"...close to 50,000 in attendance..."

[Orpheus]

A total of 50,000 attendees for three nights of competition is pathetic.

What do you mean?

[ScribeToo]

In this article on Yahoo Finance, it claims that nearly 50,000 people attended this years World Championships in Foxboro. Now, I'm assuming they've added the total attendances from all three nights together to get one large number. But how many people attend more than just finals? Several thousand, I'm sure. Also, would most people foreign to DCI understand that there are three nights of competition?

This is very misleading. I'm not sure if DCI supplied these numbers to them, but, nonetheless, I would say it's sloppy journalism at best.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050825/255348.html?.v=1

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well.. I didn't find it very misleading at all.. I guess it has to do with semantics..

When you write a press release, you're supposed to pay close attention to writing EXACTLY what you mean to say.. Within our activity, we refer to the final week of the year as "Championships" and DCI has BRANDED that week as "World Championships" ... the banners saying "world championships" are up all week long.. at all the events.. -- so when they say "2005 World Championships," that to me means the whole week and would include ALL the ticketed events of the week. The quote from the article says, "and close to 50,000 in attendance at the 2005 World Championships" I imagine if they had meant to quote the figures for finals.. they would have said "Finals" -- like we tend to refer to Saturday night as "finals."

I could be wrong.. I'm certainly no PhD candidate.. but I am a journalist and have been for the past 13 years. Not EVERYTHING is written with the specific intent to fool the public. Sometimes you have to just take the words they use at face value.

Stef

[MikeD]

The reason is quite simple. A total of 50,000 attendees for three nights of competition is pathetic. Best to make it look like one night. I have a newspaper column from Dallas written after the 71 VFW finals that states, “…the competition drew a crowd of some 30,000 to the famed stadium (Cotton Bowl).”  DC sure has grown in popularity since DCI was formed in 72.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A few points on that...

30K at the VFW's also includes many VFW members who were there as part of the convention and went to the drum corps show as "something to do", not as corps fans. They really have no bearing on drum corps popularity as a genre of entertainment, IMO.

VFW Prelims were performed to a nearly empty stadium. So that 30K was really the number for TWO shows, not one.

...not to mention HOT (130 on the field, according to a security guy I overheard while waiting to enter the stadium for prelims in my nice heavy wool Garfield uniform).

Mike

[ScribeToo]

The reason is quite simple. A total of 50,000 attendees for three nights of competition is pathetic. Best to make it look like one night. I have a newspaper column from Dallas written after the 71 VFW finals that states, “…the competition drew a crowd of some 30,000 to the famed stadium (Cotton Bowl).”  DC sure has grown in popularity since DCI was formed in 72.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How big is the difference between 30,000 and 24,000?

Just wondering.

How many were quoted at finals (Saturday night) in Denver as compared to 71 VFW?

What's more.. what makes you think that inflating attendance figures is a NEW practice?? "30,000" could actually mean 25,863.. rounded up. It happened then.. it probably happens now but I'd be LESS likely to trust a gigantic figure like that from 30-some years ago than I would be to trust a figure presented today. I actually don't completely trust EITHER.. but I'm more inclined to believe the current figures are more accurate because the data can be collected electronically.. not just by somebody sitting at a desk with an adding machine.

You can't really compare the apples of 1971 with the oranges of 2005 and say they relate.. they don't. There are factors FAR GREATER and MORE NUMEROUS than simple popularity that drive the attendance figures at any one night event from one year to the next.

Consider this.. VFW took place during the VFW CONVENTION. That means they had a BUILT IN AUDIENCE.. most of the people attending in 1971 were likely there because it was part of the week's events for VFW.. they didn't FLY INTO TOWN in droves specifically for the drum corps show like we fans do now... and they'd been going for however many years.. and it was part of their military heritage.. so when it grew into something else.. and VFW stopped sponsoring it, those guys didn't keep pursuing it.

Apples = 1971 VFW

Oranges = 2005 DCI

Stef

[sarnia sam]

Continuing my surely futile defense of journalists, they have no more control over the spin in press releases than you do. Continuing my equally futile defense of DCI, shouldn't they present themselves in the best-possible light? It's a fact, isn't it? There were 50,000 at the championships vs. the championship.

HH

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Speaking as a journalist, there certainly is control. Press releases shouldn't be published 'as is' or credibility goes out the window.There is an obligation to check out anything that comes in by email or fax.

I was handed a press release a month ago from our wonderful government and two phones calls exposed it as one lie after another. Guess which story ran.

In this case a call to the stadium to check attendance records would be in order, then to DCI to double check.

Regards,

John Swartz.

[Jeff Ream]

Is there a reason why DCI would not release attendance figure by night and event?

Surely they have them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

because only like events count

[ptr250]

Mike, Steph, Drumcat and all you in the DCI can do no wrong camp really need to pull your heads out of the sand. Yea comparing 71 to 2005 is unfair because the VFW had a built in crowd… like there was nothing better for the vets to do in Dallas than go to a DC show. Get real; there were around 30,000 DC fans at the 71 finals and around 30,000 DC fans at the 05 DCI finals. Sounds like a wash except that DCI has had 32 years to build its audience. If you only consider the number of people who have marched in the last 30+ years that alone should have added another 10,000 fans. DCI has done a terrible job of marketing!!! The creative staffs have, by continuing to try to out create themselves, have brought the activity to the level of a fine mechanical watch. Very complicated and precise, something you look at for a moment and then close the back. Appreciated by a small minority and ignored by the rest. Now it seems the activity has lost its “identity” and now is going too market itself as “extreme marching band”! That’ll really boost the numbers. “Hey Joe, want to crack open a beer and some watch some extreme band geeks?” Beyond pitiful!!!!! <**>

Edited August 27, 2005 by ptr250

[oldbandguy]

Mike, Steph, Drumcat and all you in the DCI can do no wrong camp really need to pull your heads out of the sand. Yea comparing 71 to 2005 is unfair because the VFW had a built in crowd… like there was nothing better for the vets to do in Dallas than go to a DC show. Get real; there were around 30,000 DC fans at the 71 finals and around 30,000 DC fans at the 05 DCI finals. Sounds like a wash except that DCI has had 32 years to build its audience. If you only consider the number of people who have marched in the last 30+ years that alone should have added another 10,000 fans. DCI has done a terrible job of marketing!!! The creative staffs have, by continuing to try to out create themselves, have brought the activity to the level of a fine mechanical watch. Very complicated and precise, something you look at for a moment and then close the back. Appreciated by a small minority and ignored by the rest. Now it seems the activity has lost its “identity” and now is going too market itself as “extreme marching band”!  That’ll really boost the numbers. “Hey Joe, want to crack open a beer and some watch some extreme band geeks?” Beyond pitiful!!!!! <**>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Could the VFW championships have made its way to a national broadcast? Obviously NO.

Could the VFW championships have made its way to the big screen? Obviously NO.

Could the VFW championships generate the amount of money that is generated by

the DCI championships...even taking into account the inflation rate. Obviously NO.

I think it's someone else that really needs to pull his head out of the sand.

Hey Joe, want to crack open a beer and watch some of the VFW championship?

Wanna tell me again about who's done a terrible job of marketing??

DCI is alive and thriving. What's that state of the VFW championships???

[Eggbert]

What's that state of the VFW championships???

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hard to have a championship when the big corps won't play.

It's fair to say that there has been little audience growth over 30 years. But show attendance isn't a great indicator. Stadiums only hold so many people on the concert side. If nothing else, there are far fewer shows overall these days. Even if they are well attended, there just aren't nearly as many events, which would suggest a smaller fan base.

Getting back to the TOPIC... 50,000 is a public relations number. Does it greatly distort the popularity of the activity? Not really. But, if I were doing the PR, I would try to be more realistic and yes, honest. Adding up the attendance figures for the week is a bit cheap and cheezy. It wouldn't be too hard to come up with a more realistic number.

But hey, 50,000 sounds good, has a nice ring to it. This isn't the first time a number has been inflated. How about those scores! hehehe

[ptr250]

DCI is alive and thriving. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

DCI is alive and temporarily off life support (unlike not long ago). We will see how well it survives the next few years with the tremendous increase of fuel costs. Oh and you have seemed to miss the point. DC has no more and probably less fans than thirty years ago. No matter how many gimmicks and opportunities it has taken advantage of over time. Also anyone who doesn’t think DCI isn’t behind the “extreme marching band” promo is sniffing more than sand.