4,190 paid

[drumcat]

People here need to know that in the Golden Age there was a distinct aversion to excluding any corps from any activity and that elitism was the dirtiest of words.

Every corps was on a level playing field and division distinctions were not emphasized.

In that manner, every corps got full audience exposure, and every corps had a chance to mix it up with the leading corps.

(Sometimes there were surprising upsets.)

At State and Nationals, there were Preliminaries and Finals. It was basic and fair: every corps did an abbreviated preliminary show, and the top placements earned a spot in the Finals.

Now the lesser units are separated off by themselves to attract whatever audience they're able to pull.

Not very rewarding after traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to attend The Big One.

But if their managers don't take a leading role in correcting things, be assured that nothing will change.

OK, I'll bite. Just lose the bold, please.

Would you suggest then that the Spartans be positioned between Phantom and BD? Tell us what you'd do. And abbreviated shows are not an option... in the "golden age", driving all that way to drop your short show once wasn't cool either.

[scott414]

DCI should charge $10 admission to the top-six warmup area.

NOt a bad idea....then turn around and give to the Div II and III corps...But, Im sure lots of people woudnt go for this idea come finals time and wanting to watch the corps warm up

[MikeD]

People here need to know that in the Golden Age there was a distinct aversion to excluding any corps from any activity and that elitism was the dirtiest of words.

Every corps was on a level playing field and division distinctions were not emphasized.

In that manner, every corps got full audience exposure, and every corps had a chance to mix it up with the leading corps.

(Sometimes there were surprising upsets.)

Of course, there were also shows like the World Open that had stratified layers of prelims in the 70's...class A and B, all-girl...

As for "audience exposure"...the World Open class 'B' prelims I attended with Garden State Circuit corps I taught in the 70's were ghost towns, audience-wise.

At State and Nationals, there were Preliminaries and Finals. It was basic and fair: every corps did an abbreviated preliminary show, and the top placements earned a spot in the Finals.

Now the lesser units are separated off by themselves to attract whatever audience they're able to pull.

Not very rewarding after traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to attend The Big One.

But if their managers don't take a leading role in correcting things, be assured that nothing will change.

So it's rewarding to be at VFW prelims playing to nobody and coming in 55th? Would have loved to have even 1,000 people in the stands at class 'B' WO prelims in the Manning Bowl.

As for the abbreviated show...that worked moderately well when corps had concert numbers...that was the first thing to go. That was not enough though, as prelim shows in my day were, I am pretty sure, 7 minutes, while ful shows were 11 1/2-13.

That meant a bunch of jury-rigging of the drill and wasted rehearsal time working on a show that was only of use for these prelim/final events.

1970 Cavies nearly missed VFW finals because of flag violations in their prelim drill that went unnoticed until champs.

In NJ, VFW/AL states in Wildwood both only had one show, luckily.