2020 Rules Proposals

[KVG_DC]

1 minute ago, Terri Schehr said:

I hear it.  😳

I still say, if VK were still around we'd have seen this featured on the field already.

Some corps should totally do this for an "in the lot" warm up or something...

Edited January 6, 2020 by KVG_DC

[JimF-LowBari]

22 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

I just had a flashback of when someone stepped on the bell of my brand new horn in concert band. I was inconsolable. It was under my chair.  The moron is lucky to be alive. 

The laugh icon was for the “moron lucky to be alive “. You must be related to my brother in law. Except he pronounces it “more ON”....

[N.E. Brigand]

4 hours ago, exitmusic said:

all instruments should be legal.

it's stupid that corps are allowed to synthesize any instrument in the world but that we can't have that actual instrument because TRADITION.

I'm all for getting rid of synthesizers.

[Terri Schehr]

When exactly does this voting take place?  I apologize for being completely ignorant of the process.  I’m just one of the hoi polloi. 😂

[N.E. Brigand]

1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Lmao just remembered when HS instrument guy opened the back door of the van and a trumpet fell out when he backed up. Ran right over the valves and poor student had a U shaped horn. No idea how that was worked out as his horn had seen better days before the customizing. 
Sister (9 years younger) used my first trombone in mb. Had no finish left by time she was done but that didn’t  affect the sound (looked like #### which was part of it’s image, she called it Fang)

I've told this story before, but attending OMEA state marching band "finals" about five years ago, I saw one band who had a mellophone player who played a concert horn solo standing on a small tarp a few yards onto the field. Then he put down his concert horn on the middle of the tarp and rejoined the rest of the band with his mellophone. A couple minutes later, a line of band members had to march backwards across that section of field, and they got slightly off line, and one of them stepped on the concert horn and nearly tripped. Well that was bad enough, but then a couple minutes after that, the mello player returned to play another concert horn solo. He hadn't seen the accident.

And at first it took him a moment just to find his mouthpiece which had been knocked free of the horn.

And then when he went to play the horn, no sound came out.

I admit I laughed.

[Terri Schehr]

1 minute ago, N.E. Brigand said:

I've told this story before, but attending OMEA state marching band "finals" about five years ago, I saw one band who had a mellophone player who played a concert horn solo standing on a small tarp a few yards onto the field. Then he put down his concert horn on the middle of the tarp and rejoined the rest of the band with his mellophone. A couple minutes later, a line of band members had to march backwards across that section of field, and they got slightly off line, and one of them stepped on the concert horn and nearly tripped. Well that was bad enough, but then a couple minutes after that, the mello player returned to play another concert horn solo. He hadn't seen the accident.

And at first it took him a moment just to find his mouthpiece which had been knocked free of the horn.

And then when he went to play the horn, no sound came out.

I admit I laughed.

Omg . 😳

[N.E. Brigand]

3 hours ago, Glenn426 said:

I think the Youth activity aspect will remain for a time, But as the quality continues to increase, the fan base could increase. To the point that they are making enough from tickets sales and the Touring model adjusted that they could start to make money.. 

What's a fair salary to pay the members?

[JimF-LowBari]

2 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

I've told this story before, but attending OMEA state marching band "finals" about five years ago, I saw one band who had a mellophone player who played a concert horn solo standing on a small tarp a few yards onto the field. Then he put down his concert horn on the middle of the tarp and rejoined the rest of the band with his mellophone. A couple minutes later, a line of band members had to march backwards across that section of field, and they got slightly off line, and one of them stepped on the concert horn and nearly tripped. Well that was bad enough, but then a couple minutes after that, the mello player returned to play another concert horn solo. He hadn't seen the accident.

And at first it took him a moment just to find his mouthpiece which had been knocked free of the horn.

And then when he went to play the horn, no sound came out.

I admit I laughed.

And the sad part was you could see it coming....

[Slingerland]

4 hours ago, Glenn426 said:

I think the Youth activity aspect will remain for a time, But as the quality continues to increase, the fan base could increase. To the point that they are making enough from tickets sales and the Touring model adjusted that they could start to make money.. 

The highest cost that DCI has are the renting of the State of the art football stadiums. What if they don't use Football stadiums but create their own traveling arenas to perform in and only having to rent an open space for parking and the performance area. Similar to the Traveling Cirque tents that travel around the country. What if the Performance Pit instrument are shared between the corps reducing the need for Trucks to move the pit equipment.

I think as this becomes bigger and bigger, smarter people will become involved and start to ask the question, what is stopping us from turning a profit? And work to try and remove those barriers.

And Cirque is, at its core, an elevated Circus. Its very famous and popular and always sells out wherever they go. How Many Circus enthusiast do you know? Its not about what they do, But how it makes you feel when you are in the stands. Entertained.

That's why to me the next thing on the horizon is a Dramatic element to shows, Actual actors, performers trained to entertained. The Cadets skirted around this idea with their shows in the 80's and early 90's 

"Smart people" would never approach something as unwieldy as drum corps if making money was what they wanted to do. Blast! on Broadway rarely reached more than 47% of their weekly box office potential gross  in a business in which a hit is playing at 85%+.  

So you're stuck with people who are doing because they love it, not because it has the potential to make money. Adding flutes won't change any of that. 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Slingerland

[Glenn426]

36 minutes ago, Slingerland said:

Whoever your supplier is, they gave you some REALLY good drugs. 😂

I know you mean well, but all of this shows a complete lack of awareness of how the economics of drum corps work. If a finalist corps does 30 contests in a summer, they're looking at about $84,000 in appearance fees. Their bus and truck charters for that summer will run around $220k, food will be another $140k, it costs $150-250k for staff and designers, throw in another $100-150k for props, replacement instruments (a corps can have $120k in electronics and speakers alone), & uniforms, etc, etc, etc. For the majority of bigger corps, they spend $6000 more on each member than they get in the member tour fees. As it is, they'd have to be making another $600k each per summer just to offer the members a free experience, much less paying them - around $23,000 per 11 minute performance.

Not too many Tour Event Partners who'll be up for guaranteeing $180,000 in performance fees plus judges costs and DCI's vig for an 8-corps show, especially when they have to spend another $10-20k for a stadium. They'd need to sell 5,000+ tickets at $40 each just to break even.

Sharing a set of instruments in the pit makes sense until you realize that every corps still needs their own equipment to rehearse with (it's no more shareable, really, than drums or horns are). Plus everyone wants their own mix of gear in the pit, and if you have 6 corps at a show, guarantee they'll all be different. Add in the partnerships that most corps have with specific brands; BD ain't gonna use Yamaha pit equpment when they have their own deal.

"Smart people" would never approach something as unwieldy as drum corps if making money was what they wanted to do. Blast! on Broadway rarely reached more than 47% of their weekly box office potential gross  in a business in which a hit is playing at 85%+.  

So you're stuck with people who are doing because they love it, not because it has the potential to make money. Adding flutes won't change any of that. 

All the cost you mentioned are precisely the barriers to making a profit. What I have in mind is not exactly drum corps as it currently stands. It's my idea of what this art form might eventually turn into. Perhaps it's DCI or perhaps it's where the designers who want more eventually turn to and create their own organization.

With how much the activity has progressed in the last 30 years I can't imagine that with rising costs and the ever expanding need for creativity and professionalism that everything will stay the same in the next 30 years. 

Especially with WGI Winds in it's infancy that will surely influence the activity as a whole.