Rules Changes and Shrinking Attendance

Date: 27 Jan 2003 07:10:12 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.arts.marching.drumcorps
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I've read a lot of posts suggesting that there is a connection between rules
changes over the year and the shinking fan base. As much as I'm pissed off
about the passing of amplification, I can't believe that there's truly much, if
any, relationship between changing rules and attendance at shows. The
vindictive part of me wishes that there were, but logically I just can't buy
it.
Shinking attendance, viewership and fan base is something that's being felt by
a lot of activities and industries in the US. Membership in youth
organizations is down across the board (except, interestingly, in religious
youth orgs). Movie going is down dramatically. Network TV viewership is
dwindling every year. Sports teams in the vast majority of markets are seeing
fewer sell-outs each year. College football...a Saturday TV mainstay...saw
almost a decade of decreasing TV ratings and ticket sales before rallying to a
small degree this year. Broadway ticket sales...down for something like the
14th straight year. The travel industry continues to take huge hits...though
that's partly due to safety concerns.
In all honesty, I think a big part of the problem is that there are so many
opportunities competing for our time. Growing up in Indiana in the '60s and
'70s, my life was much simpler. Going out to eat was a huge deal in our
family...even if just to McDonalds. We looked forward for months to Ringling
Brothers or Ice Capades coming to town...things that seem cheesy and silly now. Life was very streamlined...church, school, family, and neighbors. That was
pretty much it.
Nowdays, we run from activity to activity. Our kids play 4 sports a year in
addition to music lessons, clubs, dance lessons, etc. We're constantly moving. It wasn't that long ago that we would go to every drumcorps show within a 2
hour drive. The last few years, we've had conficts with at least 1/2 of the
shows in our area.
All to say, drumcorps has a lot to compete with these days.