All-Star Costs competing at Disney

[kayemm]

Including banning videos posted by the public - including parents (aka free advertising) and not having free live streams and discontinuing televised broadcasts of Worlds, NCA and UCA. My kids got hooked not because of the small, very uncompetitive gym they were at, but because they saw WCSS live at competitions and watched teams like TGLC on television. If they didn't have exposure to those high caliber teams and only saw what was at local competitions, they probably would have lost interest quickly.
My family owns and shows horses - all of the live streams of horse shows are free. They are sponsored by the training farms - each farm chips in a small amount because they get to advertise. It would be a no-brainer to do the same for cheer - if it costs each gym $100 and they get to publish a 30 second video to advertise their gym it is well worth it and would cover the costs, but Varsity has the lock on everything and wants to profit from it so it would never happen.

All of this! I am in the UK and first started following US teams back in 2008 when I bought access to the Worlds videos - no live stream, just full routines with music uploaded to the platform a few hours after the performance - for around $20 and you got access for the whole year. Great deal. Now, most of the kids I coach only know the big popular teams like TGLC, Senior Elite, SMOED etc and mainly from instagram and tiktok videos of stunts. Most of them have never watched a full routine. How is the sport supposed to grow internationally if it's not accessible to its audience. 13 year old kids can't buy a Flocheer subscription!

 

[caffeineandglitter]

I

@Knowcheering the difference is when people start targeting a corp/business legally, and/or when there's a major law change. Enter the legal team who will point out everything that makes them vulnerable. Varsity changed their video policy right after the trademark and copyright laws changed. Depending on whomever holds their debt, they can dictate whatever rules they want to protect their assets, as well.

What or when were the copyright law changes?

 

[catlady]

What or when were the copyright law changes?

The Music Modernization Act was signed into law on Oct. 11, 2018.
If you would like to read more <click here>

On Dec. 3 2018, shortly after that law was signed, someone started the thread:
<Get our Sport Back: FloCheer and Varsity Video Policy>
<The Petition (to get the sport back)>

A quote from that petition: Varsity’s new Video Media Policy is nothing but bs. We call bs on their greedy attempts to scam us. <<<Funny, but that's what music artists told Congress before the law was changed.

Also, around the same time, media was reiterating the copyright and trademark laws concerning photography and infringing on protected art and logos.
<click here>

 

[Livvywc28]

$50 a day is insane, didn’t it used to be around half of that? And Worlds is a more difficult competition to spectate nowadays since it’s in more arenas (good teams go on at the same time in different places) and spread out across more days. I wonder if this has chased away spectators who used to like going to Worlds just to watch. I’m sure it has.

I know it’s because of $$$, but being forced to buy Disney World tickets every year for the sake of a cheerleading competition has always felt strange. It’s nice that another competition has emerged that shows it doesn’t have to be that way.

Worlds has always been 45 to get in. Last year they cut it in half because not as many people were going.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Worlds has always been 45 to get in. Last year they cut it in half because not as many people were going.

It was $25/day in 2012. It hasn't always been that high.

 

[CLynn]

It was $25/day in 2012. It hasn't always been that high.

And generally speaking many large competitions provide some sort of discount for multiple days, e.g. I'd mind a little less paying $50 for one day, if there is an option of $75/$100 for two or three.

 

[Momager]

Last trip to Disney was Worlds 2016. I hated how much it cost then, and how hard it was to see your kid's team and impossible it was to see the whole division. I know it has gotten worse as Varsity has forced out so many other EPs and vendors, and I can't see how they are making so much money that they would not want their sport to be on national television.

I loved everything about NCA college nationals in Daytona, even though that's Varsity too. Whenever they said it was eventually moving to Disney I swore I would not go there. One day I'll return to Disney again, on my own terms. I hope all star is changed before I have grandkids in cheer, hahaha

 

[kayemm]

It was $25/day in 2012. It hasn't always been that high.

I went in 2014 and don't think it was far off this. I think for finals they had sessions which were an additional cost per session, but I'm sure I paid around $25 to just get in to ESPN on finals day without a separate session pass with the promise of the finals being streamed in to one of the smaller tents for those of us without session passes. In true Worlds style though the video feed wasn't working

 

[cheermomforever]

Worlds has always been 45 to get in. Last year they cut it in half because not as many people were going.

And u could only watch your team and leave…..

 

[Knowcheering]

I went in 2014 and don't think it was far off this. I think for finals they had sessions which were an additional cost per session, but I'm sure I paid around $25 to just get in to ESPN on finals day without a separate session pass with the promise of the finals being streamed in to one of the smaller tents for those of us without session passes. In true Worlds style though the video feed wasn't working

So you had to pay $25 without even getting to watch anything? Nuts. I remember paying $25 a day last time I went, but I never feared I would have to settle for a broken stream in a tent.

 

[kayemm]

So you had to pay $25 without even getting to watch anything? Nuts. I remember paying $25 a day last time I went, but I never feared I would have to settle for a broken stream in a tent.

Yes the sessions were sold out! They went on sale the Sunday night for the Monday but I couldn't queue at the box office because I needed to get my bus back to housing (I was on a Disney international programme). I think they managed to get the feed working on the big outside screen but we saw loads of people were leaving after large coed finals so we thought we'd go to the box office and ask on the off change we could get in, but we passed an open gate in to the baseball stadium so we just walked through it and kept walking until we found empty seats was so worried we'd get caught but it was all ok. When you know it may be the only Worlds you get to go to it's worth taking the risk.

 

[Livvywc28]

And u could only watch your team and leave…..

Lol i stayed all day last year. No one was checking tickets like that. I watched multiple teams too.