A lot can happen in 15 years. (G7 proposal)

[rpbobcat]

37 minutes ago, Boss Anova said:

 While true, they needed that and benefitted from that. But that relief money was just a drop in the bucket of what they really needed to fill the shortfall. SCV and BD for just one example are still clawing back  from the Bingo money revenues they lost during the Covid years of shut downs. It was pretty precarious there for awhile. They made it thru, but even they will tell you they still have work to do re their finances, post pandemic. Every Corps does. The shortened season of 2025 is but one example of the still lingering effects of the pandemic.

I would think that, during covid the corps' expenses would have been a lot less.

Rent and loans on equipment should have been about it.

I would think at most the corps had  a skeleton staff.

From my experience, corps are experts at "kicking the can down the road".

Hopefully that's changed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Crown1990]

On 8/11/2025 at 3:53 PM, OldCorpsGuy said:

That can’t be real. The juvenile presentation, bad capitalization and grammar. Please tell me it isn’t. 

If you go to GH's FB page and follow the link to his "critiques" of DCI shows, the prose is identical. Right down to the seemingly boundless supply of poorly used ellipses at the ends of sentences...

Edited August 13, 2025 by Crown1990

[Lead]

55 minutes ago, rpbobcat said:

From what I've read, DCI/Drum Corps got a lot of Covid relief money.

That's how they survived.

 

 

A lot of organizations did

[Slingerland]

1 hour ago, Boss Anova said:

 Maybe... but maybe not.  For all intents and purposes, DCI Drum Corps should have died during the recent pandemic where the activity was literally completely shuttered for 2 years of competition. If the activity can survive that, it likely can survive anything. Thsat said, its imperative for DCI and its member Corps to be financially wise over the coming years as they continue post pandemic.

Shuttered Venue Grants
PPP

That's what kept it alive. 

 

[Boss Anova]

2 hours ago, RiverCityAndTroopersFan said:

It’d be nice to see corps working together in terms of sharing housing sites and whatnot. Blue Stars going to pick up MBI’s truck and Vessel lending Troopers their Chuck Wagon brings me hope that corps can work together.

 Its better now... far from perfect, nor ideally where we need to be... but better now imo

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, OldCorpsGuy said:

As I understand it, Hopkins was Assistant Director in 1982, but due to the health of the Director, Hopkins basically ran the show. 

true. but he was a minor player in that suit.

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, RiverCityAndTroopersFan said:

It’d be nice to see corps working together in terms of sharing housing sites and whatnot. Blue Stars going to pick up MBI’s truck and Vessel lending Troopers their Chuck Wagon brings me hope that corps can work together.

it's not a matter of corps working together. it's a matter of facilities letting it happen

[Jeff Ream]

2 hours ago, rpbobcat said:

From what I've read, DCI/Drum Corps got a lot of Covid relief money.

That's how they survived.

 

 

some. not all

[Slingerland]

13 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

some. not all

Cadets were the only major player who weren't eligible for SVG because of the timing of their breakaway from YEA. In a lot of ways, that was another way Hopkins' stench hurt the org in a back around way.

Then again, if they had $1m in the bank from that, it would have spurred even more suits, so it may have only prolonged the misery.

[MikeRapp]

6 hours ago, Slingerland said:

GH isn't capable of adult thought and expression. Clearly

I'm always somewhat interested that Dave Gibbs escaped unscathed from this mess, despite him being a principal voice in the concept.

A thought, however, is that 6 of the 7 members' of the group were still top 9 finalists last Saturday, holding 5 of the 6 top spots (and if Cadets hadn't gone boom.....), so their own belief in their commitment to being good has stood up pretty well. And inarguably, Boston slamming down the checkbook this time in 2016 changed the direction of their corps, so the link between financial capacity and excellence was only underscored. 

Like it or not, we've entered the Hunger Games portion of the lifecycle of the activity, and the fallout the next few seasons may be nasty.

Eh this activity has always had to scramble to survive. Will likely always be that way.

Corps will come and go. Some that closed needed to close, and were a big reason for the financial jealousy and unrest. But look at the quality of shows now, to to bottom. Look at the new corps coming up in Spartans, Battalion and Gold. Music City seems to be progressing. There are a lot of good things happening.

A lot of the angst around DCI in the past stemmed from people running corps because ###### they just loved band. They hadn’t a clue how to run a successful million dollar org—let alone one as weird as drum corps. Those days are over, and I for one am glad. I am tired of hearing corps handing out Mac and cheese boxes to kids as food. If only 20 corps can operate responsibly then so be it.

Expenses have to be viewed differently now, though. The cost of these shows and the tours is just so high if you hope to compete for a medal of any kind. None of us what a DCI with eight corps, no matter what the pariah from cadets believed.

Edited August 13, 2025 by MikeRapp