Rewards of moving Championships?

[wolfgang]

As someone living in the region near Indy, havimg the option of going to one day or more of Championships is nice. For DCI, they get a good deal in a centrally located city. I understand their position.

If, for whatever reason, Championships ever moved to a rotation, what are the potential rewards for DCI? I understand the personal benefit for someone living close to the Finals city, but what are the potential gains for DCI as an organization? 

[IllianaLancerContra]

47 minutes ago, wolfgang said:

As someone living in the region near Indy, havimg the option of going to one day or more of Championships is nice. For DCI, they get a good deal in a centrally located city. I understand their position.

If, for whatever reason, Championships ever moved to a rotation, what are the potential rewards for DCI? I understand the personal benefit for someone living close to the Finals city, but what are the potential gains for DCI as an organization? 

Other than getting more exposure for the activity outside of parents, alumni, and longtime fans?  And how could we possibly get the tour of the current rut, with all regionals always in the same order, with stops in- between the same, except dropping a few every year?   

[cixelsyd]

4 hours ago, wolfgang said:

If, for whatever reason, Championships ever moved to a rotation, what are the potential rewards for DCI? I understand the personal benefit for someone living close to the Finals city, but what are the potential gains for DCI as an organization? 

Among the potential rewards would be the opportunities to exploit different markets.  DCI had their biggest championship attendance numbers when they were moving the finals site periodically.  Stirring up the tour also creates events on the road to championships that tap into different locations, where DCI can and has at times grown both their fanbase and their support base (i.e. housing sites, show venues, event partners, even prospective corps).

Another typical benefit to the organization would be to have cities bidding for the privilege of hosting your event.  Technically, that is still partially true when one bidder makes a longer-term deal such as Indianapolis... but conversely, that takes you off the bidding market for longer periods.

[Jeff Ream]

DCI needs to be marketable enough to get bids......and face it, we only sell half of a stadium. even say Taylor Swift or WWE with their huge stages, fill at least 80% of the stadium. so that limits the financial incentives for places to host. it's why Atlanta is no longer in the Dome.....it's not cost effective. and sure i'm spoiled, i get Allentown every year right before finals. but the tour flow has been in this set up for pretty much every year since 03 ( 04 and 07 the outliers). Sure, the Rose Bowl had the biggest attendance in decades, but how much did DCI make on it? The Indy deal has perks built in that lower attendance means lowers costs to DCI.

[greg_orangecounty]

It was fun having Finals in different locations (Birmingham notwithstanding), but the benefits probably don’t outweigh the lower overhead of Indianapolis - sadly. 

[Jeff Ream]

17 hours ago, greg_orangecounty said:

It was fun having Finals in different locations (Birmingham notwithstanding), but the benefits probably don’t outweigh the lower overhead of Indianapolis - sadly. 

or Jackson. Dallas the city was great. the stadium and the heat....oof. 

[BG984]

I would LOVE to see finals rotations again in different cities......even if it was just every two or three years.  I haven't gone to Indy for awhile, now.....reasons: cost, I did the "tourist" stuff already(Speedway, the town, etc).....I can't stand the sound in the stadium......there would be incentive for me to visit different places/cities..........but it's been just Allentown for me for awhile (and that always works for me).  Also, I doubt that DCI would even consider holding nationals in an outdoor stadium again, but I haven't heard an indoor one that I liked yet.....funny, I remember back in 2008 when the stadium wasn't finished on time, and they had to move to Bloomington.  That stadium sounded GREAT, and audio-wise, was the last championship stadium that I enjoyed.......

    There is zero doubt that a good fiscal deal with Indy and the stadium, plus the headquarters being there, and planning for the same thing each year is easier for the corps, and as long as the fans show up, it will stay there. 

    I just researched something interesting.  When Indy was picked as a long-term/permanent spot, they used the "retractable roof" as a selling point.  After a relatively short period of time, talk of that went away.  To the best of my knowledge, it has been closed for DCI for every year, and when asked, they said, "threat of weather".  It was also implied that it takes a long time/big deal to close the roof.  IT TAKES 9 MINUTES!!!!!   Now, if someone tells me that they checked the sound of corps with the roof both open and closed, and the difference was marginal.....ok, keep it closed and keep the A/C runnin'......however, I never saw that it was ever tested that way..........in DCI's defense, many outdoor stadiums' shapes and related acoustics are bad, so putting a dome/roof over a bad sounding stadium is inmaterial.   IMO,  there are especially many great-sounding college stadiums.

I guess it's the "Oil Can Forever"......(sigh)

[Tim K]

I’ve been attending Indy regularly since 2012 with a few years off not counting Covid cancelling 2020. Overall I find Indy and LOS a good place for finals. There have been a few LOS glitches and the variety of concessions is minimal but  in general it works well. I will say while I enjoy myself and am always surprised by the shows, there is also a feeling it’s the same thing every year. A different venue might fix that, but I’d wonder if DCI has the personnel to promote new venues every year.

If the date for finals is not set in stone with Lucas Oil, if Indy and Houston alternated, one year the early regional was in either Indy or Houston and finals be in the other city, that might work. It would change the tour a bit but it might be interesting. The only problem I could think of is the West Coast contests. They would still have to be early season and heading east rather than to Texas might be costly.

[wolfgang]

31 minutes ago, BG984 said:

It was also implied that it takes a long time/big deal to close the roof.  IT TAKES 9 MINUTES!!!!!   Now, if someone tells me that they checked the sound of corps with the roof both open and closed, and the difference was marginal.....ok, keep it closed and keep the A/C runnin'......however,  putting a dome/roof over a bad sounding stadium is inmaterial.   IMO,  there are especially many great-sounding college stadiums.

One aspect to consider is the open roof is a distinct visual disadvantage to corps performing in daylight.

Not only does nearly every corps look better in evening lighting, but the sun would create an ugly rectangular bright spot on the field that shifts a little for each corps until it sets.

[BG984]

14 minutes ago, wolfgang said:

One aspect to consider is the open roof is a distinct visual disadvantage to corps performing in daylight.

Not only does nearly every corps look better in evening lighting, but the sun would create an ugly rectangular bright spot on the field that shifts a little for each corps until it sets.

I would gladly sacrifice this  in order to greatly improve the sound......I never found the sun to be much of a problem in Allentown, and the sound is 100 times better than Indy...............prior to Indy, DCI was in many large outdoor stadiums, with shows running from 8 AM to midnite..............and there wasn't much of a problem......I will say that DCI was also incredibly lucky with weather over the years.....with no championship "wash-outs", and the worst scenario involved a few delays and a couple of sprinkles,  but that was it.....