jjeffeory Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 14 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said: Woodwinds aren't the answer. Cutting the costs of spring training & tour is the answer. The question is: How do we get to lower cost of ST & tour from where we are now? Don't tour much. Have 5 or so corps stay near one another in a pod or cluster and perform in 1 place as a residence until the end of season. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverCityAndTroopersFan Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 15 hours ago, Slingerland said: Good lord people, try to get back to the point. Open Class drum corps are dying because of a lack of participants relative to expense. WORLD class drum corps are suffering because of the fiscal demands of the tour and the relative paucity of audiences at the big venues that would allow DCI to make up some of the many millions (not a typo) in annual revenues they now don't have because physical media is as dead as Julius Caesar. I've seen the numbers, and what most of the legacy WC corps make from DCI now is in the very low six figures - about as low as you can go before you hit five figures. Doesn't do much to help you on the road when it costs $1m a year to even play the game. My POINT when I brought it up was that those hoping that 100 community based open class drum corps will spring up as a fix to the problem is Not. Ever. Going. To. Happen. When the impossible solution reveals itself as such, a rational human being looks at what is perhaps less desirable, but would address MOST of the problems, and heads in that direction. School band programs already exist.They have kids, they have parents, they have instruments, and in at least some cases, they're going to have combinations of adults and kids who might think doing 6 or 7 DCI competitions every summer would be fun. Do I give one rat's posterior about whether those potential summer bands in their own division are playing clarinets while they compete? Absolutely not. Why? BECAUSE INSTRUMENTATION ISN'T THE ___ING POINT - participation is, ya lovable numbskulls. The collective "you" of legacy drum corps fans pine for the day when there were 300 drum corps competing, and every state east of the Mississippi had dozens of corps competing. Well, those days ain't coming back with "drum and bugle corps". The closest realistic option would be to create a summer competition format that embraced what local drum corps was - local and cost-effective - and work at making that a reality, regardless of what those members are playing. (Last point - those who say "band directors want the summer off" might want to check out the bios of most of the music staffs of drum corps - it's weird that so many of the adults who choose to teach drum corps in the summer are........band directors during the school year.) Yes 👏 I know most corps would cry and complain about woodwinds, but when the see all the funds that they would get from dues, they would change their tone (like with electronics.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 39 minutes ago, RiverCityAndTroopersFan said: Yes 👏 I know most corps would cry and complain about woodwinds, but when the see all the funds that they would get from dues, they would change their tone (like with electronics.) Unless you raise the member cap, that's a zero sum game. And it's still not enough to cover increased tour expenses. DCI has a (primarily) off-field financial issue, not an on-field one. Mike 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 1 hour ago, MikeN said: Unless you raise the member cap, that's a zero sum game. And it's still not enough to cover increased tour expenses. DCI has a (primarily) off-field financial issue, not an on-field one. Mike That, and when leveraging the nonprofit platform, member dues should never have become the go-to revenue stream anyway. Hot take! 🔥 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiga Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 I'm getting whiplash! People say we should shorter tour and scale back the show schedule, and then when DCI did pprecisely this for 2023, people howl about there no longer being a show in their town! Yikes!!! 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 9 minutes ago, craiga said: I'm getting whiplash! People say we should shorter tour and scale back the show schedule, and then when DCI did pprecisely this for 2023, people howl about there no longer being a show in their town! Yikes!!! Exactly. Every suggestion for lowering costs has a ‘special interest group’ arrayed against it. Get rid of electronics or props - offend the avant-garde; shorten tour- offend fans who want more local shows; raise tuition- make Drum Corps even more of a rich-kids activity. And so on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 (edited) . Edited June 12, 2023 by scheherazadesghost grammar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 On 2/19/2023 at 9:35 AM, IllianaLancerContra said: Woodwinds aren't the answer. Cutting the costs of spring training & tour is the answer. The question is: How do we get to lower cost of ST & tour from where we are now? not needing 6 weeks of ST in a college with all of the costs associated 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 14 hours ago, RiverCityAndTroopersFan said: Yes 👏 I know most corps would cry and complain about woodwinds, but when the see all the funds that they would get from dues, they would change their tone (like with electronics.) considering dues doesnt even cover half the cost of a kids summer in many cases, i doubt it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 21, 2023 Share Posted February 21, 2023 9 hours ago, craiga said: I'm getting whiplash! People say we should shorter tour and scale back the show schedule, and then when DCI did pprecisely this for 2023, people howl about there no longer being a show in their town! Yikes!!! not me...i actually have a show within 45 minutes for the first time in 10 years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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