keystone3ply Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 (edited) 9 hours ago, garfield said: And what, pray tell, could that "something" short term be? Unless DCI is willing to actually sell the brand to Varsity, then the benefit to DCI would be any up-front payments (based on something) plus national exposure layered on top of marketing to the exact age demo. I thought of this while (literally) in the shower this morning: Varsity knows about cheer, and books, and selling outfits but what do they know about MUSIC? Does Varsity need to know and understand music in order to make a partnership (sale/agreement) a good one? I'm pretty sure Varsity doesn't want to deal with 40 drum corps in two brackets individually so, SONOFAGUN!, they're dealing with The Brand, DCI itself. Could Varsity actually be the "Unbiased" decision-maker that could force the member corps to accept something "less" short-term in order to get something "more" long-term? Would forcing them to have music experience/understanding be diluting any potential benefit from that arms-length management structure? All good points, but I still think Varsity wants control plus any & all monetary value that they can maximize as a result of the move or acquisition. It's in their company's history; just research & read it in black & white. (Unless of course, it's printed in color.) I've dealt with them for many, many years & their ridiculous "marked-up" products for auxiliaries. Oh, and their shipping prices are marked up 3-4x what they should be because they know the majorette, dance, & color guard Moms will pay it. But for the most part, their products were quality of high quality & I like their sales rep. But our cheer sponsors feel the same way. To their credit, they do send cheer judges free of charge for auditions. My point was maybe their presence, as with their cheer events, could help with marketing the DCI product to a wider national audience via ESPN, Disney+, something... I think this has been one of DCI's biggest disappointments for me. And I do under stand the cost of ESPN, Disney, PBS, etc, etc... Edited August 27, 2020 by keystone3ply cx 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E3D Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 After reading all of these replies to this Varsity news I just can "Cheer" for this decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keystone3ply Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 12 minutes ago, E3D said: After reading all of these replies to this Varsity news I just can "Cheer" for this decision. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 Something didn’t click until a friend made the point: Varsity is scholastic and in the schools. DCI is neither. I wonder if they are really interested in drum corps because they can’t get drum corps into schools. DCI is a tour and event manager. Soundsport is not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 4 hours ago, lowend said: Two things...this is not Varsity getting their nose under the tent. They are in the tent through their ownership of DSI (shoes, gloves, flags, field equipment) and Stanbury uniforms. They also own BSN, which supplies many school athletic teams and HerffJones (yearbooks, class rings, caps & gowns, invitations, etc). Not really. Very little exposure to schools via DCI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowend Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 15 hours ago, garfield said: Not really. Very little exposure to schools via DCI. Just because you are asymptomatic doesn't mean you are COVID free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 1 minute ago, lowend said: Just because you are asymptomatic doesn't mean you are COVID free. I meant marketing exposure. Varsity is a scholastic brand and drum corps is neither. Drum corps doesn't give Varsity much exposure to high school. But thanks for the medical opinion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E3D Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 21 minutes ago, lowend said: Just because you are asymptomatic doesn't mean you are COVID free. Going to the low end? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 The original article mentioned a Soundsport Scholastic initiative for the fall. To me, drum corps is way too small to interest Varsity. They are interested in the scholastic arena. There are 25,000 high schools in the US. If 5,000 have competitive bands, that means 20,000 do not. That is a much more desirable market for Varsity. i think WGI has more to worry about than DCI, given its focus. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 13 minutes ago, MikeD said: The original article mentioned a Soundsport Scholastic initiative for the fall. To me, drum corps is way too small to interest Varsity. They are interested in the scholastic arena. There are 25,000 high schools in the US. If 5,000 have competitive bands, that means 20,000 do not. That is a much more desirable market for Varsity. i think WGI has more to worry about than DCI, given its focus. A majority of the 20,000 probably do have marching bands, though, who generally have no interest in competing. So the DCI-Varsity plan seems to be to interest some portion of those groups into doing something additional on top of their regular marching band activity. I've been tough on this concept because, per the links others have provided, Varsity seems like a pretty bad company. But here's a possible upside: DCI hopes to use Varsity as a way of increasing awareness of the activity in those 20,000 schools, which could lead to more people trying out for drum corps in the summer. In a thread I posted seven or eight years years ago, I complained that in the program book for OMEA state finals, in which some 12,000 kids participate, there were lots of ads for college music programs but not one from any drum corps (not even the Bluecoats) or from DCI. I suggested that was a missed opportunity, so I suppose I should be glad that DCI may have found a way to reach a lot more band students. But I'm still suspicious of Varsity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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