Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

[dggoddard]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

When I was at BU, the pep band was around 150, split into a "Red" and "White" band that would alternate through bounceyball and hockey games. You were only required for your "color" games, but you could go to as many as you wanted.

As for budget, I'm not sure. We always got a budget for the Beanpot, and postseason travel. The university also paid and provided accommodations for those who would stay through break. Usually nice digs at the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston. I assume the budget is bigger this year with Red Hot Hockey added in again, and the game at Fenway Park, as BU will want as big of a band as possible for those two games.

Red & White bands might be a good idea for Friday vs. Saturday night bands.

[StayPuftMMcu]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

There's some rule that bands can't travel for hockey during the regular season, it's common lore that the Huskies Pep Band is responsible for this rule, along with many other rules pertaining to bands in the NCAA.

Actually, in the ECAC, home teams are required to set aside a minimum of 25 tickets for a visiting band, if they decide to attend the game. Those tickets can be standing room only, but they have to be allowed in free of charge, with or without instruments for at least 25 kids. The Clarkson band usually takes those 25, buys an extra 15, and brings around 40 people to away games. We don't usually get to play more than the 25 instruments mandated, but some arenas are cool with it (Dartmouth, Brown, Yale at least).

Lore regarding the creation of this rule is that at some point in the 70s, Clarkson brought its band over to St. Lawrence and caused so much ruckus that SLU tried to ban them from ever returning again. The Clarkson band wrote the league, who insisted that SLU allow Clarkson to play -- SLU began allowing 25 instruments as a maximum, and it eventually became a league rule. I don't know that this is 100% true, but I like it anyway

[GreatLakerMohawk]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

It took some painstaking research but here are the numbers for UMass:

Size: 0
Budget $0

Well hey, at least all those Jock Jams CDs have a permanent home to play at the Mullins Center.

[RedhawkBandMan]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

I'm not sure on this year's numbers since I was forced against my will to graduate, but last year Miami had our largest pep band with around 110 members split into 3 bands. There are usually closer to 90 total split into 2 bands (also Red Band and White Band) that alternate required games. For hockey at Goggin, they have close to 80 seats reserved for the band, so members of the unassigned band (and sometimes even band alumni ) can often get a seat before the student section fills the rest in.

The pep band is completely voluntary, though it's made up primarily of marching band members. There has definitely been increased interest over the past 5 years with the success of the hockey team. The band does not travel to any regular season away games, but we're there for most conference and NCAA tournament games as long as the school and athletic department are able and willing to fund the trip.

In terms of funding, the pep band does not have a direct source of funding. While some of the funds allocated for the marching band can technically be used for the pep band, those funds are so limited that there is usually nothing left. Most of the funding, therefore, are donations from the fraternal organizations that serve the bands.

And finally... YAY for a band thread. Nice to see posts from the various bandos all in one place, even BU

[Beer Pong Horn]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

As for budget, I'm not sure. We always got a budget for the Beanpot, and postseason travel. The university also paid and provided accommodations for those who would stay through break. Usually nice digs at the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston. I assume the budget is bigger this year with Red Hot Hockey added in again, and the game at Fenway Park, as BU will want as big of a band as possible for those two games.

Tech's band is split into two or three sections, Gold, Silver and sometimes Copper, of which one section performs at each hockey or basketball game, and all sections at football. When we do travel, the budget generally comes from the Athletic Department, grants from alumni or the University president (once upon a time, that's how they got to Boston for the womens' D-II basketball Final Four), or from the WCHA when we're the house band for the Final Five.

The pep band is completely voluntary, though it's made up primarily of marching band members. There has definitely been increased interest over the past 5 years with the success of the hockey team. The band does not travel to any regular season away games, but we're there for most conference and NCAA tournament games as long as the school and athletic department are able and willing to fund the trip.

In terms of funding, the pep band does not have a direct source of funding. While some of the funds allocated for the marching band can technically be used for the pep band, those funds are so limited that there is usually nothing left. Most of the funding, therefore, are donations from the fraternal organizations that serve the bands.

And finally... YAY for a band thread. Nice to see posts from the various bandos all in one place, even BU

Speaking as a member, I wish our music fraternity had the money to consistently fund our bands (or those at Northern, where there's a sister chapter). With actual class enrollment down but involvement way up (also a purely volunteer organization, and there's no m@rching band at Tech), the Huskies Pep Band has been hurting for money through the normal channels. Right now, the most we can do is give a scholarship or two to outstanding band members.

[Twitch Boy]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

When I first started, we numbered about 80, and got about 40 at each hockey game (we do the "split" color bands that BU mentioned.) We are now close to 300, and are limited to 90 at each game. Our record is 137 for an exhibition against Toronto.

We get a token amount of money from Undergraduate Student Government - it was $750 this year. This doesn't do diddly for us. We are in dire need of newer instruments, specifically the bigger ones that people can't just carry with them to campus. A single tuba (hereafter referred to as a BA!) can run upwards of $5000.

We do not pay our members. Several bands pay their members a token sum ($25 or so) per game. I've heard Ferris does, and NMU until recently had a basketball combo that was paid.

We're entirely student-run through a student organization known as DaWGs, which every member of the band is also automatically a member of. DaWGs elects executive board and officer positions (music librarian, historian, etc.) and Nick Enz is our sole faculty director.

We generally do not travel as a full band unless we have been specifically invited by the host school, and usually not without some form of financial assistance from somebody. GLI (our holiday tournament at Joe Louis) I believe is paid for by the Joe, not sure on this. Any postseason trips (women's BB has been hot the last two seasons) are generally paid for by Tech. The F5 trip is paid for by the WCHA.

One of the biggest problems of being a huge band is keeping everyone together musically. This results in phasing (chunks of the band getting ahead/behind) and can contribute to very sloppy sound. This mostly rears its head during football, where the whole band plays, but can appear even during hockey. We control it by having multiple student conductors, one at the middle and one on either end, so the people on the ends can watch them to help keep the beat. (Not that they ever do )

[GoDanGo]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

Lore regarding the creation of this rule is that at some point in the 70s, Clarkson brought its band over to St. Lawrence and caused so much ruckus that SLU tried to ban them from ever returning again. The Clarkson band wrote the league, who insisted that SLU allow Clarkson to play -- SLU began allowing 25 instruments as a maximum, and it eventually became a league rule. I don't know that this is 100% true, but I like it anyway

I've heard the same at RPI, so if it's not true, it's at least a rumor that has spread outside of Potsdam.

Haven't seen any of the RPI band regulars chime in yet, so I"ll jump in. We're an all-volunteer band that plays for both football and men's and women's hockey, although the main focus for most people is on men's hockey. We generally get 15-25ish for football and women's hockey, and 30-40ish (very rough numbers) for men's games. Instead of seats set aside in the student section like many rinks, we have a stage at one end of the ice - this is nice in that it gives us more flexibility for seating arrangements and a bit more room for games like the Big Red Freakout, where we'll often get 100+ current band members and alums.

As for recruiting - back in the 80's (I think), the band's student managers would send out letters to any incoming freshmen who had indicated that they played an instrument during the summer. This apparently worked pretty well at the time, although we don't do anything like it anymore. (However, this would be much easier now with email and databases of the incoming freshmen.)

I found, during my four years in the band, that the problem wasn't getting people to the first rehearsal. We'd often have 60+ people show up that first week. Instead, the problem often was getting all those people to come back for the next week, and remain active in the band over time. It seemed like we had better luck with this when the older members would get to know the new folks, and helped them learn the music and the band's traditions. Without some explanation of why certain things are happening, a first rehearsal with the band can probably be intimidating - this way, they at least get an explanation for all of the shouting, etc.

[LGR03]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

[disclaimer: My information is out of date by a bit now, but I'm sure it's still substantially correct. Someone younger may be able to fill in some gaps.]

The Cornell band has a roster of ~100 members. The band plays at everything from volleyball to lacrosse and everything in between (like sprint football (points to anyone west of ithaca who's even heard of it) and wrestling). Generally home games are unlimited w/r/t attendance. Hockey is the exception. The university provides 51 tickets to the band. Band members compete for spots in the hockey band through attendance at other (lesser) sports, rehearsals, and campus events.

As an aside, due to Ivy squeakball scheduling, the band frequently must staff home basketball games while simultaneously staffing home or road hockey games. The past two years, the band was split for NCAA hoops and ECAC hockey playoffs. In 1999, the band pulled off a split band road trip to hoops at penn/princeton and hockey at rpi/union i think it was.

The $$ needed to operate the band's robust travel schedule, which typically includes at least three league road trips (plus a one off game at colgate)(they typically try to visit every ecac rink at least every 3 years. Harvard is an annual trip no matter what) as well as hockey and lacrosse playoffs (and occasionally a regular season lax roadie) comes from two sources. The student activity fund helps with a portion of the travel. Exact numbers I couldn't tell you. And if I could remember they'd be way out of date. The rest is funded through alumni donations, principally from band alums but also from generous hockey fans. The University itself kicks in $0 (even for postseason travel). As a result, years where the hockey and lacrosse teams travel to several levels of playoffs can create a serious financial strain. (*this is in part due to the fact that the student activity money can't fund playoffs because they are not "certain" expenses at the time of budgeting in the fall. By the time they are certain in march or may, the student money held in reserve for "emergencies" has been drained).

The Cornell band has typically balked at charging students a fee to offset expenses as risk of disadvantaging or discouraging some students who couldn't afford to pay fees or expenses beyond meals on the road.

To address the business about travel limitations, the ECAC compels visiting bands to receive 25 free tickets, as does the NCAA for tourney games. (N.B. that where in hoops an NCAA game band has their expenses covered as part of the team "travel party" they bands are forced to foot the bill (except for 25 seats) for hockey or lax). Some bands like Clarkson, Cornell,and RPI routinely travel and travel in greater numbers than 25. Cornell typically travels 41 (25 free tickets plus 16 purchased by the band). Policy as to how many visiting instrumentalists are permitted varies rink to rink and year to year in the ECAC. The band has had issues traveling in other sports where league and sport regulations at the home venue restricted visiting bands (e.g. big east basketball).

The two main recruiting tools for the band are probably the marching band, from which 85% or more of the membership is composed, and the hockey program/lynah experience. The principal fundraiser is the annual phonathon held jointly by the marching and pep bands. The organizations share an alumni advisory board that helps manage budgeting and policy over time. Both are otherwise 100% student run. There are rarely more than one or two music majors involved. The band draws from all colleges and majors.

That's probably more than anyone wanted to know...

[beaverhockeyfan]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

Man, I want the original version of the Red Line Swingers back in Bemidji.....

[PUBand09]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

Not sure how I missed this thread the first time around!

I was conductor of the Princeton University Band during the 2008 season when it won the ECAC Tournament and made it to the NCAA's for the first time in 10 years and 2nd time EVER.

The P.U. Band roster is usually about 80 people and the Band plays at football, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, as well as other random occasional sports like crew regattas, field hockey, and water polo. For a football game we'll get between 60 and 80 people, but for hockey and basketball games we usually only get between 20 and 50 people, and even fewer for lacrosse and other sports.

In a normal year, the Band's budget is between $35k and $40k, the vast majority of which goes to paying for charter buses to all away football games and a few away games in hockey and basketball (most notably to Penn for the basketball rivalry). This money comes from three sources 1) about $12k from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, 2) about $14k in operating fund donations from alumni, and 3) interest from the Band's ~$350k endowment.

In 2008 and 2009, the Band had to scramble (ha, pun) to raise extra money to afford plane tickets and hotel rooms (totalling about $15k) to Wisconsin via Chicago (2008) and Minneapolis (2009) for the NCAA Hockey Tournament. The NCAA pays for bands to go to the basketball tournament, so we were pretty surprised and disappointed that this wasn't the case for hockey. Anyway, luckily Princeton is the richest university in America based on $/student, so the Vice President for Student Life and the Athletics Department coughed up enough money for the Band to go on these plane trips. These years, the Band's budget was closer to $50k.

I hope this information is helpful, and please let me know if there are other details you'd be interested in. If you're wondering about ways to solicit funds, I could tell you a little bit about what we do in the Princeton Band to fund raise.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

I've heard the same at RPI, so if it's not true, it's at least a rumor that has spread outside of Potsdam.

Haven't seen any of the RPI band regulars chime in yet, so I"ll jump in. We're an all-volunteer band that plays for both football and men's and women's hockey, although the main focus for most people is on men's hockey. We generally get 15-25ish for football and women's hockey, and 30-40ish (very rough numbers) for men's games. Instead of seats set aside in the student section like many rinks, we have a stage at one end of the ice - this is nice in that it gives us more flexibility for seating arrangements and a bit more room for games like the Big Red Freakout, where we'll often get 100+ current band members and alums.

As for recruiting - back in the 80's (I think), the band's student managers would send out letters to any incoming freshmen who had indicated that they played an instrument during the summer. This apparently worked pretty well at the time, although we don't do anything like it anymore. (However, this would be much easier now with email and databases of the incoming freshmen.)

I found, during my four years in the band, that the problem wasn't getting people to the first rehearsal. We'd often have 60+ people show up that first week. Instead, the problem often was getting all those people to come back for the next week, and remain active in the band over time. It seemed like we had better luck with this when the older members would get to know the new folks, and helped them learn the music and the band's traditions. Without some explanation of why certain things are happening, a first rehearsal with the band can probably be intimidating - this way, they at least get an explanation for all of the shouting, etc.

Not to mention, GoDanGo, the appeal given the venue... you get to play on the same stage as Bon Jovi has played on! Also other big names, some of which I won't mention because they are rather forgettable.

Numbers definitely dwindle, although I think it also has to do with how the team fares. Yes, there are those big games, but aside from that, it's usually a decent turnout.

Also, as to when you're allowed to play your Alma Mater, you can thank us for that.

Being in America's Pep Band has been a terrific experience, and I always enjoy coming back for alumni nights, and if they're shorthanded at Lynah or Starr.

[Rockchops]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

More than you ever actually wanted to know about the RPI Pep Band

http://apbwiki.rpipepbandalumni.org/Main_Page
http://pepband.union.rpi.edu/

[Twitch Boy]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

More than you ever actually wanted to know about the RPI Pep Band

http://apbwiki.rpipepbandalumni.org/Main_Page
http://pepband.union.rpi.edu/

Are you guys coming down for GLI?

[Yager]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

I found, during my four years in the band, that the problem wasn't getting people to the first rehearsal. We'd often have 60+ people show up that first week. Instead, the problem often was getting all those people to come back for the next week, and remain active in the band over time.

One thing that helps Tech's band out a lot is that almost every single band member, at one point, enrolls in the class for Pep Band and, therefore, are required to go to a certain amount of events in order to get the credit. And those that stick around after taking it for credit usually enjoy it enough to want to go to the events. But the amount of organization of planning and taking attendance at events really makes it possible. Oh and, plus, Pep Banders just want to wear the stripes so they'll do anything to have them.

*****http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2613/106/121/544570354/n544570354_6292093_4899215.jpg******

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Growing D-I Hockey Pep Band Size and Budgets

Are you guys coming down for GLI?

The band will not officially be going, however a group of band alumni will be going to the games.