Pulling the plug

[craiga]

I am the most excited for a drum corps season than I have been in 40 years!  Can't wait! Boston surging! Phantom Regiment firing on all cylinders! Cadets continuing their resurgence!  Mandarins on the move! Troop staking their claim back in the top 12! Colts making themselves heard!  Talk about upsetting the status  quo!   WOOHOO!!!  BRING ON DCI 2023!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LabMaster]

1 hour ago, Sideways said:

DCI abandoning the tour premiere in Detroit and now with SCV gone…less than excited about this coming season.

Isn’t the tour premiere in Indy now?

[DAYGO]

4 hours ago, craiga said:

I am the most excited for a drum corps season than I have been in 40 years!  Can't wait! Boston surging! Phantom Regiment firing on all cylinders! Cadets continuing their resurgence!  Mandarins on the move! Troop staking their claim back in the top 12! Colts making themselves heard!  Talk about upsetting the status  quo!   WOOHOO!!!  BRING ON DCI 2023!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agreed.   Let's go Cadets!!!

[Bob984]

On 12/15/2022 at 3:36 PM, wolfgang said:

Different people have different personal thresholds where they say no more, no dci for me this year.

I know of some who paid for tix, got caught in the entry fiasco at Finals last August, and decided that was their last straw. No more dci.

Others may have seen the ticket price increase and opted out. Others may compare 2022 w/SCV, SCVC,Legends who are not coming out and decided no (though Spirit, Columbians, and last I heard, Cascades are planning to come to Championships).

Even in past years, show trends, A&E, desire for different city and other factors caused some people to decide not to come to Indy.

If you are/were planning to come to Championships, what would be/was your personal tipping point when you decide(d) no, not worth making the trip any more?

I went to Indy around 5 times.......no more.........reasons (1) price....the cost is quite high....tickets, hotel, car, concessions............(2) it is not a good sounding stadium, at all  (3) I can fly to multiple airports in the NE (whichever is cheapest, and all are cheaper than Indy) and make my way to Allentown....tickets are much cheaper......better sound, better corps atmosphere......there is very little performance difference or competitive change from there through Indy....(4)  I've done all that I care to do in the Indy area outside of drum corps (Speedway/etc.)...I realize that they probably have a deal and it's easier planning for the corps, but I still liked when the championship was in different locations, as I felt it was better for the fans....and indoor stadiums might be good for guard/visual, and WEATHER,  but IMO they are bad sounding musically.

[Tim K]

7 hours ago, Sideways said:

DCI abandoning the tour premiere in Detroit and now with SCV gone…less than excited about this coming season.

It may not be DCI that abandoned the tour premiere. Live performances broadcast in movie theaters is costly. While there may be licensing issues involved, each year the number of theaters featuring the tour premier has been fewer and fewer. In my area attendance was always so so. I wouldn’t be surprised if the theaters broke even with the tour premiere and with movie theaters closing all the time, it’s no surprise. The way it was explained to me by a friend who used to manage an AMC theater, the cost alone is about 75% of the seating capacity for the average size venue. You also have to count on refreshment sales. For the tour premiere you probably have not filled the seats and you have fewer people for refreshments. Big, Loud, and Live, or Live and Loud whichever it is (I always forget) fills many theaters, has an intermission, lasts about four and a half hours, people eat, and it makes a profit for the theater. Something similar has happened with opera broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. The Saturday performances are often sold out weeks ahead of time. The encores rarely sell out and fewer theaters offer them. 

[Sideways]

11 hours ago, LabMaster said:

Isn’t the tour premiere in Indy now?

2019 and last year it was at Ford Field.

[cixelsyd]

On 12/18/2022 at 9:29 AM, DudleytheWest said:

Before Vanguard's announcement, I had never bothered to look into corps financials. Now I have. It is shocking to see the massive amount of debt, the huge operating costs, and them being in the red (grossly) the past several years. Vanguard, Blue Devils, the Mandarins and Boston are carrying. Mandarins went from no debt in 2018 to $1.7M in 2019.

About Mandarins, you should read this:

http://40.122.105.106/2018/11/27/auto-draft/

[cixelsyd]

18 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Some of us simply can't afford the cost to attend, even if other more personal choices didn't already cause hesitation.

Not sure if this redditor also haunts DCP, but there are some good points made here about regional touring and state/province representation:

"An activity that was made needlessly niche, for no good reason."  Nicely summarized.

[Terri Schehr]

13 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

"An activity that was made needlessly niche, for no good reason."  Nicely summarized.

I liked “idolizing five or six super corps”. It’s so true.  Most people don’t step foot into that place until the top six are on.  I’ve seen people not come in until their particular corps came on.  Which is fine.  You bought the tickets, you can do whatever the hell you want.  But don’t pretend you’re a drum corps fan. You’re not.  You’re a fan of XXXX corps. 

[gbass598]

Living 3 hours away from Indy I did not go every year. I haven't been to a live show since 2019 and my last time attending finals was 2018. I decided to stop going to finals because of the cost. I paid a ton of money for tickets I bought as soon as the public on sale started for way too much money to end up sitting on the 5 yard line.

I use vacation time from my job to teach band camp so I'm not using more time away to go watch quarterfinals or semifinals when I can watch them from home cheaper. This past year I didn't even watch finals online because I took a trip to Wisconsin to see my favorite band play 3 nights that same weekend.