A Modest Proposal

[greg_orangecounty]

32 minutes ago, Tenoris4Jazz said:

I don't doubt you, but how in the hell does the math work on that?  Are schools charging more than $1800/night now?

I should have read your post before posting mine (opps). 

[C.Holland]

2 hours ago, Tenoris4Jazz said:

I don't doubt you, but how in the hell does the math work on that?  Are schools charging more than $1800/night now?

Schools are charging as much as they can. You don’t rent one gym, you rent enough rooms as you need according to how many students you have for each gender divided also age by group under and over 18, as well as staff and support staff.  
 

You are also passed ALL costs of using the facility back onto the renter. School Security, any required school staff to be present, custodian services, heating, cooling, water, etc.  Everything in a school runs via building management system, and thus can be quantified and charged back to the renter. 
 

An open class corps out east here was recently quoted near $3000 for an 8 hour sunday to hold an experience camp. That was for the gym, band room, and cafeteria. Only to be used for space. Not sleeping showering, or staying beyond the 8 hour day. This price was escalated from what they paid only a year ago. 
 

school rooms and fields are rented a la carte.  If fields aren’t already reserved for school sports.  They start at 500 each, and can go as high as 2500 depending on turf, condition, stands, lights, etc. 

Edited December 29, 2022 by C.Holland

[ContraFart]

Maybe we should model the tour around the cheapest housing sites. House the corps in clusters for 10-14 days and have shows in a 150 mile radius of that cluster, then move to the next cluster. 

[TOC]

1 hour ago, ContraFart said:

Maybe we should model the tour around the cheapest housing sites. House the corps in clusters for 10-14 days and have shows in a 150 mile radius of that cluster, then move to the next cluster. 

Would your idea work using Regionals as the cluster location?

[MikeN]

2 hours ago, ContraFart said:

Maybe we should model the tour around the cheapest housing sites. House the corps in clusters for 10-14 days and have shows in a 150 mile radius of that cluster, then move to the next cluster. 

I've been thinking about this exact model for a while - economies of scale for housing as well.  

Mike

[C.Holland]

57 minutes ago, TOC said:

Would your idea work using Regionals as the cluster location?

I think there needs to be a rebuild of show sponsors.  Let’s stop paying out appearance fees. Make EVERY corps work like open class.  However every show operator should be required to provide housing and two fields per ensemble. (You want a third field? Cool, hit up your board to fund it) 

That paltry $500, or even $1500 isn’t worth it when the other expenses are so great, and your membership funds the activity anyway.  Your corps may lose $15-20k in appearance fees, but can save 75-100k (or more depending on show quantity). 
 

Let show sponsors keep every dime they make. But since shows provide housing, more show operators means more free housing and fields.  More shows means less housing costs, more performance opportunities for local groups to startup, less mileage in your equipment rental sum, and with operators keeping all moneys, it becomes more incentive for the sponsor to gamble show costs.  Bonus for the operator if they can get sponsors to front costs in return for advertising.

Edited December 29, 2022 by C.Holland

[Jeff Ream]

On 12/28/2022 at 11:15 PM, greg_orangecounty said:

How is that possible?  I don't understand.  Sleeping on a high school gym floor in sleeping bags (girls on one side, guys on the other) is more expensive than putting kids in hotel rooms....?  And with a school the football field is generally thrown in as part of the deal. You can't get a decent hotel room for under $100 a night and with 130+ marching members plus staff.....

It’s not set up like that anymore. Multiple spaces for gender, age, staff, support…. You don’t get to use power or water free…. Gotta pay for school staff to be on site… there’s way more involved. And schools know they can get the $$$ cause they know corps need the school 

[greg_orangecounty]

30 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

It’s not set up like that anymore. Multiple spaces for gender, age, staff, support…. You don’t get to use power or water free…. Gotta pay for school staff to be on site… there’s way more involved. And schools know they can get the $$$ cause they know corps need the school 

Wow.  No wonder the activity is on fumes.  

[C.Holland]

23 minutes ago, greg_orangecounty said:

Wow.  No wonder the activity is on fumes.  

Building management systems that help keep emergencies under control also help to quantify every utility used per sq ft of a facility.  So they can understand where efficiency can be improved in operations.   
 

while it’s unfortunate that schools are no longer free, it’s also now that we can see just what stress a drum corps puts on a building. And that how much everyone took for granted for decades of all the costs involved. (Elex, water, sewage, security, cleaning… etc)

How much does your water and elex bill go up when your in-laws and their 3 kids come to stay over the holidays?  Now multiply that by 30.  That’s hosting a drum corps. 

 

[Terri Schehr]

20 hours ago, C.Holland said:

I think there needs to be a rebuild of show sponsors.  Let’s stop paying out appearance fees. Make EVERY corps work like open class.  However every show operator should be required to provide housing and two fields per ensemble. (You want a third field? Cool, hit up your board to fund it) 

That paltry $500, or even $1500 isn’t worth it when the other expenses are so great, and your membership funds the activity anyway.  Your corps may lose $15-20k in appearance fees, but can save 75-100k (or more depending on show quantity). 
 

Let show sponsors keep every dime they make. But since shows provide housing, more show operators means more free housing and fields.  More shows means less housing costs, more performance opportunities for local groups to startup, less mileage in your equipment rental sum, and with operators keeping all moneys, it becomes more incentive for the sponsor to gamble show costs.  Bonus for the operator if they can get sponsors to front costs in return for advertising.

I like that.