Santa Clara Vanguard 2024

[Jeff Ream]

50 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

I actually googled a bit to see just what you can bet on in Vegas; Drum Corps is likely too much a niche activity.   Most of the small sports you can bet on (i.e., cricket, greyhound racing, etc) are actually big in other parts of the world and that is where the sports books make their money. 

i pick BD to cover

Edited December 21, 2023 by Jeff Ream

[KVG_DC]

2 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

i pick BD to cover

This was my thought.  BD sort ruins the odds.  But then, a smart bookie would set up their lines to exploit ABBD sentiment then hedge enough that should someone pull off a win over BD they don't lose too much.  

[OldSnareDrummer]

36 minutes ago, KVG_DC said:

This was my thought.  BD sort ruins the odds.  But then, a smart bookie would set up their lines to exploit ABBD sentiment then hedge enough that should someone pull off a win over BD they don't lose too much.  

That's it. I'm setting up DrumCorpsFanDuel.com today and making myself a fortune. Don't any of you goobers steal my idea. 

[KVG_DC]

2 minutes ago, OldSnareDrummer said:

That's it. I'm setting up DrumCorpsFanDuel.com today and making myself a fortune. Don't any of you goobers steal my idea. 

You can call it OnlyChumps.com

[Richard Lesher]

6 hours ago, HockeyDad said:

Is there a plausible explanation for this, or is someone stealing from Bingo again?

Here is what I do know (from experience......).

Whatever I think the problem is, I am basing my opinion on incomplete information. So for the problem to be everything I say it is that means I am 100% right and there is nothing worse beyond my knowledge of unknown information. That of course is unrealistic, but I don't have a basis to say what exactly is worse. 

Now, a year ago at this time I did not have FY2022 financials. 

I do now. 

I was making my assessments on FY2021 financials and selective information SCV was putting out. So I was only speculating based on that they were going into FY23 unable to pay bingo salaries in several months. I was also having to default to their explanation that expenses blew out the results of FY22. 

When 2022 became available it showed at year end the liquidity position of SCV was negative. Which means, I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they were going to have problems with bingo salaries sometime in 2023. Nope, it started sooner than that (reality was worse than my estimate). It started before 2022 even ended. 

SCV had blown through $1.8M of reserves savings in a single year they had been holding for a decade.  

Their financial problems were also not nearly as much of an expense management issue as it was a revenue one. 

I can claim the Board President is a liar. I have the e-mail chain to prove it. 

At one point SCV with the same resources had two Corps, and two Winter programs, and was able to save up $2,000,000. 

Folks are sucking bingo dry. There are all these people getting 6 figure checks for doing nothing (legally), and they are riding the backs of people making slightly more than minimum wage who are entrusted with large piles of cash (and no oversight). 

Wherever there is opportunity it will be taken advantage of. 

I look back, and I realize, oh this is the norm for SCV. The period of prosperity was an exception that was heavily dependent on two people running operations and Bingo. When those people left SCV went right back to what it has always been. 

SCV's Bingo situation is such a ripe resource they have been skirting along nearly their entire existence and still managed to pull off a touring corps. When that got cleaned up from 2008-2013 it's full potential was shown with two touring corps, and two winter programs. But that was only 5 years in their existence.  

When people steal, enough is never enough. They got away with it yesterday, why wont they get away with it tomorrow.  

These things always eventually collapse. 

[Richard Lesher]

5 hours ago, MarimbaManiac said:

Maybe it started as soon as GR died, but at some point the fantasy became more important than accountability.

I spent some of my marching years (1988-1992) with the SON of the parents that were stealing from Bingo. The same person I called out in 2005. I can't say when exactly it started, but more than likely long before that. 

It really is just what SCV is at its core. 

I've not discussed this much, but I feel conned, even more so than when I was on the board. I thought I was confronting a few bad apples. Nope, it goes all the way down to the bone. The core of what SCV really is will not allow itself to succeed. 

For Cadets that is dominated by sexual gratification. 

For SCV that is dominated by greed. 

[JimF-LowBari]

Any idea if the number of people playing Bingo is back to pre-Covid level?

[greg_orangecounty]

Happy to see this update from SCV management.  Hopefully they follow through and the corps returns to dominant form soon.  

[Bruckner8]

1 hour ago, KVG_DC said:

This was my thought.  BD sort ruins the odds.  But then, a smart bookie would set up their lines to exploit ABBD sentiment then hedge enough that should someone pull off a win over BD they don't lose too much.  

There exists too much pro BD inertia in the judging community for ABBD to take hold. But yes, the ABBD contingent is strong in the fanbase, and yes, any smart bookie would take advantage of that lol.

For me, as the author of Competitive Inertia (2007), and an instructor competing against BD for a long time, I’d put all of my money “on BD” every time…and it has nothing to do with “if i like their shows.” (I usually hate them, and can’t remember them, but I respect/understand their ability to “get points.”)

I’d love to be able to bet on them…the easiest bet ever, with current judges and criteria. 

[IllianaLancerContra]

3 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Unless they're pulling a Producers, I assume the org puts their percentage much higher…

On the field, presenting their 2024 show ‘Springtime for Hitler’, Drum Corps International is proud to present Santa Clara Vanguard! 
 

eta - Springtime for Hitler is a musical in The Producers.  It is supposed to be intentionally bad.  If I give more info it will be a spoiler.  Go watch the 1967 version (not the later remake). 

Edited December 21, 2023 by IllianaLancerContra
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