What's it worth to you?

Is it five bucks? Six?

After a season of local shows, this past weekend I sat in a ticket booth for a while watching band parents and grandparents are expressing sticker shock as we get to large finals competitions in major venues, where ticket prices jump to $20 ... or more. (In some case, much much much more - to the point where $10 is the deeply discounted low corner seat!)

Not to mention those stadium operators often do relish the opportunity to stick you with high priced hot dogs and parking fees - fees that are not the fault of the organizers of events, for sure, unless you blame them for choosing the stadium in the first place. (Not that they haven't offset some of with sponsors and exhibitors.)

And pretty much, expressing shock is what we do. I've heard variations on this melody: "What?! That's a outrageous price to pay to see my kid for 15 minutes! I mean, its four times what I've paid all season, not counting the parking rip off!"

Well, for one, just in case you missed it during the last ten or twenty or so years, prices have gone up. Except, perhaps, band competitions. While the costs to put them on go up, ticket prices have held steady. This means less profit for show operators, leading to a lower return on the investment of time, and maybe reducing the costs of the program they are supporting.

And there is a lot of cost to supporting a kid in a band program, no doubt - I have two (and some families I know have three!). Can we squeeze another $20, $40, plus plus plus?

Well, what's it worth to you? To see your kid perform? To give support to the other band kids out there performing?

I understand that it is not the best economic world out there. It's hard to raise money, it's hard to deal with increasing expenses and flat or declining incomes. (Probable case in point: The once dominant Lancaster Catholic HS band.)

Major National Championship events allow the kids the experience of performing before in a "high value" venue. I've seen high school football stadiums in the northeast they are ... not Texas (or Ohio or Florida).

Major National Championship events also all the kids and the directors to get feedback from "high value" judges. Like any sport, there are people who dabble, and there are names we respect. How often does quality educaitonal feedback come to a band?

And, beside, for $20 - stay. Stay and grow the crowd. Give the kids from ALL bands the biggest audience of their season. Give all the kids the most spectatular feedback they will probably get all year. And be surprised. Yes, in most cases there are band that are better than yours.

By the way. $20 to see the USSBA Group 6 Champion Roxbury HS again? Yeah, probably worth it, if you watch them from the moment they step on the field to the moment they step off. Funny that even though they didn't win visual, to me they had the trifecta - great design, great teaching, great execution.