Currently a good topic on the football forum, but can't say enough about our Fightin' Texas Aggie Band at away games! Away crowd loves them and they bring a certain something that gets our team going! I know what away games they attend depend largely on donor $, just wish the school would make it a priority to get them to as many away games as possible and make up a shortfall in $ if there is one. (I could be wrong, perhaps the school does fund a large amount)

2 thumbs up to the trip to Auburn though!

As a self-taught, amateur junior travel agent, this is one of my favorite topics.
Unfortunately, the last coach who had enough stroke to get the band to all the games was Jackie Sherrill.
Also unfortunately, the last time this was really logistically easy to do was in the dying days of the Southwest Conference.

Moving the the Big XII and later the SEC made the dream of having the FTAB at all the football games essentially impossible due to:
1. Increased distances between schools. CLL-LBB was 10 hours on a bus. CLL-Fayetteville was 15 hours each way. But those games were alternating years. Baton Rouge was 8 hours by bus. The longest bus trip we took in my day was the 1989 John Hancock Bowl in El Paso where it was 16 hours in a bus from College Station but that was during the school holidays.
2. Increased number of games. When we only had 12 games you could guess that there would only be 6 away games. Now that we've got 13+ games, there might be 7 away games. So if you work out a price estimate per game for travel, the overall price is more due to the fact that there are more games.
3. Really an extension of number 1 but, the fact that there are no close by schools where the FTAB can stay with families means that you have to pay for hotel rooms. When we used to go to Waco, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston (2x Rice + Cougar High), the FTAB would just show up at performance time. There was no busing or lodging provided.

So, while I will be the first one in line to advocate for the band going to all the games as we did my fish year in Fall '88, if you really break it down, the Band had to cover the costs for 4 away games and only had to cover the costs of instrument transport for 2 away games.

Here's my quick comparison of Fall '88 versus Fall '14

Fall '88
Away Game 1 - Kickoff Classic - New Jersey Meadowlands - Flights for 350+ (2 x 727s as I recall) plus 2 nights in the Ramada. Typically 4 persons per room.
Away Game 2 - LSU - 366 miles, 8 hour bus ride, 1 night in the Ramada, 4 per room
Away Game 3 - Oklahoma State - 435 miles, 10 hour (or so) bus ride, 1 night in the Ramada, 4 per room
Away Game 4 - Houston - stay with families/buddies - Corps Trip
Away Game 5 - Arkansas - 512 miles, 15 hour bus ride, 1 night at the Fort Smith Ramada, 4 per room
Away Game 6 - Texas - stay with families/buddies - Corps Trip

Fall '14
Away Game 1 - Columbia, South Carolina - 1037 miles, before school starts so no hope of taking the band anyway
Away Game 2 - SMU - Dallas
Away Game 3 (neutral site) - Arkansas @ Arlington
Away Game 4 - Starkville, Mississippi - 570 miles
Away Game 5 - Tuscaloosa, Alabama - 628 miles
Away Game 6 - Auburn, Alabama - 782 miles

The point I wanted to make about this comparison is that even the shortest conference game trip is longer than the longest conference trip back in the SWC era. I'm discounting LSU because it's the same.

The other factors you also have to look at are the massively increased ticket prices these days versus 25 years ago.
And also, the massive increase in the size of the band itself. I still can't quite come to grips with 440 people in the FTAB versus 303 on a good day in my era.
So if you were just doing a straight apples to apples logistics comparison between 1988 and 2014, 2014 would cost 50% more because there are 50% more people in the band (approximately).

So, if you could solve the cost problem to pay for it and were able to obtain the hotel rooms to house the band for 1 night assuming there was a Ramada Inn with 125 rooms available within 50+ miles of the opponent's stadium, you would still have the problem of getting the other school to give us enough seats in their stadium to seat the band.

Now back in the SWC era, it was easy to find enough seats at TCU, Baylor, Houston - Astrodome, Rice, etc. These days, if you're going into one of the storied SEC stadiums and trying to pull 450+ seats for your band, even if you pay for them at face value, I suspect that would be a challenge.

So, this is exactly the kind of multi-faceted, multi-variable problem that I love to try to solve. And, I haven't even begun to talk about how important grades are now and how many special snowflakes we might have to accomodate if we were to have the FTAB go to all the games.

I think the best outcome is for us to try to get the band to as many games as possible with the long-term ideal goal of getting the band to all the games like Jackie Sherrill did.

I did have the opportunity at Muster in 2010 to ask Mr. Sherrill how he managed to get the band to all the games. His answer was - "Once I found out the Band wasn't going to all the games, why it didn't take no time to raise the money".

Of course, Jackie did that in an era when the most recent Heisman winner was a distant memory and stadium renovations consisted of repainting the helmet on the astroturf. So again, I realize we're talking apples to oranges as far as the climate is concerned.

Just for kicks, I decided to look up how large the other bands are in the SEC West.

• Alabama's "Million Dollar" Marching Band says 416
  
• Arkansas says 358
• Auburn says 380
• LSU says 325
• Ole Miss's "Pride of the South" says 300+
• Mississippi State's "Famous Maroon" band says 330+

So, it looks like we're the biggest and the best.

Of course it's anyone's guess how accurate these estimates are. Our Web Site claims that we're an organization with 300+ members.

They should look at a "white belt" band for away games. I know it's not the way it's always been done but we have to have a band presence at all of the away games, and if it means taking half the band then so be it.

Drills would be much easier with 240-287 instead of 380+.

Here's a video to show how improved the drill could be with a smaller number:

The narration of Saturday's drill at Auburn said there were 291 UPPERCLASSMEN cadets marching.... that's 288 + the 3 DM's. Who'dve ever thought that the FTAB would have 288 upperclassmen? Wow.

That said, the idea of just taking the upperclassmen to road games (to hold down on the cost) might need further tweaking if the Band continues to grow.

You can chart and execute a damn fine drill with a 288 block. Did it a number of times back in my day.

Away games have a totally different feel w/o the band.

White belt SEC away game Aggie Band works for me. No need for the overnight stay, though. Fly there, do the game/drill, eat and fly back. They are kids on a weekend and will survive the long hours. Should be able to do this for $200K a trip. 2 each 737 (130 pax) charters @ $75K/plane = $150K, $5K for two restaurant meals ($10 @ 250 kids @ 2 meals), $15K for equipment bus back/forth, $20K to rent 7 school buses from a local ISD for the movements on the ground, airport back to food, game, food, and back to the airport. I show this to be $150K + $5K + $15K + $20K = $190K. Add $10K for slop and you get a trip for $200K. 4 away SEC games for $800K. This could be raised every year if each ticket sold to Kyle Field had a $1.25 surcharge (105K tixs @ 7 home games @ $1.25/ticket = $918750. Not every game sells out but enough would so this could work for paying for 251 Aggie Bandsmen to make every SEC away game.

Why not? Who reads this board?

quote:

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White belt away game Aggie Band works for me. No need for the overnight stay, though. Fly there, do the game/drill, eat and fly back. They are kids on a weekend and will survive the long hours.

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Couldn't agree more about the overnight stay. When I lived in OK for a couple of years I went downtown OK City to meet one of the Coaches. Was I surprised. The band stayed in the most expensive hotel in the state. I am sure they got a deal, but still a lot of $$$ were paid out to house the band--two to a room(not four as someone else stated).

Out

HollywoodBQ , the kickoff classic was before school started. Same scenario as SC except the latter was a conference game and MUCH easier to travel to than NY/NJ. Difference is availability of tickets. There were plenty available in Meadowlands

I wish they would take I band for one game and A band for the another. Then full band for LSU & one other.

While we are at it, kill he script and allow the band to affect the game like last week's Auburn game. It's a shame we lose our home field advantage because of a script that is poorly designed and executed

I believe sometimes the visiting band isn't invited. The host school doesn't want to allow the visiting band time at halftime so they can do their own thing like homecoming, donor recognition etc.

Every so often, you have other football coaches that don't want the FTAB in their house, either. Bill Snyder at KSU is in that category. After the first trip by the FTAB to Manhattan after the formation of the Big 12 (a game which the Ags won), he said, "no more". So that was it.