juice Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 Not that it's an insignificant amount, but River City Rhythm dues were $2500 last season, and that includes a 8 week "full-time" tour from mid-June through DCI Finals. Their dues are on the lower end of all Open Class groups, especially those that have a full-time tour. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashontheinternet Posted January 17, 2023 Author Share Posted January 17, 2023 (edited) 3 hours ago, GUARDLING said: The activity for sure has become difficult for an average person to shell out so much BUT where can one get instruction for several months, housing, transportation, food etc for the price. You can't. Now I know it doesn't make it easier to know that and that some activities can be as bad if not worse. The best I can say is work, find creative ways to get sponsors, work, save in advance, work, plan ahead, work, look for corps with a scholarship program, did I mention work? If you auditioned for Battalion then went over to Bloo, did you think it would be less? No. Every year the cost of running a drum corps or even a winter program just gets higher and higher unfortunately. That is the reality of the activity today. The good or bad of that. Good Luck to you quite the opposite. i bought the audition packet for Bloo the day it was available, worked on it for a long time, but ultimately i had to kind of forfeit the Bloo audition, because of the travel costs. virtual auditions would have been fine, but i cannot afford to travel cross country for callbacks and such, never mind full tuition. Btal last year was much cheaper than it is this year, so naively i expected it to be similar tuition cost this year. boy was i wrong. we are looking into options to potentially bargain with Btal, looking into scholarship options and such, however this extends beyond me. i have several friends who had to cut short their own drum corps experience because of costs. i may be able to get a lowered tuition if they see the potential in me as a performer, but they cant do that for everyone in my shoes. it is very unfortunate. Edited January 17, 2023 by Ashontheinternet spelling 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashontheinternet Posted January 17, 2023 Author Share Posted January 17, 2023 41 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said: Nothing costs what it did even 5 years ago. While I hate drum corps costs more too, if it stayed at the cost from 5 years ago it’d be dead surely, and that's the really sad truth. a lot of these cost issues are not even the fault of these organizations themselves, rather the economy and cost of travel and housing. it makes me wonder what things that are common in DCI now that could be dropped for a while as the costs of everything (hopefully) slowly goes down. maybe it's time to stop spending tens to hundreds of thousands on props? as sad as that would make me and others, it could be necessary to ensure these organizations and this activities survival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg_orangecounty Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 43 minutes ago, Ashontheinternet said: maybe it's time to stop spending tens to hundreds of thousands on props? And then what would old people have to complain about? Think of us. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Ashontheinternet said: quite the opposite. i bought the audition packet for Bloo the day it was available, worked on it for a long time, but ultimately j had to kind of forfeit the Bloo audition, because of the travel costs. virtual auditions would have been fine, but i cannot afford to travel cross country for callbacks and such, never mind full tuition. Btal last year was much cheaper than it is this year, so naively i expected it to be similar tuition cost this year. boy was i wrong. we are looking into options to potentially bargain with Btal, looking into scholarship options and such, however this extends beyond me. i have several friends who had to cut short their own drum corps experience because of costs. i may be able to get a lowered tuition if they see the potential in me as a performer, but they cant do that for everyone in my shoes. it is very unfortunate. Best of luck to you. Better to know the harsh reality in any situation. I've done many auditions and talked to literally hundreds of people and sometimes lead with the realities. IMO it's best to know up front than lead people on or make promises that can't be kept. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 2 hours ago, Ashontheinternet said: surely, and that's the really sad truth. a lot of these cost issues are not even the fault of these organizations themselves, rather the economy and cost of travel and housing. it makes me wonder what things that are common in DCI now that could be dropped for a while as the costs of everything (hopefully) slowly goes down. maybe it's time to stop spending tens to hundreds of thousands on props? as sad as that would make me and others, it could be necessary to ensure these organizations and this activities survival. It is the sad truth And don’t call me Shirley. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcifanforlife Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 2 hours ago, Ashontheinternet said: surely, and that's the really sad truth. a lot of these cost issues are not even the fault of these organizations themselves, rather the economy and cost of travel and housing. it makes me wonder what things that are common in DCI now that could be dropped for a while as the costs of everything (hopefully) slowly goes down. maybe it's time to stop spending tens to hundreds of thousands on props? as sad as that would make me and others, it could be necessary to ensure these organizations and this activities survival. Many of the corps have returned to premandemic level of auditionees. So the ability to pay is the number one requirement for getting in a corps today. Scholarships are for vets. If an organization reduces its membership fees it is devaluing its brand. We will see who still needs members when DCI starts its Fill All Spots in a couple of weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGCpimpOtimp Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 6 hours ago, Ashontheinternet said: surely, and that's the really sad truth. a lot of these cost issues are not even the fault of these organizations themselves, rather the economy and cost of travel and housing. it makes me wonder what things that are common in DCI now that could be dropped for a while as the costs of everything (hopefully) slowly goes down. maybe it's time to stop spending tens to hundreds of thousands on props? as sad as that would make me and others, it could be necessary to ensure these organizations and this activities survival. The props don't cost "hundreds of thousands", and (along with electronics) aren't the reasons costs have skyrocketed. Housing Fuel Food Probably in that order make up the vast vast vast majority of operational costs. The other stuff isn't even really a drop in the bucket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 8 hours ago, Ashontheinternet said: surely, and that's the really sad truth. a lot of these cost issues are not even the fault of these organizations themselves, rather the economy and cost of travel and housing. it makes me wonder what things that are common in DCI now that could be dropped for a while as the costs of everything (hopefully) slowly goes down. maybe it's time to stop spending tens to hundreds of thousands on props? as sad as that would make me and others, it could be necessary to ensure these organizations and this activities survival. the biggest expenditures are food fuel housing and insurance. cutting back on any of these is the key....but also makes DCI far less as a whole. as stated in hundreds of other threads, prop costs are a very small cost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 (edited) 13 hours ago, MGCpimpOtimp said: The props don't cost "hundreds of thousands", and (along with electronics) aren't the reasons costs have skyrocketed. Housing Fuel Food Probably in that order make up the vast vast vast majority of operational costs. The other stuff isn't even really a drop in the bucket. Some props cost more than other props. The prop Mandarins used last summer was probably on the higher end, and probably required a truck of its own (which leads to increase in transportation, fuel, and food). Blue Stars, Colts, & Troopers also seemed to have props that took up a lot of transportation space. On the other hand, BAC & Cadets props were more modest - I think BAC’s cones could be stacked for easier transport. People say ‘It isn’t props & electronics that are driving costs'. Which to some extent is true (more for some Corps than others). But hauling all over the country costs $. If a Corps could go from renting 10 vehicles (busses + semis) to 9 vehicles I would think it would cost less to rent, and I’m pretty certain that filling up 9 vehicles with fuel costs less than filling 10 vehicles with fuel. Edited January 18, 2023 by IllianaLancerContra punct.utation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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