The Erie Theory - June 25th

[Gary Matczak]

I heard that the move from Veterans Stadium to McDowell, had something to do with an entertainment tax of some sort by the city of Erie. Which........if true, is typical. You have a long standing staple of an event that draws thousands into town. Nevermind its an event featuring an activity whose popularity has grown to the point that ESPN covers its Championships. And what happens........The City pushes it out of town with some tax........."sarcasm on" because......you know.....The Stones wanted to play the same night at The Vet and well.....we had to come up with some tax to try and see who really wanted the venue that evening. "sarcasm off". I hope I am wrong about this. If I am not, here is a little advice from somebody that admittedly doesn't have an MBA.....taxing events usually deters promoters from having events in your city......if there is a line out the door at city hall of peope trying to hold events in your town, then implement a tax, but until then......I would make it as easy as possible for such great events to take place cause lets face it.......Erie isn't the entertainment capital of the world and they are lucky to have the people at LER putting on such a great event.

Eric Watters

Atlanta, Ga. via Erie, Pa.

................the new entertainment tax was certainly one of the factors in our decision to change the venue,............................a five percent tax on all ticket sales was a lot to swallow, other items include the fact that this would have been the only event held at the Vet for the month of June, we would get saddled with the entire demand charge for firing up the stadium lights, not to mention the facility costs a couple thousand dollars more just to rent place, compares to Gus Anderson Field.................also, at McDowell, we (LER) got to run the food concession, at the vet, it all goes to the sports booster groups in the city,..............and, parking is much better for the corps and patrons,.................as for the acoustics, for the fan and performer, give me Veterans Stadium anyday,..............

Edited June 28, 2007 by Gary Matczak

[Gary Matczak]

Another thing I thought I should mention.... I think the announcer of this show did a great job. He had a humurous way of enticing people to the souvie booth, whithout being too corny. I hope that in the next few years that LER is able to field again and be at this show.

.................totally agree on every point! :)

[ech2os]

................the new entertainment tax was certainly one of the factors in our decision to change the venue,............................a five percent tax on all ticket sales was a lot to swallow, other items include the fact that this would have been the only event held at the Vet for the month of June, we would get saddled with the entire demand charge for firing up the stadium lights, not to mention the facility costs a couple thousand dollars more just to rent place, compares to Gus Anderson Field.................also, at McDowell, we (LER) got to run the food concession, at the vet, it all goes to the sports booster groups in the city,..............and, parking is much better for the corps and patrons,.................as for the acoustics, for the fan and performer, give me Veterans Stadium anyday,..............

Good info Gary......and to my point.......thusly, no event must have been held there in the month of June. So instead of getting something and having thousands downtown, the city got zilch. By the sounds of it anyways.

[brainscratched]

Another thing I thought I should mention.... I think the announcer of this show did a great job. He had a humurous way of enticing people to the souvie booth, whithout being too corny.

Go, Jerry! [he was my former high school band director]

[snare_line_chops]

I agree, the announcers was REAAAALLLLY good, but it sounded like there were 2 different announcers at that show.

Who were those guys? I know from the previous post that one of the guys' name is Jerry, but I don't know the other one. Regardless, they both did a REALLY good job. ^OO^

[LER Director]

Thank you Gary and others for posting several answers. I rarely post anything but thought I should help define what it takes to put on such a show and the reasons why we tried the experiment of moving the show site this year.

The show at McDowell had a lot to do with the costs of renting Vet's Stadium ($1,500 for base rent PLUS $1,300 to turn on the lights; The specified use of "off duty City of Erie Police Officers" for security at an addl' $800; NOT A DIME from the concession stands; the City of Erie Entertainment Tax of approx $800; no parking available (A HUGE complaint from the crowds over the years) and the figure is approx $4,400!! At McDowell, they were great to work with and the charges totalled $1,550 PLUS we received the money from the concession stands (which we ran). A savings of $2,850 +.

When you consider that in 2005 we had over 2,700 people attending the show then in 2006 there were 1,880 people and this year only 1,321 attending, the committee felt we had to do something to try and stay viable! Neither ticket nor ad prices have risen in years yet attendance has fallen dramatically. (And with the figures from last year which WAS at Vet's, you can't just say it was the venue.) We wanted to keep the show affordable for families. And we offered discount band tickets yet only 65 band members from 3 groups purchased tickets compared to over 1,200 kids back in the late '90's! Why aren't these kids coming any more? We actually offer them even MORE discount now than we did back then.

Bottom line is that it is VERY expensive to host a show such as the Fanfare. Just the DCI contract alone was $18,500. All included, we likely spent over $35,000 to pull it off. And no, we did NOT break even. Hopefully this will help explain why we are looking at every way we can to save costs so that we can CONTINUE to bring this show to our area. I too missed the sound that rang in the stadium forever but faced with the fact of possibly no longer being able to host a show due to costs, a diminished sound sure seems to be better than NO SOUND!

As for the announcers, there WERE two - Jerry Anderson of the Millcreek School District and Brad Bell - a former LER staff member who was in the area and offered to help at the show with his announcing. Sincere THANKS to both of these gentlemen!

[ech2os]

Thank you Gary and others for posting several answers. I rarely post anything but thought I should help define what it takes to put on such a show and the reasons why we tried the experiment of moving the show site this year.

The show at McDowell had a lot to do with the costs of renting Vet's Stadium ($1,500 for base rent PLUS $1,300 to turn on the lights; The specified use of "off duty City of Erie Police Officers" for security at an addl' $800; NOT A DIME from the concession stands; the City of Erie Entertainment Tax of approx $800; no parking available (A HUGE complaint from the crowds over the years) and the figure is approx $4,400!! At McDowell, they were great to work with and the charges totalled $1,550 PLUS we received the money from the concession stands (which we ran). A savings of $2,850 +.

When you consider that in 2005 we had over 2,700 people attending the show then in 2006 there were 1,880 people and this year only 1,321 attending, the committee felt we had to do something to try and stay viable! Neither ticket nor ad prices have risen in years yet attendance has fallen dramatically. (And with the figures from last year which WAS at Vet's, you can't just say it was the venue.) We wanted to keep the show affordable for families. And we offered discount band tickets yet only 65 band members from 3 groups purchased tickets compared to over 1,200 kids back in the late '90's! Why aren't these kids coming any more? We actually offer them even MORE discount now than we did back then.

Bottom line is that it is VERY expensive to host a show such as the Fanfare. Just the DCI contract alone was $18,500. All included, we likely spent over $35,000 to pull it off. And no, we did NOT break even. Hopefully this will help explain why we are looking at every way we can to save costs so that we can CONTINUE to bring this show to our area. I too missed the sound that rang in the stadium forever but faced with the fact of possibly no longer being able to host a show due to costs, a diminished sound sure seems to be better than NO SOUND!

As for the announcers, there WERE two - Jerry Anderson of the Millcreek School District and Brad Bell - a former LER staff member who was in the area and offered to help at the show with his announcing. Sincere THANKS to both of these gentlemen!

Ray........a few honest comments.........My memories of going to the Fanfare are watching Garfield, Bridgemen, 27th, Santa Clara, Madison, etc..........I don't think DCI is giving you guys the line up they did in past years to be honest. My Dad went to the Pittsburgh show but didn't go to the Erie show because of the lineup.

As for putting on the show, I hate to say stuff like this but it needs said........Erie just doesn't seem to get it. You have a private group such as yourself putting on a World Class Show and the City does nothing (seemingly) to help put it on. These are the kinds of events the City should be promoting and supporting. These are the kinds of events that when sprinkled throughout the calendar year and not just once a summer keep people (and jobs) in Erie. The loss of LEF would be just one more big reason for kids coming out of college and those that get laid off due to Plant Closings to leave. There are so many places in this country where somehow the local government works with the community to ensure putting all sorts of cost contained entertainment for its people.........there is balance everywhere. But if you are in Erie.........you'll get a blip on on the news about the Fanfare and an equally extensive blip on some guy who had his front yard TP'd by some local youngsters. Or something like that :) Do you guys approache the Arts Council or any other similar group for support of the event ?

[LER Director]

Eric,

Well, in the early years, the "weekday" DCI shows had really heavy lineups but as time has gone on, you'll notice that most of the M-F shows such as ours have a mid range line-up. The Sat DCI Events are the places for going to see several of the biggest corps as the shows are run by or in partnership with DCI. It is one way that DCI supports itself. We weekday shows still exist and are really helping the corps "connect the dots" so to speak and still bring the activity to our immediate area.

Sure, we'd love stronger line-ups but we still want to balance things out between cost, the travel laid upon the corps to get in and out of here and what the fans here want. (For instance, 5 of our 7 corps drove 7 hours from Belding, Michigan after a Sunday night show, did ours on Monday and then drove 5 hours on Monday night to Hornell, NY. Lots of travel.) Having the Regiment out for 12 years certainly made me appreciate these points a whole lot more than I did before.

I hope that we can keep on going here - after all, next year should be our 25th Anniversary Show! And in the past, DCI has been quite generous in granting large anniversary shows so we have our fingers crossed! But still, I'd really like to ensure that there will also be a 26th Anniversary and so on too.

Both the Arts Council and the Erie Community Foundation DO help support us in various ways but the City has never done anything as you so accurately sense. Even the Chamber of Commerce which is supposed to support us chooses to charge an astronomical price just to be listed in their "Events Guide" One would think this should be FREE? It sure would be nice to be appreciated and HELPED rather than TAXED. And as you know, we've run bingo here for years to support the corps, winter guard and now even the show. Imagine what the casinos have done to our former money maker.

Anyway, we are trying hard to find out if it's the lineups, the stadium, or just plain "don't like what the corps are doing anymore" that has caused our crowd to drop as much as it has. I know Erie is really not a large market in the whole scheme of things BUT, we were alive and rolling before either of the 2 Pittsburgh, the Buffalo and the former Cleveland shows were started. I'd hate to think that we might not be able to continue just because they are larger cities and can draw more people in.

Thanks again for your thoughts and hope that you still enjoy the corps - it IS still all about the kids!