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

[JimF-LowBari]

3 minutes ago, Continental said:

Bill Murray played the alien leader. 

Oops... but can still picture him doing the line. Oh hell guess I need to watch it again lol.... Drink a toast to George “the Animal” Steel when he appears.

[garfield]

20 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

Their track record says otherwise. So unless you have facts, your guessing more than I am because I researched their track record

Facts?  How about first-hand experience?  I have two friends who both work for a company that Varsity recently bought.  This is a company that is a current supplier to the activity.

Both of these people have told me that their experience with Varsity has been nothing like what you describe.  The Varsity people are there, in front of the company, asking how they, Varsity, can help this purchased company improve their financial results, what avenues for sales this company would like to develop, with actual paths for development that Varsity has already developed.  Their care for the executives who run their business is top-notch, and their interest in helping the purchased company leverage Varsity's assets to help it realize its growth targets.  You see, it's completely to Varsity's benefit to help their portfolio companies grow, or to meld the good ideas they buy into their existing business, or eliminate it as competition.

I would encourage the curious to search out the story of the Just Briefs, a business that tried to compete against entrenched Varsity.  After several years of unsuccessfully trying to break in, Varsity bought Just Briefs and kept its founder and CEO on to run the company.  Eventually, this person departed again to start Just Briefs Apparel to, again, try to compete against Varsity.  Question:  How much was the owner of Just Briefs paid for her company and for her time running it after it was purchased?  (Varsity eventually realized that the founder was unable to improve the division's performance and shut it down in favor of Varsity's own management running a similar business more successfully.  It runs today as such while Just Briefs Apparel is still attempting to position itself as a competitor in the space.

Varsity's M.O. is to recognize good management and leave them in place to make their businesses more valuable.  Do they make a profit?  Of course.  But they also help make good companies great by offering avenues not previously available in return for a hands-off participation in the resulting growth.  Anyone who is serious about private equity understands that the "leverage buyout" days of the Wall Street movie days are long gone, and the tax and business benefits of buying companies is in seeing them be successful, not in eliminating their competition.

I'm not guessing.  Analyzing companies - even private companies using private equity - is my business.  I have facts and I'll put my research of Varsity's "track record" against anyone's.

 

 

[garfield]

20 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

Lol you need to dig deeper. Tell me how do scholastic cheerleading groups get to vote on their rules? They don’t. They have zero say. 

Not digging, Stating facts and my impressions of them.

I never suggested that cheerleading groups set their own rules.

What I'm saying is that drum corps sets its own rules, too.  DCI member corps make their own rules for those very member corps to compete under.  Varsity sets the rules for cheer and thousands of cheerleaders rush to compete for those titles each year.  What's the difference that's meaningful and not just definitional?

Would Varsity's performance rules change dramatically if their competitors had input on the rules?  Would DCI's performance rules change if the MARCHING MEMBERS had input on DCI's judging rubrics?  Anecdotal, I know.

Do the band kids you judge each year have input into the judging rubric they're held against each fall weekend?  What's the point of this comparison to DCI's methods?

 

[Jeff Ream]

11 hours ago, E3D said:

That's not recent news its from back in May.

Your news feed must be back logged 4 months or is it that 56.6 dial up reeking havoc? 

 

 

no the article popped up on social media. given how cheerleading has shut down like most everything else right now, won't be much new info

[Jeff Ream]

10 hours ago, Fred Windish said:

Step back and think this through. We’ve always believed Dan Acheson works at the “pleasure of the DCI Board” who pays him. It’s difficult for me to believe the majority of DCI Board Members think this new partnership puts their own decision making in jeopardy. Or, in time, changes the operations of their own local incorporations.

Most likely, each DCI Board Member analyzed the specifics of this cooperation in detail before approving and making a formal announcement through its DCI staff in Indianapolis. The same specifics posters here can only speculate about. DCI does not function under a dictator.

I’ll repeat my own speculation. A smaller paid DCI Staff, with a smaller 2021operating budget means the total basket of DCI Staff responsibilities will require some “outsourcing,” so to speak. 

i'm just going to throw it out there.......their track record on decision making isn't exactly awe inspiring

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, garfield said:

Anyone read the whole complaint?  I have.  Here's the link:  http://courtweb.pamd.uscourts.gov/courtwebsearch/ctxc/KX330R32.pdf

For those of you who are curious about this notion that Varsity awarded points for teams using Varsity gear, it's not quite that way.  A couple of paragraphs out of 93 pages of the actual legal complaint addresses this contention with this language:

Page 31 shows that teams were allowed to use any suppliers "props" (pom-poms, etc) but non-Varsity suppliers were not allowed to sell their wares at Varsity events.

Page 32 shows, and I quote: "During the 'spirit' portion of the competition [evidenced elsewhere in the claim as the one minute period at the beginning of competitions where teams were rewarded for inciting excitement in the crowd] cheerleading teams were awarded for using props, such as pom poms, sold by Varsity Brands; [elsewhere in the claim is evidence that other suppliers sold props and teams were allowed to use those props]; the more props the team uses, the more points that team receives."

There was never any restriction to use only Varsity gear and nothing in the judging rubric (found on the Varsity website itself) that states using Varsity gear awards additional points.

yet Jeff said they would score better using Varsity equipment. so who ya gonna believe?

[Jeff Ream]

6 hours ago, garfield said:

Evidence please.

I agree that they want to own the market place (doesn't everyone??).  It's your evidence of their "track record" that I'd like to see.

 

 

read the article several pages back who they go after competitors one by one and eventually gobble them up.

[Jeff Ream]

5 hours ago, garfield said:

Facts?  How about first-hand experience?  I have two friends who both work for a company that Varsity recently bought.  This is a company that is a current supplier to the activity.

Both of these people have told me that their experience with Varsity has been nothing like what you describe.  The Varsity people are there, in front of the company, asking how they, Varsity, can help this purchased company improve their financial results, what avenues for sales this company would like to develop, with actual paths for development that Varsity has already developed.  Their care for the executives who run their business is top-notch, and their interest in helping the purchased company leverage Varsity's assets to help it realize its growth targets.  You see, it's completely to Varsity's benefit to help their portfolio companies grow, or to meld the good ideas they buy into their existing business, or eliminate it as competition.

I would encourage the curious to search out the story of the Just Briefs, a business that tried to compete against entrenched Varsity.  After several years of unsuccessfully trying to break in, Varsity bought Just Briefs and kept its founder and CEO on to run the company.  Eventually, this person departed again to start Just Briefs Apparel to, again, try to compete against Varsity.  Question:  How much was the owner of Just Briefs paid for her company and for her time running it after it was purchased?  (Varsity eventually realized that the founder was unable to improve the division's performance and shut it down in favor of Varsity's own management running a similar business more successfully.  It runs today as such while Just Briefs Apparel is still attempting to position itself as a competitor in the space.

Varsity's M.O. is to recognize good management and leave them in place to make their businesses more valuable.  Do they make a profit?  Of course.  But they also help make good companies great by offering avenues not previously available in return for a hands-off participation in the resulting growth.  Anyone who is serious about private equity understands that the "leverage buyout" days of the Wall Street movie days are long gone, and the tax and business benefits of buying companies is in seeing them be successful, not in eliminating their competition.

I'm not guessing.  Analyzing companies - even private companies using private equity - is my business.  I have facts and I'll put my research of Varsity's "track record" against anyone's.

 

 

I have friends that work for those companies that do drum corps and now Varsity supplies. their words paraphrased....."this is the beginning. We'll get more and more involved."

[Jeff Ream]

5 hours ago, garfield said:

Not digging, Stating facts and my impressions of them.

I never suggested that cheerleading groups set their own rules.

What I'm saying is that drum corps sets its own rules, too.  DCI member corps make their own rules for those very member corps to compete under.  Varsity sets the rules for cheer and thousands of cheerleaders rush to compete for those titles each year.  What's the difference that's meaningful and not just definitional?

Would Varsity's performance rules change dramatically if their competitors had input on the rules?  Would DCI's performance rules change if the MARCHING MEMBERS had input on DCI's judging rubrics?  Anecdotal, I know.

Do the band kids you judge each year have input into the judging rubric they're held against each fall weekend?  What's the point of this comparison to DCI's methods?

 

drum corps do now yes. But following Varsitys rulebook, if DCI goes all in with them, the corps won't get that option.

[garfield]

2 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

yet Jeff said they would score better using Varsity equipment. so who ya gonna believe?

Evidence, please, because this is patently false.

They were scored higher for using props.  They were not scored higher for using Varsity props - that part is made up.

Read the claim.  If those making the claim are bringing the worst with which to win, even THEY DON'T SAY THAT IN THEIR CLAIM, so who are you going to believe?

I showed research support.  Still waiting for the proof of the claim that Varsity props scored higher.

Edited September 2, 2020 by garfield