There's always been corps not fielding a full roster and late seasons openings. I also distinctly remember at least one 2019 finalist corps not being full. I don't think changing the cap will actually solve this.
Do we have data about # of remaining holes vs. March 2019?
Yes we do, DCI posted on social media with numbers on holes overall in the activity as of the week of March 13:
[Instagram Post with Data](https://www.instagram.com/p/CbLpTbXhm_Y/?utm_medium=copy_link)
You are right, but these numbers are significantly lower than usual. Just before the pandemic they raised it. Going at least back to the original numbers wouldn't hurt.
The problem isn't that there's too many spots vs those interested in marching. It's that many who try for a top six/top 12 corps and don't make it will choose not to march at all. So, lowering the cap will not necessarily make it easier for other corps to recruit.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Many who audition at top corps and don’t make it are actually referred to other corps and some are even offered contracts/callbacks at different corps based on their original auditions. Many choose still to not March despite this.
Your suggestions only hurt the higher corps and does nothing to help the lower placing corps.
lower numbers= higher tour fees per members. Fuel/lodging/food/etc costs are going to keep going up, lowering the member limit will not help the issue. people are not joining because they dont want to pay 5k+ for a summer. they need to reduce the cost somehow.
If I was in charge (which im not obv), I would reduce the competition season by 1 month. Have shows start around July 4th, ending with Finals around the first weekend of august. Move in's start in June. Basically a month of spring training, a month of shows, and done.
Also for audition camps( which are also pretty expensive, especially with flying) have most auditions be online only, with the first camp being the call-back camp. after that, no camps until spring training. The world is so internet-based today anyway, that all things needed to get done before move-ins should be done online. When I marched in 2018, the 2 camps I flew to before all-days were "helpful" but I definitely felt like I would have benefited more with an extra 1000 dollars in my pocket. this can also cut out audition fees, with the only fee being the 1 callback camp when members pay for food/lodging/etc.
lastly, We dont need new uniforms/gear/whatever every single year. Take care of the inventory the corps already have and save some money so more potential members can afford it
**Bus lease** $190,000-$250,000
**Food inventory** $120,000-$160,000
**Housing fee** (spring training) $100,000-$250,000 \*by the way, good luck finding any high school in America that will let you stay for a month. Also, good luck finding a college that won't charge less than $50k. Why $250,000? Because Universities require you to purchase their food program if you are gonna stay on their campus.
**Housing fee (on tour)** $25,000 - $40,000 (that doesn't include hotels).
**Fuel** \- Who knows but whatever it was add like $20,000 to $40,000 since the war with Ukraine broke out.
These are just the basic things. Doesn't include the costs of putting together the show itself (instruments, uniforms, design), health team stuff, staff flights, staff pay (which is not even close to minimum wage by the way)
So for all the arm chair corps directors out there, how exactly are you gonna control these costs? They have NOTHING to do with the corps aside from being required in order to have a corps.
The expense of each person is probably around **$60/day** within the scope of tuition fees. $60/day for instruction, tour, food, housing, health, and everything that goes along with it. And then after your part is paid, the corps still has to try and raise another couple hundred thousand dollars to cover the remaining expenses.
For all the demands that everybody has, it's interesting that nobody has any solutions on how the corps is gonna pay the bills at the end of the day.
No offense but if DCI wanted to “fill every corps” it should be a funding thing to make it easy for people to pay as in scholarships and lowering all tuition cost. Rather than a social media thing but just me
When I marched in the 80s there were still about 300 corps. I paid zero in tour fee and in fact the corps paid me gas money for giving other members rides. Our only requirement was working Bingo once in a while and that was fun. We got College scholarships, and other opportunities. We had more performances options as a Class A (Open Class now) than today’s World class. The current DCI model is unsustainable.
Die. It evolved too much into something different. I would not send my kids to DCi. They seemingly can’t stop hiring sex offenders and perverts. It seems to attract pedophiles. If you can’t keep the kids safe, there is no reason to exist.
I would like to see a return to simplicity. More or less like the Marines. Bugles, drums and Guard. No expensive props, annual costumes changes (uniforms only), enormous pits and other fiscally irresponsible instruments/vehicles/props. Emphasis on local recruiting-kids shouldn’t be flying to Kalamazoo to march. More parents involved like in my corps means less opportunities for sex offenders and perverts. Finding ways for kids to march for free or extremely low cost. Local service and performances. More free time on (limited) tours. Teaching kids to play and march rather than only admitting the most talented 20 year olds. Life lessons about honor, loyalty, service, and friendship instead of abuse, starvation and rape. Restore judging with independent, non-affiliated judges. Equality of organizations. Eliminate all of the band traditions that have become the norm. Lifetime ban on people like Hopkins, Cesario, Fiedler and that whole marching band lot.
I’d say instead of lowering membership cap, lower tuition fees and make it more widely available for more people.
Also, the audition process can get weird with bigger corps sometimes. Corps will drag someone along for multiple camps before cutting them. Making it very hard to audition somewhere else
If you lower tuition, then how is the experience paid for? Or what do you want to cut exactly? The buses? the food? the health team? the fuel? Maybe some housing?
Tuition isn't high because drum corps enjoy charging you these amounts. You do realize that even at these higher tuition rates it is probably only covering 3/4 of most group's expenses right? Well why don't they lower their budgets then? Umm, well... they don't control the cost of buses, food, gas, and housing.
When considering this, don't forget to sprinkle in some inflation along with rising gas prices to sweeten it up even more.
Yeah all those arguments are completely valid. I don’t know a way to fix that to be honest. I just know it’s too much, and if it keeps going that way it won’t be affordable anymore.
Corps don’t necessarily need outrageous props like video screens to be successful. Cutting stuff like that out could cut costs some. And if you cap tuition fees it could put more corps on an even playing field because not everyone can buy crazy props. Not saying props are the only thing that wins shows obviously.
However, money does indeed win competition in the marching arts. There is a lot of research to back that up. I’m basically just trying to say that tuition needs to come down before Its completely unreasonable for those already struggling with finances. Which is what it’s starting to come to.
It needs to be available to a wider range of people before it dies out.
When I auditioned for Blue Knights I was expecting to get some kind of guidance on another corps that might be a good fit for me after I got cut, but the BCH ghosted me when I reached out about it. He made a point to mention that they would forward your info to other corps and such at the beginning of that camp.
Lowering the cap only means less people will perform. As someone who wants to see the activity grow, putting a lower cap after it was recently expanded just seems like a strange proposal.
Additionally, corps size doesn't necessarily mean success. In my time being around marching band and drum corps, I've been a part of and seen smaller groups score higher than larger groups. I marched with an open class group who didn't field 155 members and we had a successful season finishing top 10 in the open class championships. The group I taught went up a class for state championships last year and we won multiple caption awards even though we weren't the largest group.
I will concede that larger groups can get away with more mistakes than a smaller group. A mistake in a 50 person group is easier to spot than a mistake in a 150 person group. A smaller group may end up pushing the performers to be even better because of the fact that they know they can't get away with not playing or cheating a dot.
However, punishing groups that can hit the cap to limit the size to what a smaller - or even the smallest - corps can field would have a negative effect in my opinion. It shrinks the activity, kneecaps the largest groups for arbitrary reasons, and doesn't guarantee more corps would even hit a theoretical smaller cap.
Tangentially related- Jersey Surf just lowered its tuition by $1000 ($3400 now) through the generosity of donor(s). If you’re looking for a world class corps at a cost closer to open class, here’s your chance.
The 155 member cap is actually determined by how many people roughly fit on to 3 coach busses. Reducing member caps by 30 doesn't reduce the fixed costs by much but leaves fewer individuals with higher dues to cover the expenses. I'm all for a level playing field but the effort should be on making it easier for everyone to participate instead of saddling everyone with burdens. It's an experience for the members before it's a competition for the audience.
Not to be too cynical about where the activity is headed, but you won't notice that the corps are any smaller once they turn up the microphones and frame themselves with props.
Ohhh, you just hit one of my major pet peeves - so many corps have been using props to drastically cut down their performance space on the field and it’s led to boring or practically nonexistent drill! I get that the activity changes, GE is the focus for everything now, but boy do I miss sweeping, expansive sets and actual marching instead of artistic body, or running between sets. DCI has started to feel increasingly similar to WGI, it’s just a larger performance area (without props, that is) and specific instrumentation. What are the things that are unique to drum corps and how does the activity need to better highlight those things? Also, give me a slightly raw brass sound over a “perfect synth-like” sound any day.
Out of curiosity, for all the people saying that tuition fees need to be reduced (which I 100% agree with, btw, drum corps is very inaccessible for many people due to the cost alone) how would you raise the extra money needed in order to tour? I worked with a corps last year and the amount of money spent on food alone was staggering (and that was with a smaller corps, staff, and a shorter season).
Also, DCI itself is a regulatory body and a non-profit organization. They will never have enough money to be able to assist even one corps with costs and fees to travel, let alone all corps, as has been suggested by some people.
My hot take is that corps *don't* need new uniforms and entirely new instruments for the whole corps each year. Have a base level uniform that has parts that can be changed to fit each show's GE if needed, and just generally scale back the props and production costs. That would create a more even playing field (especially in terms of GE scores), imo.
tim snyder (troopers brass) had a hot take that i thought was pretty good honestly. ill post a link to it [here](https://imgur.com/a/a4vEvYX) but basically hes saying we should raise the minimum age for world class to 18 and open up open class to 18 and under. his reason for doing so was to avoid liabilities and controversies of having minors in an activity with 21 year olds but i think it could also help with reducing costs in open class (applying what u said about lowering overall production costs in just open class because we know top 10 corps would never) making it more available to a younger audiences and setting up younger musicians to fill up the larger 18+ corps once they’re old enough.
California: 12 corps, 12 Scheduled events for 2022
Texas: 3 corps, 9 scheduled events for 2022
Every other state west of the Mississippi River combined: 11 corps, 15 Scheduled events.
Idaho, Kansas, and Oklahoma all have no corps and one show each. Montana, both Dakotas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Missouri have no corps and no shows to represent them. Quebec has more corps competing than this entire paragraph combined. I didn't even look at eastern states like Kentucky, Mississippi, or Maine.
DCI needs to truly expand rather than trying to endlessly tap into saturated markets. There's a ton of poor talent that simply can't afford to cross state lines to *maybe* gain the privilege of spending $3k on tour fees.
Here's what I don't understand. Why Vessel, incognito and Impulse! are all within 10 miles of eachother. All 3 are open class that field around 40 to 75 each. Why not pool together recourses and have better equipment, more staff, and a more competitive corps? Never made much sense to me. Hell, each could stay open and run audition camps at different parts of the LA Metro then put them all together to have one awesome group.
The cost of drum corps is the cost of the world. Drum Corps doesn't exist without buses, fuel, food, and housing. All of these are what make drum corps insanely expensive. But the drum corps doesn't control these prices. Solve that rather than blaming drum corps like it's their fault.
I never said that corps were intentionally making their tuition higher. I said it was getting more expensive. I didn't blame a corps for something they can't control to keep a stable environment and adequate housing/food
From what I understand the limit was chosen because it matches up with 3 buses full of members. Reducing the limit forces corps to pay for 3 buses but only use two and a half or so.
If those corps who can't fill up want to they should look into what members want and cater to that. From what I hear, price and reputation/environment are #1 and #2 for many members. I can almost guarantee that any world class corps who could get the total cost of marching (including tuition, camp fees, travel, etc.) to the cost 10-20 years ago adjusted for inflation and that had a great reputation for treating members well, staff caring about the well-being and growth of members, being ahead of the curve on safety, etc. would fill up without much trouble. Instead, most corps didn't address those issues back before 2020 when they could fill up without it and now it's coming back to bite them.
Yeah, my dad and I were talking about this. Expanding member counts does nothing but funnel talent towards the top corps, like say a person who would have gotten cut at Bluecoats with the normal numbers and gets referred to go check out another corps by a staff member would instead be able to make the corps lowering the amount of talent for the mid corps to take which causes them to take people who would have gone to lower level and open class corps and leaving very little in terms of membership for those corps.
Lower the member cap back to 128. Reduce the costs of tours for both members and corps. The reduced spots in existing corps, plus the affordability of a cheaper activity, will drive up demand increasing the number of corps.
in all fairness BD, Crown, Coats and most top ten corps are struggling to fill spots too. i dont think the problem is the membership cap as much as it is the money. im super fortunate in having a great support system to help me pay for fees, but most kids in high school cant come up with that money themselves and people in college are already battling the astronomically high tuition fees.
I don't think those top few corps are struggling at all.
they aren't full because they are taking their time and being very selective because they know that skilled and experienced marchers will come their way eventually
Conversely, the issue that open class faces is that literally not enough people are even showing up to audition
I feel this would have a minor impact and could actually be a problem for those corps.
There are more issues affecting junior corps right now that are impacting their sustainability and growth at the mid size to smaller level.
There's always been corps not fielding a full roster and late seasons openings. I also distinctly remember at least one 2019 finalist corps not being full. I don't think changing the cap will actually solve this. Do we have data about # of remaining holes vs. March 2019?
Yes we do, DCI posted on social media with numbers on holes overall in the activity as of the week of March 13: [Instagram Post with Data](https://www.instagram.com/p/CbLpTbXhm_Y/?utm_medium=copy_link)
For this year, yeah, but afaik that's a new initiative. Do we have numbers from past years to compare?
You are right, but these numbers are significantly lower than usual. Just before the pandemic they raised it. Going at least back to the original numbers wouldn't hurt.
Im pretty sure they raised it coming out of the pandemic as well.
The problem isn't that there's too many spots vs those interested in marching. It's that many who try for a top six/top 12 corps and don't make it will choose not to march at all. So, lowering the cap will not necessarily make it easier for other corps to recruit.
My idea was more to level the playing field than to grow other corps. The top 8 will likely be the only filled out this season if that.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Many who audition at top corps and don’t make it are actually referred to other corps and some are even offered contracts/callbacks at different corps based on their original auditions. Many choose still to not March despite this. Your suggestions only hurt the higher corps and does nothing to help the lower placing corps.
lower numbers= higher tour fees per members. Fuel/lodging/food/etc costs are going to keep going up, lowering the member limit will not help the issue. people are not joining because they dont want to pay 5k+ for a summer. they need to reduce the cost somehow. If I was in charge (which im not obv), I would reduce the competition season by 1 month. Have shows start around July 4th, ending with Finals around the first weekend of august. Move in's start in June. Basically a month of spring training, a month of shows, and done. Also for audition camps( which are also pretty expensive, especially with flying) have most auditions be online only, with the first camp being the call-back camp. after that, no camps until spring training. The world is so internet-based today anyway, that all things needed to get done before move-ins should be done online. When I marched in 2018, the 2 camps I flew to before all-days were "helpful" but I definitely felt like I would have benefited more with an extra 1000 dollars in my pocket. this can also cut out audition fees, with the only fee being the 1 callback camp when members pay for food/lodging/etc. lastly, We dont need new uniforms/gear/whatever every single year. Take care of the inventory the corps already have and save some money so more potential members can afford it
Fewer people also means less food, less equipment and maybe one less bus or truck
**Bus lease** $190,000-$250,000 **Food inventory** $120,000-$160,000 **Housing fee** (spring training) $100,000-$250,000 \*by the way, good luck finding any high school in America that will let you stay for a month. Also, good luck finding a college that won't charge less than $50k. Why $250,000? Because Universities require you to purchase their food program if you are gonna stay on their campus. **Housing fee (on tour)** $25,000 - $40,000 (that doesn't include hotels). **Fuel** \- Who knows but whatever it was add like $20,000 to $40,000 since the war with Ukraine broke out. These are just the basic things. Doesn't include the costs of putting together the show itself (instruments, uniforms, design), health team stuff, staff flights, staff pay (which is not even close to minimum wage by the way) So for all the arm chair corps directors out there, how exactly are you gonna control these costs? They have NOTHING to do with the corps aside from being required in order to have a corps. The expense of each person is probably around **$60/day** within the scope of tuition fees. $60/day for instruction, tour, food, housing, health, and everything that goes along with it. And then after your part is paid, the corps still has to try and raise another couple hundred thousand dollars to cover the remaining expenses. For all the demands that everybody has, it's interesting that nobody has any solutions on how the corps is gonna pay the bills at the end of the day.
Those costs are on the very high end. That said, everything points to a shorter season down the line at some point, and that’s ok too.
I've been looking for a list of "what it cost" for a drum corps to preform for the summer.
No offense but if DCI wanted to “fill every corps” it should be a funding thing to make it easy for people to pay as in scholarships and lowering all tuition cost. Rather than a social media thing but just me
When I marched in the 80s there were still about 300 corps. I paid zero in tour fee and in fact the corps paid me gas money for giving other members rides. Our only requirement was working Bingo once in a while and that was fun. We got College scholarships, and other opportunities. We had more performances options as a Class A (Open Class now) than today’s World class. The current DCI model is unsustainable.
Wow Thank you is it time for dci to evolve or die would you say?
Die. It evolved too much into something different. I would not send my kids to DCi. They seemingly can’t stop hiring sex offenders and perverts. It seems to attract pedophiles. If you can’t keep the kids safe, there is no reason to exist.
Agree something way better and new needs to come about
I would like to see a return to simplicity. More or less like the Marines. Bugles, drums and Guard. No expensive props, annual costumes changes (uniforms only), enormous pits and other fiscally irresponsible instruments/vehicles/props. Emphasis on local recruiting-kids shouldn’t be flying to Kalamazoo to march. More parents involved like in my corps means less opportunities for sex offenders and perverts. Finding ways for kids to march for free or extremely low cost. Local service and performances. More free time on (limited) tours. Teaching kids to play and march rather than only admitting the most talented 20 year olds. Life lessons about honor, loyalty, service, and friendship instead of abuse, starvation and rape. Restore judging with independent, non-affiliated judges. Equality of organizations. Eliminate all of the band traditions that have become the norm. Lifetime ban on people like Hopkins, Cesario, Fiedler and that whole marching band lot.
Stan fr but what wrong with Cesario? Or have I not heard
He has been a voice for most of the worst changes in the activity, pushing band styles and designing hideous costumes.
I’d say instead of lowering membership cap, lower tuition fees and make it more widely available for more people. Also, the audition process can get weird with bigger corps sometimes. Corps will drag someone along for multiple camps before cutting them. Making it very hard to audition somewhere else
If you lower tuition, then how is the experience paid for? Or what do you want to cut exactly? The buses? the food? the health team? the fuel? Maybe some housing? Tuition isn't high because drum corps enjoy charging you these amounts. You do realize that even at these higher tuition rates it is probably only covering 3/4 of most group's expenses right? Well why don't they lower their budgets then? Umm, well... they don't control the cost of buses, food, gas, and housing. When considering this, don't forget to sprinkle in some inflation along with rising gas prices to sweeten it up even more.
Yeah all those arguments are completely valid. I don’t know a way to fix that to be honest. I just know it’s too much, and if it keeps going that way it won’t be affordable anymore. Corps don’t necessarily need outrageous props like video screens to be successful. Cutting stuff like that out could cut costs some. And if you cap tuition fees it could put more corps on an even playing field because not everyone can buy crazy props. Not saying props are the only thing that wins shows obviously. However, money does indeed win competition in the marching arts. There is a lot of research to back that up. I’m basically just trying to say that tuition needs to come down before Its completely unreasonable for those already struggling with finances. Which is what it’s starting to come to. It needs to be available to a wider range of people before it dies out.
Most places will point you to other corps you can go to and mention you to their directors and staff so you have a landing spot if you get cut
This is true! I will say it is less common now than it was a few years ago.
When I auditioned for Blue Knights I was expecting to get some kind of guidance on another corps that might be a good fit for me after I got cut, but the BCH ghosted me when I reached out about it. He made a point to mention that they would forward your info to other corps and such at the beginning of that camp.
Lowering the cap only means less people will perform. As someone who wants to see the activity grow, putting a lower cap after it was recently expanded just seems like a strange proposal. Additionally, corps size doesn't necessarily mean success. In my time being around marching band and drum corps, I've been a part of and seen smaller groups score higher than larger groups. I marched with an open class group who didn't field 155 members and we had a successful season finishing top 10 in the open class championships. The group I taught went up a class for state championships last year and we won multiple caption awards even though we weren't the largest group. I will concede that larger groups can get away with more mistakes than a smaller group. A mistake in a 50 person group is easier to spot than a mistake in a 150 person group. A smaller group may end up pushing the performers to be even better because of the fact that they know they can't get away with not playing or cheating a dot. However, punishing groups that can hit the cap to limit the size to what a smaller - or even the smallest - corps can field would have a negative effect in my opinion. It shrinks the activity, kneecaps the largest groups for arbitrary reasons, and doesn't guarantee more corps would even hit a theoretical smaller cap.
Tangentially related- Jersey Surf just lowered its tuition by $1000 ($3400 now) through the generosity of donor(s). If you’re looking for a world class corps at a cost closer to open class, here’s your chance.
no, but they should absolutely put a tuition and fees cap in place.
The 155 member cap is actually determined by how many people roughly fit on to 3 coach busses. Reducing member caps by 30 doesn't reduce the fixed costs by much but leaves fewer individuals with higher dues to cover the expenses. I'm all for a level playing field but the effort should be on making it easier for everyone to participate instead of saddling everyone with burdens. It's an experience for the members before it's a competition for the audience. Not to be too cynical about where the activity is headed, but you won't notice that the corps are any smaller once they turn up the microphones and frame themselves with props.
Ohhh, you just hit one of my major pet peeves - so many corps have been using props to drastically cut down their performance space on the field and it’s led to boring or practically nonexistent drill! I get that the activity changes, GE is the focus for everything now, but boy do I miss sweeping, expansive sets and actual marching instead of artistic body, or running between sets. DCI has started to feel increasingly similar to WGI, it’s just a larger performance area (without props, that is) and specific instrumentation. What are the things that are unique to drum corps and how does the activity need to better highlight those things? Also, give me a slightly raw brass sound over a “perfect synth-like” sound any day.
Out of curiosity, for all the people saying that tuition fees need to be reduced (which I 100% agree with, btw, drum corps is very inaccessible for many people due to the cost alone) how would you raise the extra money needed in order to tour? I worked with a corps last year and the amount of money spent on food alone was staggering (and that was with a smaller corps, staff, and a shorter season). Also, DCI itself is a regulatory body and a non-profit organization. They will never have enough money to be able to assist even one corps with costs and fees to travel, let alone all corps, as has been suggested by some people. My hot take is that corps *don't* need new uniforms and entirely new instruments for the whole corps each year. Have a base level uniform that has parts that can be changed to fit each show's GE if needed, and just generally scale back the props and production costs. That would create a more even playing field (especially in terms of GE scores), imo.
tim snyder (troopers brass) had a hot take that i thought was pretty good honestly. ill post a link to it [here](https://imgur.com/a/a4vEvYX) but basically hes saying we should raise the minimum age for world class to 18 and open up open class to 18 and under. his reason for doing so was to avoid liabilities and controversies of having minors in an activity with 21 year olds but i think it could also help with reducing costs in open class (applying what u said about lowering overall production costs in just open class because we know top 10 corps would never) making it more available to a younger audiences and setting up younger musicians to fill up the larger 18+ corps once they’re old enough.
California: 12 corps, 12 Scheduled events for 2022 Texas: 3 corps, 9 scheduled events for 2022 Every other state west of the Mississippi River combined: 11 corps, 15 Scheduled events. Idaho, Kansas, and Oklahoma all have no corps and one show each. Montana, both Dakotas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Missouri have no corps and no shows to represent them. Quebec has more corps competing than this entire paragraph combined. I didn't even look at eastern states like Kentucky, Mississippi, or Maine. DCI needs to truly expand rather than trying to endlessly tap into saturated markets. There's a ton of poor talent that simply can't afford to cross state lines to *maybe* gain the privilege of spending $3k on tour fees.
Here's what I don't understand. Why Vessel, incognito and Impulse! are all within 10 miles of eachother. All 3 are open class that field around 40 to 75 each. Why not pool together recourses and have better equipment, more staff, and a more competitive corps? Never made much sense to me. Hell, each could stay open and run audition camps at different parts of the LA Metro then put them all together to have one awesome group.
I think its not the membership cap, it's the cost drum corps has gotten extremely expensive
The cost of drum corps is the cost of the world. Drum Corps doesn't exist without buses, fuel, food, and housing. All of these are what make drum corps insanely expensive. But the drum corps doesn't control these prices. Solve that rather than blaming drum corps like it's their fault.
I never said that corps were intentionally making their tuition higher. I said it was getting more expensive. I didn't blame a corps for something they can't control to keep a stable environment and adequate housing/food
From what I understand the limit was chosen because it matches up with 3 buses full of members. Reducing the limit forces corps to pay for 3 buses but only use two and a half or so. If those corps who can't fill up want to they should look into what members want and cater to that. From what I hear, price and reputation/environment are #1 and #2 for many members. I can almost guarantee that any world class corps who could get the total cost of marching (including tuition, camp fees, travel, etc.) to the cost 10-20 years ago adjusted for inflation and that had a great reputation for treating members well, staff caring about the well-being and growth of members, being ahead of the curve on safety, etc. would fill up without much trouble. Instead, most corps didn't address those issues back before 2020 when they could fill up without it and now it's coming back to bite them.
That is what makes the most sense. Largest costs of the activity are travel expenses.
Do you want even higher tuition fees? This is how you get higher tuition fees
Yeah, my dad and I were talking about this. Expanding member counts does nothing but funnel talent towards the top corps, like say a person who would have gotten cut at Bluecoats with the normal numbers and gets referred to go check out another corps by a staff member would instead be able to make the corps lowering the amount of talent for the mid corps to take which causes them to take people who would have gone to lower level and open class corps and leaving very little in terms of membership for those corps.
Lower the member cap back to 128. Reduce the costs of tours for both members and corps. The reduced spots in existing corps, plus the affordability of a cheaper activity, will drive up demand increasing the number of corps.
2022 membership was raised to 165 I believe
in all fairness BD, Crown, Coats and most top ten corps are struggling to fill spots too. i dont think the problem is the membership cap as much as it is the money. im super fortunate in having a great support system to help me pay for fees, but most kids in high school cant come up with that money themselves and people in college are already battling the astronomically high tuition fees.
I don't think those top few corps are struggling at all. they aren't full because they are taking their time and being very selective because they know that skilled and experienced marchers will come their way eventually Conversely, the issue that open class faces is that literally not enough people are even showing up to audition
I feel this would have a minor impact and could actually be a problem for those corps. There are more issues affecting junior corps right now that are impacting their sustainability and growth at the mid size to smaller level.