. Or their platforms/banners in 2016. Or their staircases in 2017. 

Well said.

The one time I saw Cadets in person in 2013, I found my attention was drawn more to the members pushing those platforms around than to the actual performance of the corps. Never a good thing.  LOL.

Edited July 8, 2019 by Fran Haring

[MikeD]

8 minutes ago, Fran Haring said:

Well said.

The one time I saw Cadets in person in 2013, I found my attention was drawn more to the members pushing those platforms around than to the actual performance of the corps. Never a good thing.  LOL.

I think I said in a post or two that they seemed to be moving like bumper cars.

[cybersnyder]

Every time I've seen something that I thought would kill off DCI, it adapts and overcomes one way or another. I thought higher gas prices would kill it, but tour travel is even longer. The expense of PA systems, will definitely kill it. Nope, more mics and higher end boards every year. And that stuff isn't cheap. Thought for sure the name that shall not be mentioned thing at the Cadets would kill them. Nope. Younger corps sputter out of the gates and die off, but the established corps have thousands of people they can hit up for funds. Some of them are well off. I don't think this will kill off the larger corps, but it will make it darn near impossible for new corps to get a foothold unless they have a sugar daddy. I mean, look at the basic business model of DCI - we want to put on an expensive show, but we only sell tickets to maybe a third of the seats in the stadium. In a vacuum where this would be a new idea, most people would say you're crazy. Yet, here we are. Probably the biggest threat to DCI is changing tastes. Older DCI fans move "on" and younger might prefer an EDM concert than a DCI event. Over time, that will hurt. Yet, I believe ticket sales have been increasing overall.

[Fran Haring]

7 minutes ago, MikeD said:

I think I said in a post or two that they seemed to be moving like bumper cars.

That's a good way to describe it.  Just did not work for me, at all.

[FTNK]

7 hours ago, Standing O said:

I too have been thinking about this topic a lot .  I fully understand the move to larger unit size based on full seats in buses.  But when will DCI and designers realize they are out pricing their clientele.  Now each unit has another semi just for props.  Rising volatile fuel costs that get rolled down to the member fees.  Flying staff in and out that don't stay with corps all season.    New pajamas every year for uniforms.  For me the more students involved in the activity should always be the in the forefront.  How may times have you heard someone say  that can't march because they can't afford it and its getting worse.  

Love the activity--sooner or later the cost will out pace what students, parents, fans, can pay.  Not willing to pay, those of us who have experienced it would pay, but you have to put bread on the table first and foremost.

What about the constant begging for donations, and the constant implicit message that if you don’t donate the corps will die

[cixelsyd]

16 hours ago, Standing O said:

Love the activity--sooner or later the cost will out pace what students, parents, fans, can pay.  

Does not matter.  DCI is now the manufacturer showroom of the marching arts.  Those equipment suppliers chip in to support the never-ending escalation.

[Glenn426]

DCI will never die from lack of membership interest, ( it might from leadership incompetence, and morph into another thing) and like said above, These are the elite of the elite, Many corps are the showroom floor for the thousands of competitive bands around the country to showcase the newest thing on the field. From Drum Technology to Marching instruments, to Costume design to Flag Silks, there is a strong industry for the Marching arts activity. 

The Prop design industry is now a thing... and the leading prop designers are busy year round making designs for Bluecoats, BD, Carmel, Tarpon Springs, etc.., The current Zenith in Design is creative use and manipulation of props. This is the reason I think BD will be sitting on Gold at the end of the year.. 

We will reach a limit where there not much else to be explored.. And then something new comes that adds a new layer and ripple to the activity... I'm sitting on an idea to use with a group in the future... Hoping it stays fresh until I get a chance to bring it to life... 

[Standing O]

11 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

Does not matter.  DCI is now the manufacturer showroom of the marching arts.  Those equipment suppliers chip in to support the never-ending escalation.

You must have deep pockets! That an easy statement lob out there, until you have to pay for you kid to fly to texas, then fly to oregon, and then pay 4K for fees. They may supply instruments only if you can promote their brand, not all the units are equally supported.  Don't think they pay for the fuel, tractor, driver, and truck for props. This is a huge cost, do you think more students would march if the fees were $2,000 less? I do!

[EDAVE]

2019 Blue Coats, Money can't buy happiness but it can sure buy GE.

[garfield]

35 minutes ago, Standing O said:

You must have deep pockets! That an easy statement lob out there, until you have to pay for you kid to fly to texas, then fly to oregon, and then pay 4K for fees. They may supply instruments only if you can promote their brand, not all the units are equally supported.  Don't think they pay for the fuel, tractor, driver, and truck for props. This is a huge cost, do you think more students would march if the fees were $2,000 less? I do!

Would more people buy Teslas if their price were cut in half?  I'd sure bet so!

No, it works the other way.  First, build more corps.  Second, charge as much as the market will bear until supply exceeds demand and prices can gravitate down.  Until then, "drum corps", the activity, is underpricing the value of its product.  Prices should be raised, not lowered, until demand slows.  I'd guess somewhere around $7,000 for a season is about right for a respectable value proposition.

That, or focus on building more corps that would catch the "walk-aways" who try out just once, get cut, and then go home.

To date, in my assessment, the activity's "drivers" have focused on the first option (raising fees as competitively justified) and largely ignored the notion of building more drum corps to produce more revenue.  It's not hard to see why: they view(ed) the activity as a closed and shrinking pie and the active negotiations to save their part of it.  It did not occur to them, nor did they see rational reason to support, expanding the pie by focusing on building corps.

Another way to reduce fees: stop judging GE based on budgets spent for the props so that a smaller corps that doesn't have $500,000 to spend on props can still compete and win against one that does.  That alone would put a stop to the arms race.

More and more kids have proven to be willing to pay more and more tour fees to do drum corps.  Just look at the numbers that go home each audition season; total them up and about four complete drum corps' worth of kids go home each year.  That's a REAL problem that is mostly talked about and largely ignored inside the "drum corps" rank and file.

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by garfield