Vuitton Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 On 3/30/2024 at 1:40 PM, Slingerland said: While I don't disagree that revenues are not keeping up with expenses as much as they need to for sustainability, the examples of those two specific corps don't underscore your point. Vanguard got into trouble not because they ran out of money, but because they had absolutely no internal financial controls or experienced managers running the operation. The stories they were self-reporting of how they overspent in 2022 were just plain weird. Financially they could have put a corps out in 2023 and not broken a sweat. Cadets are fighting a lawsuit which was sucking up all of their available funding. Spirit is also battling a suit, but doesn't appear to be having problems recruiting and putting a corps on the field. Surprisingly, the majority of WC corps are in acceptable financial condition, if you look thru financials. This has been happening since the 70s. There is no fairness in competition, and corps are forced to spend massive amounts of money to try and win. The list of corps who folded because of spending to try and win is massive. I don't know how anyone could look at the number of corps and the decreasing audience and say this activity isn't dying. And, yes, it is a decreasing audience. There are around 20-25k people at finals, and a good 6,000 or so are participants. That's less than when I marched over 30 years ago. DCI doesn't help this. The corps should not be running DCI. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 37 minutes ago, Vuitton said: This has been happening since the 70s. There is no fairness in competition, and corps are forced to spend massive amounts of money to try and win. The list of corps who folded because of spending to try and win is massive. I don't know how anyone could look at the number of corps and the decreasing audience and say this activity isn't dying. And, yes, it is a decreasing audience. There are around 20-25k people at finals, and a good 6,000 or so are participants. That's less than when I marched over 30 years ago. DCI doesn't help this. The corps should not be running DCI. You could be right BUT corps won't give that up . DCI was formed by the corps to get away from the confines of the past ( AL, VFW ) and to decide their own direction, That's why most will say DCI is the corps, and it is from inception. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vuitton Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 On 4/6/2024 at 10:53 AM, GUARDLING said: You could be right BUT corps won't give that up . DCI was formed by the corps to get away from the confines of the past ( AL, VFW ) and to decide their own direction, That's why most will say DCI is the corps, and it is from inception. Yep, but it's not good for the activity. Especially when the top corps get their way and policy after policy is put in place to keep the top corps the top corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 On 4/6/2024 at 1:13 PM, Vuitton said: This has been happening since the 70s. There is no fairness in competition, and corps are forced to spend massive amounts of money to try and win. The list of corps who folded because of spending to try and win is massive. I don't know how anyone could look at the number of corps and the decreasing audience and say this activity isn't dying. And, yes, it is a decreasing audience. There are around 20-25k people at finals, and a good 6,000 or so are participants. That's less than when I marched over 30 years ago. DCI doesn't help this. The corps should not be running DCI. paid attendance the last several years at finals has been 22,000ish. members, staff and VIP's are not counted in that number 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vuitton Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 On 4/16/2024 at 9:05 PM, Jeff Ream said: paid attendance the last several years at finals has been 22,000ish. members, staff and VIP's are not counted in that number Yep, I said 20-25k. You'd think after decades of alumni the stadium would be packed, but... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOC Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 2 hours ago, Vuitton said: Yep, I said 20-25k. You'd think after decades of alumni the stadium would be packed, but... If the DCI organization survives many more years, alumni interested in attending shows/finals might be similar how the VFW/AL organizations have been losing members for years. Yes, both the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the American Legion have seen declining membership over the years. The VFW has lost about half of its membership since 1992, and has seen a drop from 1.2 million members in 2017 to just over 1 million in 2021. The American Legion has lost more than 700,000 members over the last decade and has nearly 2 million members across the United States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 12 hours ago, Vuitton said: Yep, I said 20-25k. You'd think after decades of alumni the stadium would be packed, but... That is packed on the front sideline and around into the end zones. Concert side in Indy doesn’t hold as much as you think it does 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 22 hours ago, Vuitton said: Yep, I said 20-25k. You'd think after decades of alumni the stadium would be packed, but... I wonder if DCI tracks the demographics of attendees? In other words, how many are parents/family of performers? How many are alumni of extant Corps? How many are alumni of extinct Corps? How many are HS band students? How many are fans that just enjoy Drum Corps? How many are locals that want to see what Drum Corps is? Etc? As DCI paid attendance is the biggest source of income, I would hope that corporate DCI understands who these people are. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vuitton Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 3 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said: How many are locals that want to see what Drum Corps is? I would bet this number is extremely low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vuitton Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 (edited) 14 hours ago, Jeff Ream said: That is packed on the front sideline and around into the end zones. Concert side in Indy doesn’t hold as much as you think it does it doesn't matter. If I had to sit behind the stage to see U2 or Bob Dylan, I would do it. People fill the cheaper seats behind the symphony at the San Francisco Symphony just to see the concert. The point is there should be enough fans that people are willing to get cheap tickets in the end zones and at the back stands just to be there. In the 80s and 90s as a poor college student I would have paid to sit in the back stands at finals rather than not be there. Now, that I have money, I won't even both to go to a drum corps show today. It's not worth it to see 1-2 shows that are actually good and entertaining. Much of the front sideline is full of the corps that performed earlier in the week and family members of all those corps. Joe Blow off the street just isn't walking into Lucas Oil to see the show. Edited April 21 by Vuitton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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