Is DCA dead?

[audiodb]

Ok, "package" comparisons aside , the answer to the question that started the thread. "Is DCA dead?" No! I have other questions though; how to pay for a full-time staff for DCA,now that we've apparently bankrupted DCP with this topic, and how to raise money for said staff.

Ultimately, corps can't raise money without doing shows. So we need more shows.

Of course, you can't have shows without corps to fill their lineups. So we need to continue growing the number of corps.

The specifics of who goes where how often are relatively minor details, compared to those two issues.

[Gary Matczak]

Ultimately, corps can't raise money without doing shows. So we need more shows.

Of course, you can't have shows without corps to fill their lineups. So we need to continue growing the number of corps.

The specifics of who goes where how often are relatively minor details, compared to those two issues.

Agreed, if each corps would host a show, there would be plenty of opportunities,.................

[jeff danchik]

Agreed, if each corps would host a show, there would be plenty of opportunities,.................

Same problem as sponsors have. Who's do you get to come to a show and how much.You can have two corps of the same travel costs, but the one with the bigger name is going to want more.A DCA package will set the price up front.This would be for the developement of new shows.$15-20,000 pot could put 3-4 shows in new markets.DCI's gotten big and has the money because they control the package and to an extent the bigger money shows.They not only cornered the market on corps but the shows too.The 990 that was put out here is not for a non-profit youth organization but a not profit youth show promoter!

[Shadow_7]

Well, if performances fees are based solely on travel costs... Those southern shows are looking at about a 500 to 1,000 miles average for all corps in attendance per show. Versus a NE show where it's probably 200 miles or less for the average, even when a non-NE participant is present. So who covers the difference in travel costs? DCA? Or the show organizers by charging $150 per ticket sold just to break even?

Shows are great and all, but most barely break even as it is. I don't know of any corps that puts on a show and suddenly have their budget set for the season because of it. If that was the case, then everyone would do it and no-one would be charging dues.

[Gary Matczak]

Shows are great and all, but most barely break even as it is. I don't know of any corps that puts on a show and suddenly have their budget set for the season because of it. If that was the case, then everyone would do it and no-one would be charging dues.

true, but if shows are not held, why even have a corps?, and if the corps themselves don't host, promote and sponsor them, who will?..................your logic is astounding, you know, the shows around metro New York City does not encompass every corps in the NE, Empire, Cru, Sabers, Buccs, etc. etc. all travel 5, 6, 8 plus hours many times during the season to get to shows,................your 200 mile or less example is less of a norm than you think, Cabs are travelling to Rochester mid season, Empire is even HOSTING a show some 5 hours from their home, just to get some non NE corps to mix it up mid season,.................I could go on,.........

[Sean Walsh]

Because of the outstanding quality of the DCA product, and the inexpensive start-up cost of forming a senior corps, DCA could potentially transform senior corps into one of the most popular and commercially viable performing arts activities in the world.

Unfortunately, DCA is destined to remain small and relatively insignificant in the entertainment world unless and until its internal culture of selfish hostility among its member corps can be changed. Currently, the sole and exclusive focus of a majority of the corps is winning DCA -- or in extreme few cases, harming other DCA corps -- with little to no regard for what is inherently best for the activity.

This is not a comment about the administration of DCA (i.e., the Board of Directors), but rather the DCA corps themselves, and it is based on first-hand personal experience and observation. Furthermore, these comments only represent my personal views, and I do not present them on behalf of any third party or organization.

Will DCA win, or will a DCA corps win? The choice is ours.

Let the usual personal attacks commence ...

Lee Rudnicki

[Sean Walsh]

I would have thought as a framework product DCA has more to realistically offer people not just in its domestic marketplace but worldwide and the model seems to be having a positive international impact.

I speak from the perspective of being one of the first non North americans to march a season in DCA

In terms of the US DCA corps people can have a meaningful, and at the top end, very signifigant, drum corps experience without breaking the bank, giving up friends and family or harming their education (assuming they are not music majors) or careers.

I marched when I was 23 in 1990. In most European countries there are no marching programs and no long summers off of school so at that time if you wanted to march in a US corps at a good level, unless you were exceptional you were approaching or past age out before you were good enough. I was 23 before I hade a hope in hell of making a good line so it had to be a DCA corps. And what a line it turned out to be!

DCI/DCA marchers from the 80's and 90's had taken back their experience, passed it on and younger European members are now I understand the norm. but a good DCA corps is still a vialble option for many who are that little bit older

In terms of the future, with the pace of life as it is worldwide, surely the DCA model is more sustainble in the US and elsewhere? Drum Corps Europe, the only circuit in Europe that is growing is a DCA all age set up. The other Junior circuits seen to have collapsed as they do not have the school system to support it and bottom line played unrecognisable music alien to their cutures=no public interest. Thanks to DCE this is changing, and i think in turn this is because of reference to DCA and the member corps

In terms of the greater good, DCA as an organisation can only be a competative framework. Corps are not "franchises" and will operate, sink or swim as they see fit. It is not for the circuit to interfere is sovereign organisations affairs.

Bottom line, its growing in popularity so something works

Sean Walsh

Bush 90

[supersop]

true, but if shows are not held, why even have a corps?, and if the corps themselves don't host, promote and sponsor them, who will?..................your logic is astounding, you know, the shows around metro New York City does not encompass every corps in the NE, Empire, Cru, Sabers, Buccs, etc. etc. all travel 5, 6, 8 plus hours many times during the season to get to shows,................your 200 mile or less example is less of a norm than you think, Cabs are travelling to Rochester mid season, Empire is even HOSTING a show some 5 hours from their home, just to get some non NE corps to mix it up mid season,.................I could go on,.........

Excellent post above from our European brother!!!

Gary I'm just wondering.........

It seems you keep pushing the whole idea of HOST A SHOW .... HOST A SHOW ...... HOST A SHOW!! I have to tell you, for those of us that have to travel 10-13 hours to do every show in our region, it's just not financially responsible to do this more than twice a season (doing this once, according to your posts, would bankrupt DCA if everyone expected the NE to do this).

Most of the corps in these regions are fairly new, and spend most of their budget on travel, with little to nothing left to put in to sponsoring a show that will surely lose money for the first couple of years, if not longer. It always seems to be a hot button with you when those corps make it clear that they have an Option that you don't like. That option is performing at DCI sanctioned shows that are a guaranteed money maker and are local. The whole idea is to grow an following before we stick our necks out and break the bank before we're ready to do so.

I guess the thing that pushes my buttons is when someone with no clue of what it's like to walk in our shoes seems to think they have all the answers, and then wants to tell us how to run our own ship. I'm not calling you out on this specifically.... there's about 50 others on this board that are on the jury right beside you. Suffice it to say, most of you don't like our ideas ... and we don't like yours. We're definitely living in two different drum corps worlds.

You seem to present your arguments with an "a matter of factness" that is sometimes hard to swallow. If DCA truly believed that hosting shows was the answer, I'm sure they would have passed a RULE stating as such. I'm sure that would drop the numbers back down to something more manageable .... like 15-20 corps? Pitch that idea to the voting members.... I'm sure that would make things easier.

So tell me .. at what point did you stop reading this so you could click reply and start firing back?

[Gary Matczak]

Excellent post above from our European brother!!!

Gary I'm just wondering.........

It seems you keep pushing the whole idea of HOST A SHOW .... HOST A SHOW ...... HOST A SHOW!! I have to tell you, for those of us that have to travel 10-13 hours to do every show in our region, it's just not financially responsible to do this more than twice a season (doing this once, according to your posts, would bankrupt DCA if everyone expected the NE to do this).

Most of the corps in these regions are fairly new, and spend most of their budget on travel, with little to nothing left to put in to sponsoring a show that will surely lose money for the first couple of years, if not longer. It always seems to be a hot button with you when those corps make it clear that they have an Option that you don't like. That option is performing at DCI sanctioned shows that are a guaranteed money maker and are local. The whole idea is to grow an following before we stick our necks out and break the bank before we're ready to do so.

I guess the thing that pushes my buttons is when someone with no clue of what it's like to walk in our shoes seems to think they have all the answers, and then wants to tell us how to run our own ship. I'm not calling you out on this specifically.... there's about 50 others on this board that are on the jury right beside you. Suffice it to say, most of you don't like our ideas ... and we don't like yours. We're definitely living in two different drum corps worlds.

You seem to present your arguments with an "a matter of factness" that is sometimes hard to swallow. If DCA truly believed that hosting shows was the answer, I'm sure they would have passed a RULE stating as such. I'm sure that would drop the numbers back down to something more manageable .... like 15-20 corps? Pitch that idea to the voting members.... I'm sure that would make things easier.

So tell me .. at what point did you stop reading this so you could click reply and start firing back?

I read the whole thing first,.................DCI shows are cool with me, never said they weren't, but a goal, not a requirement, should be set for each corps to host a show, and I don't see anything wrong with that,..............everyone wants shows to perform at, don't they, but you will never talk some corporate type, or DCA for that matter, into something, if you can't even talk yourself into it,.................or am I missing something?

[Skylinersop16]

The incredible amount of money required, the time required by a group to organize it, a venue to hold it, community interest...the list goes on. It is not a realistic goal for every corps to sponsor a show.