Michigan band and away games
I know that the Michigan band travels to MSU, ND, OSU, but why not other games? I personally would love seeing how band in every single game. But does anybody know why our band doesnt travel and if something is being done to include the band in away games?
Go Blue!
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:50 PM ^
money
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:15 PM ^
Nothing against the warriors on the field and the well-compensated coaches, but you'd think an institution as prominent as U of M could fork over a few grand to get the band, or suitable contingent, to a few other away games.
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 PM ^
If by "a few grand," you mean "a few dozen grand," then sure.
6 buses (AND a charter plane for long distances), 1 big rig, lodging for ~300 people, food for aforementioned 300 people, staff wages... it starts adding up pretty quickly
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 PM ^
it's not just money
PSU: Paterno does not allow other bands on the field during the game, and there school will not make room in the stands.
Travel to ND, OSU, MSU
Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue: There are several reasons the band does not go to these.
1. Band-O-Rama concert at hill auditorium takes up 1 away game.
2. Those schools are far. It's asking a lot for them to travel by bus and miss friday classes more than 1 time per season.
3. Money...distance = hotel rooms
4. The band generally gets 1 weekend off during the year since the football team doesn't tend to have bye weeks. Usually, the band members will buy a big block of tickets, drive down, and have a massive tailgate.
Other away nonconference games. Feel free to charter them a plane and get hotel rooms with a half million dollar donation. Someone at tOSU did that a few years ago for the texas game.
October 3rd, 2009 at 4:28 AM ^
his Beaver field. Did you see him run those two cameramen before the Syracuse game. Grumpy of codger.
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:26 PM ^
The root of the problem is no one wants to "claim" the band. Technically they are part of the music school which has limited funding and would prefer to keep their money on North Campus with their music students. The athletic department probably could find the money to spend on the band but since they don't have to they do so as little as possible. They do (or at least used to) provide a few meals during Band Week at the start of the season but as far as I know the majority of the money (bowl trips aside) comes from the Music School.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:36 PM ^
The Athletic Dept. pays for the away trips (ND, OSU, MSU, and bowl trip) and for the athletic pep bands (Big Ten/CCHA Tournament, NCAA Tourney appearances). The Music School is working on a $40 million endowment for the band program that would make the MMB financially independent (away trips notwithstanding), and they're about 60% of the way. Being under the Music School is a better situation for the band since they don't have to deal with the Athletic Department when it comes to hiring directors and stuff.
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:33 PM ^
I can hear the band from my apartment. Normally it is amazing, except for this week when all Ive heard them practicing is the State fight song. I am already dreading OSU week and hearing that travesty of a song for a week.
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 PM ^
I like the fact that rivalry games are automatic road trips for the band. You want them there when you're at your worst enemy's stadium.
The fact that we have 3 rivals in this sport doesn't give the band many chances to go to places other than Columbus, South Bend and East Lansing. But they get to a new place every few years. They went to Happy Valley in 1999 - they tried to go there for the HUGE games in 1997 and 2006 as well but Penn State said, "no."
They went to Northwestern in the late 90's. Lloyd Carr asked the marching band director personally if the band would come to Illinois game in Champaign in 2000 and they did...although the Illini fans were a bunch of jackasses and threw various items at them while they played for the Michigan tailgators outside the stadium.
Truth of the matter is, it costs alot of money to send 300 band members to an away game. So unless some rich dude pays the bill to send them somewhere (like OSU did when they played Texas a couple years ago) we won't see them at a non-rival place any time soon.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:03 PM ^
I thought that the conference limited the band to two conference games a year? At least that was the case a decade ago, I'm pretty sure.
For non-conference games, I think that whether or not the band comes is determined by the contractual agreement between the two schools but is largely determined by whether or not there's enough money (which conference supplies the refs, etc).
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:03 PM ^
The MMB was supposed to go to PSU in '06. The arrangements had been made, Athletics/Football wanted us there, and in the end PSU wouldn't give us seats or find us somewhere to be. I think the hotel reservations were even made. It was a pretty huge bummer.
I always wished we had gone to other away games, especially during the years when MSU is the only away trip, but it's too much money, they say there aren't enough away games that are close enough and are "big enough" games to justify the expense, etc. etc. And free weekends are nice, too.
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 PM ^
Our band is pretty freaking sweet.