DCI partnering with Varsity Performing Arts to launch "SoundSport Scholastic" events

[garfield]

31 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

their owner admitted groups wearing Varsity wear score better. it's called monopoly......corner every piece of the market you can and use scoring as a way to make it happen

And drum corps score better when they adhere to the competitive rules they themselves create.  I’m not seeing much difference.  They both need kids and fans to pay up.

Edited August 29, 2020 by garfield

[garfield]

This might help round out the impressions of the evil genius at the top of Varsity.

IBD, Bloomberg, and the WSJ write very favorably of the leadership, and the financial success they enjoy is clear proof that his model works better, financially, than drum corps’.  I’ll put that up against a single opinion-writer masquerading as a business writer.

The more I read, the more I’m beginning to believe Varsity to be the kind of interest that drum corps should be clamoring for out of survival!

”Yes! Come in and take Soundsport and DLB to where it needs to be,” — that one elusive place it never found a home - schools.

Welcome, Varsity!

https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/varsity-brands-jeff-webb-rebranded-cheerleading-with-focus-on-athleticism-entertainment/

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by garfield

[Jurassic Lancer]

Drum Corps AF dropped an episode devoted to this topic. It is worth your investment in time to listen to it.

Edited August 29, 2020 by Jurassic Lancer

[N.E. Brigand]

1 hour ago, garfield said:

And drum corps score better when they adhere to the competitive rules they themselves create.  I’m not seeing much difference.  They both need kids and fans to pay up.

You have to be joking.

What Varsity did in some cheerleading contests -- and per that Houston Press article, it appears their founder acknowledged this in court as part of an explanation for why cheerleading shouldn't be considered a sport -- is to award a higher score to teams that bought its products.

Imagine DCI telling corps that their scores would go up if they bought a particular company's uniforms, or played a specific company's instruments, or used a certain company's services for transportation.

[Tim K]

SoundSport and DrumLine Battle came about in 2013 as a replacement for the parade. Personally I enjoyed the parade but as I said in another post I also enjoy SoundSport and DrumLine Battle. The only problem I see with DrumLine Battle is finding a venue that allows for seating but does not take away from the raw energy of the event. I think that is now a problem solved. Those who were at the first DrumLine Battle held at the shopping center may recall  that seeing the event was challenging though the fun atmosphere was undeniable. My thoughts on SoundSport is that it is entertaining but a bit all over the place.

I trust those who have commented that Varsity is not all it is cracked up to be. As anyone who knows even a little about cheer competitions can say, they are a world all their own, cut throat, and for all the cheering, there is very little cheer. People have commented over the years about drama in WGI, Cheer makes the worst of WGI look like a combination of Snow White and the Sound of Music with Bambi as a mascot. That being said, cheer competitions are organized, rules are clear, judges decisions seem to be rarely questioned. Perhaps Varsity sees this as a money making opportunity, but Varsity may bring structure to SoundSport. I personally feel that a structured SoundSport Scholastic division could raise interest in drum corps and grow the fan base. What I do wonder, would WGI see what could very well be a combination of winds, percussion ensembles and guard as cutting into their territory and would the drum corps see it as minor competition?

[Slingerland]

A little late to this. A few observations:

Sound Sport is connected to DCI in only the most tenuous fashion. The concept/name belongs to John DeNovi, as does Drum Line Battle, DeNovi being DCI's nominal contractor for rounding up corporate sponsorship (insert your own joke here).  The fact that the DCI member corps have all but zero interest and participation in both of those DCI sub products should tell you everything you need to know about how ingrained SoundSport is in the DCI product mix.

Varsity (funded by Bain Capital) is using a model that sponsors competitions to sell hard goods (shoes, uniforms, etc). The competitive and artistic aspect of any of it matters not at all to them; it's about tying their product lines to the units who choose to get in their competitive pool. When they find out that band directors at high schools are no more interested in Sound Sport with them being part of it than they were when it was a DCI product, they'll likely give up and move on. Actual marching band is what they should/likely will focus on next, since that's where the big dollars are.

I'd heard earlier this year that WGI had issued a directive to any of their judges that if they chose to judge for a for-profit circuit (aka "Varsity"), that they'd lose their WGI assignments. My source was pretty reliable on that, and it certainly feels like an intelligent pro-active approach.

DCI has been and continues to be the corps themselves. There's nothing for Varsity to buy, per se.  Music for All is probably more at risk, but they seem to be pretty well put together, and circling the scholastic wagons shouldn't be that hard for them to do, as band directors (who are, after all, public school teachers in most cases) are going to be more in tune with non-profit management than something accurately seen as an attempt by a hard goods company to create a tied-circuit in the interest of moving more shoes and uniforms.

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Slingerland

[garfield]

1 hour ago, N.E. Brigand said:

You have to be joking.

What Varsity did in some cheerleading contests -- and per that Houston Press article, it appears their founder acknowledged this in court as part of an explanation for why cheerleading shouldn't be considered a sport -- is to award a higher score to teams that bought its products.

Imagine DCI telling corps that their scores would go up if they bought a particular company's uniforms, or played a specific company's instruments, or used a certain company's services for transportation.

Every year DCI tells the corps that they will score better if they buy A&E, march 150 and not 140, sign bus and tractor leases, and compete on a national tour.

In terms of expectations, I'm not seeing much of a difference.  Your mileage obviously varies, and probably because the revenue in one goes to a single tour manager and into the hands of corporate sponsors in the other.

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by garfield

[garfield]

50 minutes ago, Slingerland said:

DCI has been and continues to be the corps themselves. There's nothing for Varsity to buy, per se.  Music for All is probably more at risk, but they seem to be pretty well put together, and circling the scholastic wagons shouldn't be that hard for them to do, as band directors (who are, after all, public school teachers in most cases) are going to be more in tune with non-profit management than something accurately seen as an attempt by a hard goods company to create a tied-circuit in the interest of moving more shoes and uniforms.

 

They'd buy the brand, and they'd pay some multiple of the present value of X years' of expected income, then work like crazy to increase the income for the differential.

Sure, the corps would have to agree.  But put, say, half-to-a-million $ in the pocket of each drum corps and see how quickly they come to a decision to sell the brand for someone else to control and grow.

Eh, but what do I know.  I'm Schultz.

 

[Slingerland]

19 minutes ago, garfield said:

Sure, the corps would have to agree.  But put, say, half-to-a-million $ in the pocket of each drum corps and see how quickly they come to a decision to sell the brand for someone else to control and grow.

Eh, but what do I know.  I'm Schultz.

 

Half a mil to give up the level of control and lose possible existing partner relationships for the major corps would be a non-starter. It's not that much cash over a 3 or 4 year period, and the value of the equipment partnerships some of them already have can't be bought that cheaply.

Let them do what they want with SoundSport, and none of the WC corps will notice one way or another.  Let them try and horn in on the control of DCI by waving a checkbook, and they'll find out most of the longer-standing corps have little interest in handing any control to a company whose financial backers are, by design, short-term players in whatever game they enter.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Slingerland

[N.E. Brigand]

3 hours ago, garfield said:

Every year DCI tells the corps that they will score better if they buy A&E, march 150 and not 140, sign bus and tractor leases, and compete on a national tour.

In terms of expectations, I'm not seeing much of a difference.  Your mileage obviously varies, and probably because the revenue in one goes to a single tour manager and into the hands of corporate sponsors in the other.

Oh come on. You're gaslighting us.

Imagine the NFL telling teams in every game that whichever one spent more with Gatorade in the previous week gets an extra touchdown.