Bob Brady Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 1. Madison 2.K.C. 3.Denver All great venues but my favorite always has been,and always will be Warhawk Stadium-Whitewater. The birthplace of DCI and spiritual home of Drum Corps!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyRyder_FMM Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Here is how I would rank the locations where Championships have been held that I have been to: 1. Denver, CO 2. Washington, DC 3. Orlando, FL 4. Kansas City, MO 5. Boston/Providence 6. Madison, WI 7. Montreal, QUE 8. Buffalo, NY 9. Atlanta, GA 10. Dallas, TX 11. Miami, FL 12. Birmingham, AL 13. Jackson, MI By the looks of things, I am in the minority here, since I don't think Madison is the best location. Yes, the town is very drum corps friendly, and they recognize how big a deal it is to have the big dance there. However, the stadium itself is not so great. Bench seating, not so nice rest rooms, not much to eat unless you leave the stadium and go elsewhere (not really an option unless you intend to miss a corps performance), a lack of parking (yes, you can park for free on the street, but you have to take a good hike to get there - plus the traffic unless you know the side streets well), and cramped walkways under the stadium (particularily bad when it rains - crowded and wet - yuck!). Additionally, getting a hotel is tough, given Madison is a small town. And getting to Madison is not all that convenient either if you are flying in. Lastly, there simply is not that much to do in Madison outside of drum corps. We usually plan a family vacation around Championships - a few days of drum corps, and a few days of other stuff. Just not much to do there sad to say. I personally found Denver to be an awesome location (the new stadium that is). The stadium was incredible, seats were comfortable, and staff were friendly. The food was good and reasonably priced for a pro stadium, and parking was abundant and reasonable as well. There was tons to do, easy acess in and out of the city, and an abundance of hotels. I hope we go back there again. Personally, I found College Park, MD a good location as well. I thought the stadium was pretty good for a college stadium - decent facilities, abundant parking, etc. I though the acoustics in the stadium were very good too. There is tons to do in the DC area (alomst everything is free), plenty of hotels, 3 airports to choose from, etc. Kansas City was good too. Incredible acoustics in that stadium (both from a performers and viewers perspective), nice facilities, friendly staff, abundant parking, easy access, and so on. Kansas City is a nice town, but it suffers a bit from the same issues as Madison - not all that much to do. Again, I believe I am in the minority when it comes to Orlando. I actually thought Orlando was pretty good. The stadium has decent seats, great viewing from just about everywhere, decent acoustics, and a field that absorbs the water incredbily well. The stadium nazi's were a pain, the parking in the grass (that turns a bit muddy when it rains), the fire house nearby (that seems to have trucks running constantly), and the seemingly unpreparedness of food vendors at the stadium are negatives. Orlando is a cheap city too. Plenty of cheap flights, hotels, and rental cars. Lots of restaurant choices in all price ranges, and tons to do for just about everyone. Yes, Orlando is hot, and yes it does rain a lot. But it does cool off in the evenings. A lot of other places we've been too have been hot as well. And it's rained just about everywhere - so the daily dose of rain is not such a big deal. It actually cools things off. Jackson was plain awful - hot, lousy stadium, nothing to do, hard to get to, not many hotels, etc. Hands down, the worst location I've been to. Dallas was not so great either - hot, stadium seats built for children (can you say small?????), stadium in a lousy neighborhood (down right scary actually), lack of parking, not much to do there. Buffalo has a decent stadium and climate - flights and hotels are sort of an issue (not that many in smaller second and third tier cities), and there is not that much to do. 3 times at Niagra is a bit much - not much desire to go again - at least not for a while. I understand not everyone has been there before, and there are new fans, but let's try to not go there every 5 years, ok? Boston/Providence - The new Gillette stadium was nice - comfortable seats, good food, but it also had it's annoyances too (the elevator bell, rude staff, expensive everything). The stadium is far from everything. There is plenty to do in the Boston area, but everything costs money. In DC, almost everything is free - Boston has an admission fee for basically everything you might want to see. A very expensive city to vacation in. Transportation and hotels were plentiful. Not a bad place - just expensive and less convenient than other locations. Montreal - can we say acoustical twilight zone???? Trains stopping before the show ends - and announcements about that made during a corps performance, followed by fans leaving to catch the trains in the middle of the corps performance. And cold! I think I remember seeing snow coming into the stadium. The city itself was nice, but have never visited as an adult with the family, so I will have to reserve judgement regarding things to do, hotels, transportation, etc. Miami - Again, can we say hot and humid? The stadium was located in a down right dangerous area - corps needing protection during warm-up - Yikes! Plain and simply a bad choice for Championships. Atlanta - or shall we say Hotlanta. Decent stadium, but from what I remember reading, they won't have us back again. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Again, another city I have not visited with the family, so I can't comment on transportation, hotels, or things to do. Birmingham - or shall we say Burningupinhe##, AL? Not a good stadium, nothing to do there, and small city in the middle of nowhere - not easy to get there and not many hotels. Also, minimal schools to host corps, and some in some very scary neighborhoods. Not a good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeke Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 The stadium would not let any cook trucks into the parking lot <{POST_SNAPBACK}> THAT'S JUST WRONG!!!!! IDIOTS <**> <**> <**> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kstein Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 Got to admit that I'm baffled by all the favorable responses to Madison. Bleacher seats and nasty restrooms are reasons enough to put it far down my list. Add to that flying in and out of O'Hare (shudder) and a two hour drive...to the middle of nowhere...and I just don't understand the appeal. I've performed and attended Finals there many times, and I'm not in a hurry to go back. We finally found a nice golf course near by, but there's really so little to do there compared to some of the bigger cities. It sounds like many of the complaints/praise have been around cost. Could it be that we're not completely understanding the real socioeconomic demographic of the DCI audience, or is only a certain percentage of that represented here? As someone who is now over 40 (gulp), nice accomodations, a comfortable stadium, and a thoroughly enjoyable locale are much more important to me than they were 20 years ago. I'm not opposed to spending more money to have those things, but perhaps I'm in the minority? Besides all that, the town of Stoughton where we used to stay got whacked by a tornado last night, so I'd prefer to steer towards locations where that's less likely to happen. Truly, the fans in Madison are great, but I thought the fans in all of these other locales were, too. It's just a matter of diehard midwestern fans versus the same from the east. Some of the recent complaints re: Gillette stadium are valid, but they could easily be managed on a return visit. An announcement regarding cell phone use and talking, and a quick primer on drumcorps etiquette to the stadium staff would go a long way. Negotiations over parking of equipment and perhaps even a multi-day parking pass are certainly ideas to bring to the table, but as several people pointed out there was parking just down the road for as low as $5. We've had great attendance at Finals in the East, and I'd hate to see us disregard that fact, too, although I haven't seen official numbers for this year. The bottom line is that we need to spread things out. There are plenty of folks in each region who won't make the trip to others, so I think we need to work harder to give everyone the opportunity to have a somewhat "local" Finals experience. So is "cheap" the driving factor in deciding where you want to attend Finals? Cheers! Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BennyASU Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 in terms of sound/field/etc. im going with Maryland as my favorite. in terms of city/location/how nice the stadium is im going with Invesco...beautiful place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro767 Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 Personally, I thought the stadium site itself at College Park was great - warm up space, parking, great acoustics inside, etc. Nice place to perform. However, and I'm not sure about the other corps' housing sites in the College Park / D.C. area, but ours was not exactly in the best neighborhood. Could have been worse, though. I liked Buffalo in 2001, but I did not stay overnight and I did not fly into the airport, so I can't really say much about the logistics of having finals there. Stadium was nice though - I loved the walkway at the very top of the stadium. I stood there for the top 7 or 8 corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jami Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 My first finals ever was Maryland in 2000 - which was all of an hour and a half from my hometown. Great facility, great location, I had a lot of fun there. My next finals was 2003 in Orlando in my first year marching. Not a big fan of Orlando - it seemed like a logistical nightmare from the second we entered Florida. I was really happy to leave. Between the weather and trying to park, it wasn't fun at all. While Foxboro this year wasn't bad, the construction put a damper on things, as did the logistical nightmare between the souvie area and the stadium on finals night. Overall though, I can't do much complaining about Foxboro and would put it ahead of Orlando. My favorite finals was definitely 2004 in Denver. What a gorgeous stadium in which to perform, not hard to get there, and not hard to get to the souvie area, as it was right outside the stadium. Great stadium for my ageout season. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasPRfan Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 For the recent years in the poll, I'd rank them this way: 1. Denver 1a. Madison 3. Buffalo 4. College Park MD 5. Orlando 6. Gillette Special props of earlier vintage: Kansas City. I would LOVE to see finals back there again. I rank it right up there with Denver & Madison Harvey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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