mchromik Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 San Francisco to Indy = 2290 milesBoston to Indy = 930 miles Not even close! The geographical midpoint of the US is somewhere near Kansas City. Run your equation again based on the center of population. If your looking to be fair it should be based on population, not geography. If you could figure it on center of interest in pagentry, competitive BOA, programs, ect. I think it would be a direct hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rut-roh Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 Run your equation again based on the center of population. If your looking to be fair it should be based on population, not geography. If you could figure it on center of interest in pagentry, competitive BOA, programs, ect. I think it would be a direct hit. True. As stated in the FAQ about Indy '08, "Indianapolis is within a day’s drive of 75 percent of the U.S. population." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 (edited) Uhhhh, not exactly. The big problem with DCI in one place for so long is going to be finding housing and practice fields for all the corps. This has been hinted at in this thread as well as stated in many others, but it bears repeating here. Not only does the Indy area contain many competitive high school bands that would certainly share in the occasion (See Maedhros' list), but also keep in mind that Indy annually hosts a DCI regional as well as a BOA regional and BOA Grand Nationals. The latter brings in 80 or 90 bands, many of which have 150-200 members or more. Granted, some of those are local, but the majority come in from out of town and are housed in and around Indy just like Drum Corps. Indy has proven its ability and willingness to house kids for these types of events and has certainly dealt with all the other related infrastructure issues (practice fields, warm up area, traffic congestion, etc, etc.). Certainly, there is a risk that if bad experiences abound, the location could be compromised for such a long term tie-in, but Indy been thru all this enough to make that even less likely than in cities not quite so DCI experienced. Edited September 7, 2006 by Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rut-roh Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 This was posted on the Cavalier forums by Jeff Fiedler. Thought it was appropo... We don't necessarily move every year, we have moved every year since 1998 and so new fans since 1998 might have that expectation. Moving every year to a new championship location really makes/takes the attention of the DCI office limited to not much more than the NEW championship venue and the behind-the-scenes time and effort to pull a new place off each year, which, of course, has never been in the city where the actual DCI office is located (Lombard, IL and then Addison, IL).The actual DCI office being located down the street from the venue for the years of 2008-2018 (exception 2013) is anticipated to reap some incredible rewards in time, effort, community relations and audience building, corps housing opportunities and building a major music/sport event that DCI and Indianapolis can promote around the world. Madison - 1985, 1986, 1987 Orlando - 1996, 1997, 1998 Whitewater - 1972, 1973 Kansas City - 1988, 1989 Montreal - 1981, 1982 There are reasons large associations and trade shows try to have their large conventions in the same place year after year. Opportunities grow around them and the DCI office has some plans to grow additional opportunities and events around annual championships in Indianapolis. DCI has discussed championship & office venues for extended stays before - where we would place the office as well! A recent traditional championship venue being an example. However, when it got down to it - even though community leaders were very interested - the stadium/university was actually NOT interested in pursuing more than a one-year-at-a-time commitment to DCI. Not necessarily a reason to move the entire operation. Indianapolis solicited DCI, and the proposal was discussed by the DCI executive committee three or four times and at two separate DCI Board of Directors meetings, with a lot of back and forth between DCI and Indianapolis as well. Since DCI is constantly trying to create a more stable environment for all corps (a top priority), there might be some legitimate reasoning behind a move to Indianapolis for this amount of time. One example: DCI has found that by keeping our major regionals or shows in one place - San Antonio, Indianapolis, Allentown, MTSU...that when we remain consistent and don't move the dates around and give them the entire "act" they axpect...the attendance seems to grow. When we have to significantly move a date/place, or give them less than the "act" they are used to, the attendance goes down, and the attendance to those venues and the opportunities presented to develop more attendees to a stable venue with a similar "act" seem to "not attend." This year - for example - the Indy date was moved up into early July and didn't include all the corps and the attendance fell - which had been expected, but we had no options and the dates had to be where they had to be. Great audiuence however, probably mostly from Indy area, just not the 12,000 plus audience we grew to last year (2005). The MTSU show had to be changed to Cookeville, and although the audience was again great and the corps were great, the "place change" of more than a few miles would not allow us to bring in nearly as many people as MTSU had the year before, roughly 2/3 of who attended in 2005....we're hopeful to return to MTSU again next year. San Antonio this year and last year had the biggest crowds we've had there, a year or two before that DCI sent only "half the act" - not what they're used to - and the audience was only 3/5 of what it had been before that...we've recovered that audience well. Believe it or not, the DCI BOD has really done a lot of research and discussion on this issue of moving to Indianapolis. There are still questions that won't be able to be answered until the actual stadium has been completed and we've held the Championship event in there two or three times. We KNOW already that CORPS parking for at least the first year or two will be a nightmare, as the remnants of the old stadium will still be there. Can't be any worse than the parking nightmare provided for the corps by the Madison event (for the fans as well!) or the distance (....distance CAN = nightmare or should I say logistcal challenge - to be politically correct) presented to the corps by Boston, Buffalo or Orlando? We also considered the fan experience, and I personally noticed more grumbling amongst Cavalier fans about "the venue" in 2006 than I had heard in Denver or Boston (which I actually predicted). Those were state-of-the-art professional stadiums (as will be Indianapolis), as opposed to a college football stadium which could have bench seating, old restrooms, smaller and/or antique concession facilities, antiquated or "forced" disabled accessibility...and parking on a university campus? Besides the fact that it gives the office 20-25% more time to work on other aspects of Drum Corps and I can personally state - since I am his "boss" - it should eventually give the DCI executive director much more time to work on other aspects of DCI, as he currently spends somewhere between 40 and 50% of his time each year working on the new championship location. Hope you'll reconsider all the other aspects of the equation. jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 (edited) Excellent post by Mr. Fiedler -- thanks for reposting here .... We're all so used to the events of Finals week that we don't even consider how much better the week could be if enough time and effort could be allocated to improving the event rather than all being spent on merely re-creating the event in a different city/venue each year. Excellent points by Mr. Fiedler, and I hope that DCI does, in fact, take this opportunity to really make improvements/enhancement to the Finals week experience. In a few years, we may all be posting/wondering why this wasn't done a decade earlier. :) Edited September 7, 2006 by Liam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 <<Madison - 1985, 1986, 1987 Orlando - 1996, 1997, 1998 Whitewater - 1972, 1973 Kansas City - 1988, 1989 Montreal - 1981, 1982>> Jeff: Did you have a negative experience in Birmingham - 1979, 1980 that you've blocked it out of your mind? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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