4 DAYS TILL DCI SCHEDULE RELEASE?

[C.Holland]

9 hours ago, cixelsyd said:

When it is time to defend corps spending, there are people who post about how drum corps is big business now.  They cite the seven-figure annual budgets of the higher ranking corps, and contend that props, tarps, amp-the-whole-corps and annual costume changes are therefore relatively trivial expenses.  

Drum corps is a big business.  It does not mean it is a PROFITABLE business.   It's not uncommon to need to spend $2 Million on a season where $600K is travel, $500K is housing, and $700K is food.  If you've done your math, that means that the last 10-20% of budget is for admin, staff, show costs, health/human services, and contingency. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by C.Holland

[KVG_DC]

Yeah Big business doesn't mean profitable.  Airlines are big business but they're not really profitable without the government subsidies behind nearly every aspect of operations.

And non-profit doesn't mean small business.  A lot of the big medical networks are non-profits and turning over HUGE income.  They're beholden to reinvest it and do charitable funding of care, but even that last part is pretty #### iffy when they're also going after people for bills without telling them they might qualify for charitable bill forgiveness while soaking insurance coverage hard.

 

[scheherazadesghost]

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Edited June 13, 2023 by scheherazadesghost

[IllianaLancerContra]

On 12/4/2022 at 1:37 PM, craiga said:

I don't disagree, but for the record, neither of these two corps are in the top 12.

Then we are not thinking of the same 2 Corps. 

[IllianaLancerContra]

On 12/4/2022 at 2:53 PM, scheherazadesghost said:

Wonder if DCPers are tired of you and me harping on labor/safety best practices yet. 😇

I have less lived experience on the implications for taxes so I'll leave that alone.

There is no change that doesn't come with growing pains. It's a matter of how much control an org wants to have over the change. Or... just bury your head in the sand... that's an option too. But I guess it's all tough talk coming from this armchair. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’m not going to be tired of safety practices harping until it truly becomes a non-issue due to complete integration within the activity.  Safety should be as ubiquitous in Drum Corps as riding on a bus - everyone does it and doesn’t even give it a second thought.  

[IllianaLancerContra]

21 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

No idea how close this relates but belong to old car club that lost non-profit for few years due to stupidity. Ye olde “we always did it this way so why check with experts” (sound familiar?). 
Had one big money maker for the year they paid no taxes on and authorities didn’t check too close. After losing NP status big chunk of money went to taxes and state started checking past business practices. Could corps stand a tax cut out of the budget and (maybe more importantly) someone checking their business practices.

I suspect that going from non-profit to for-profit can make some problems go away, but it also brings new problems with it.  

[scheherazadesghost]

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Edited June 13, 2023 by scheherazadesghost

[IllianaLancerContra]

6 hours ago, craiga said:

For the record,  most of the top 12 corps do not pay for their "annual costume changes".  They are provided to the corps for free in exchange for promotional consideration.   The same is true for marching and pit percussion.   I don't know if amps are part of the package, but I'll bet they are.

The ‘hidden’ cost of all the tarps/props/electronics is that now the Corps needs another semi to haul them around.  And this requires fuel, drivers (even volunteers need  to be fed), insurance, maintenance, etc. And I don’t believe that these costs are covered in exchange for promotional consideration.  

[JimF-LowBari]

3 hours ago, C.Holland said:

Drum corps is a big business.  It does not mean it is a PROFITABLE business.   It's not uncommon to need to spend $2 Million on a season where $600K is travel, $500K is travel, and $700K is food.  If you've done your math, that means that the last 10-20% of budget is for admin, staff, show costs, health/human services, and contingency. 

Not picking just trying to understand this mess. You have travel twice, did you mean something else?

signed: guy from 70s who knew of corps and shows going under when gas went to $1 (aka price tripled)

[IllianaLancerContra]

7 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Mmmm cost-benefit analysis...

I think it would have to take into consideration where the for-profit would be based.   For example, many manufacturing companies are based in Delaware because of some tax advantages.   Same with health insurance companies & Connecticut & transportation companies in Iowa.  
 

There are cans-of-worms unknown when it comes to switching from non-profit to for-profit.   It is the things that we don’t know that we don’t know about that will bite us.