Rapid Reaction: DCI 2016 Schedule

That roll step tho.

Yesterday, Drum Corps International released its schedule of major events. Certainly there's still football, basketball, and lacrosse to get through before we got there, but it was a nice look ahead, and a few particular pieces caught my eye.

The first thing I went looking for upon the schedule's release was Carolina Crown's Tour of Champions stop. Last year, the event moved from Charlotte to Winston-Salem on the campus of Wake Forest University. I made the case for Winston before the show even stepped off, and was confirmed in my belief  following the show. To my excitement, the show is indeed returning the BB&T Field.

The tour returns to Florida, and in a big way. I have fond memories of the show in Orlando form my days in grad school in Tampa, and fans in Florida, especially the central and southern parts of the state, are at a travel disadvantage when the Summer Music Games don't dip down onto the peninsula. While locations aren't yet announced, the tour announces stops in northern, central, and south Florida. There's a good chance that the central Florida stop is a return to Orlando - either the Citrus Bowl or C. Florida's stadium - but there's an outside chance that show ends up in Tampa, especially if the northern and southern stops - presumably Jacksonville and metro Miami, though Gainesville, Tallahassee, or Daytona could be in the running for the northern stop - keep all of the other FL action along the Atlantic.

The Tour of Champions has ballooned to an eight event series, though it's entirely in the eastern and central time zones with stops in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. That's not to say the tour doesn't head west - the Madison Scouts make the trip to join the west coast-based tours this early season in sites like Stanford, the Rose Bowl, and Fresno. The Rose Bowl and Stanford are just a couple of the major college and professional stadiums that punctuate the tour, which will also hit the homes of the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, and of course annual major events in the Alamodome, Georgia Dome, Lucas Oil Stadium, and Minnesota - likely in TCF Bank Stadium which the Vikings and Golden Gophers currently share, but potentially to open U. S. Bank Stadium, the Vikings' new home. The Masters of the Summer Music Games show in middle Tennessee returns to Vanderbilt instead of Middle Tennessee State. Having never attended the show in neither location, but with all due respect to Murphreesboro, I like the presence in the big city and in an SEC stadium.

The dates released yesterday to not comprise the entire store, but I'm already liking what I'm seeing for the summer of 2016.