DCI has experienced three years of solid growth in attendance, according to a study undertaken by DCI national show promotions coordinator Sue Kuehnhold. This year, DCI contracted events continued the trend with an 8.1 percent increase. Statistics have been calculated by comparing final attendance numbers presented by the DCI tour event partners (TEP) on their 2004 ticketing reports. All same market -- same TEP events were counted for the 2003 and 2004 seasons. An interesting side statistic is that if the individual show growth percentages are averaged, then we saw a 15.3 percent attendance growth. As far as DCI major events, there was growth there as well. Ticket unit sales comparisons of like events (2003 to 2004) showed an 8.8 percent increase. Overall, comparisons of the average of individual event growth showed an increase of 3.8 percent.
"What we see with the release of these latest numbers is a consistent trend that includes growth in both our time-honored locations as well as those events established in the past five years. We our grateful that our tour event partners are working hard to increase attendance and equally as grateful at the high degree of performance corps have in place all season now and at a depth in the ranks of all competitive divisions unmatched by any other year," said Dan Acheson, DCI executive director. The DCI 2005 tour schedule is now in the development process and will be released at the conclusion of the DCI board of directors meeting in late January. Continue to watch for details at DCI.org early next year by going to the event calendar. In the meantime, the DCI major event schedule has been released and tickets are currently on sale for many of the events.