Finals, Yea or Nay?

Written by Sherman Charles

Graphic by Cleidson da Silva

As of late, the conversation about the value of finals has been picking up speed. Just this year we had 5 competitions opt out of hosting a finals round in regions that typically have them. We contacted each organization to get their views on the value of finals or the lack there of. Below is a presentation and discussion of the conversations I had with Jennifer Dice from Center Grove High School, LaDonna Tyson from Pearl River Community College, and Shane Cockrell from West Jones High School. As always, we would love to hear from you all in the comments below.

Money

The first point that usually comes up in this conversation is the concern with the monetary value of hosting a finals round. It seems logical that if you keep your spectators in the building longer they will buy more food and merchandise. You can also charge your audience more to watch finals, which boosts ticket sales. It seems that the obvious choice would be to make your fund raiser as long and event filled as possible to maintain attendance throughout the day.

However, filler is just that – filler. What is the cost of packed-to-the-brim contests? Or maybe the better question is, does having a finals round really maximize profit?

According to our informants, there does not seem to be a correlation between filling your day with as many performances as possible and the bottom line. One of our informants has been running a one-and-done contest for several years now. Sometimes they make more and other times they make less, but it doesn’t make or break bank for them. In contrast, a first time one-and-done contest ended up making several thousand more than the previous year. In other words, it looks like finals isn’t the money maker it’s made out to be.

One of the benefits of not hosting a finals round is the ability to host more groups, thus increasing foot traffic. If you have a greater number of participants and audience members, there are more potential customers. Even if your auditorium is on the smaller side, tickets can be split up by division rather than by prelims and finals. However, this might not be possible in areas with few competing groups. Apart from ticket sales, food is one of the major money makers. According to our informants, lunch and dinner make the most; breakfast does not seem to roll in the dough. So, start the day later. That way, participants and the audience members are on site for two meals. Furthermore, awards ceremonies can be strategically scheduled to make people stay long enough to eat before they can go home with their trophies. Certainly, there are more strategies than what I have described above. Leave a comment below on other ways you think finals can be replaced with more profitable items.

Because contests are ultimately fund raisers or money makers, there needs to be a financial reason to cut finals by replacing the lost revenue. It seems that organizing an event with performances scheduled from 7AM to midnight does not necessarily help or hurt the fund raising potential of the contest. Instead, each event could host more choirs, start later, and end earlier, all without needing to host finals. Imagine what it would be like attending one of these events, and getting home at a reasonable time!

Logistics

If we are going to be honest, finals is a logistical nightmare. Once awards are over, there is a mad rush to get the finalists set back up and ready to perform again (IN THE RIGHT ORDER), get non-finalists out of the building, sell as much food and merchandise as possible before the night is over, and give your judges and staff a dinner break. Meanwhile, the participating finalists are trying to get through 80+ minutes of judges’ recorded comments before warm up and scrambling to get sets, instruments, props, and performers organized. All of this is happening simultaneously, and lets face it… this is the most stressful time of the day for everyone.

Imagine a contest that doesn’t have this at all (*stares off into space with pleasant thoughts*).

This is one of the main benefits of having a one-and-done contest. The logistical flow is unidirectional – everything, from shifting sets and equipment around to award ceremonies, moves in one direction the entire day. One of our informants told us that they ran AHEAD (*gasp*) of schedule for the first time ever because of this flow. If there is one thing that all contests try to avoid, it’s running late. No one wants to be at the contest any later than they need to.

Eliminating finals is a win-win for the contest hosts, participants, and audience.

Awards

Some groups blow others out of the water, weekend after weekend, and take home trailers full of trophies. While those amazing top performing groups certainly deserve the recognition they earn, the smaller groups get the short end of the deal. So many of them have incredible seasons, but they almost never make finals or get recognized by the for their achievements. Bringing home trophies and awards for the first time is often the ‘turning point’ that both the students and directors need to realize they CAN win. This makes a world of difference in the development of a program. So, what can be done apart from giving everyone a trophy (*side eye toward participation plaques*)?

There are three approaches to showchoir competitions currently implemented across the US that try to solve this issue.

First, a few competition only allow “small groups” to compete. This format offers a chance for these groups qualify for a finals round, celebrate their accomplishments, and bring something home. But, if small groups only go to these competitions, they never see what a winning performance looks like.

An alternative approach is the way California competitions are set up. Like most sports organizations, similar choirs are separated into smaller divisions that only compete against each other. Importantly, though, there is only one round per competition (no finals). Each division gets to celebrate their own performances and achievements from week to week.

The third option is awarding objective (determined by points awarded) medals/ratings in addition to places. For example, at the beginning of the season, a choir may receive a Bronze medal. By their third competition, they have upped their performance to earn a Silver. At their last competition, they work really hard and earn a Gold. Regardless of what place they earn, they know that they have improved substantially. Some even value the medal awards over place awards. This provides not only a gage for how each group performs against the other groups, but also against themselves. It’s a different dynamic, and it’s one that awards progress.

In my personal opinion, I think a combination of the last two approaches would be ideal. This would spread the wealth among everyone and celebrate the educational goal of learning how to listen to criticism, make changes, and achieve personal bests.

Judges

From a judge’s perspective, adjudicating a competition with a preliminary and finals round, all in the same day, is an extremely demanding and taxing task. Judges are essentially forced through a 14-16 hour cognitive marathon. If you think about it, they have to compare ~20 performances that span from early morning to early evening, and then remember the finalists’ day performances until late at night. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other competitive events that make their judges do this.

If you choose to have one of the alternative approaches described above, there is no need to maintain the same panel of judges for the entire competition. They can be mixed and matched between divisions, especially if the contest is a multi-day event. And from talking with the judges from these contests, I know they love this.

In my experience, when traditionally midwest judges go out to Cali or the East Coast for the first time, they are blown away with how much the contest format changes their job. They typically exclaim that they are so much more relaxed and focused on giving good feedback and evaluations instead of concerning themselves with remembering the finalists’ shows. They feel as if a load of pressure has been taken off of their shoulders. Additionally, in Cali where there can be upwards of 60 participating groups, they adore not having to judge each and every group. Instead, they can focus on the few groups in the division(s) they have been assigned.

If I were a judge, I would be more inclined to work a competition that doesn’t have a finals than for one that does.

Fatigue

Not many people have talked about this, but I think it is a valid point to discuss. Competition fatigue becomes a major player for groups that consistently participate in preliminary and finals rounds. By the end of the season, performers are dropping like flies because they are not getting the weekend rest that they should. High School and Middle School students are already stretched thin with their school work and weekday extracurriculars, and adding long 24 hour weekend days on top is overboard.

Singers and musicians are at a unique disadvantage when it comes to getting sick. For some activities, we can push through a cold and continue working toward our goals. But for performers, they are completely out of commission while sick, either because they simply cannot produce sound. This means performers cannot practice nor perform until they have recovered. And if a group is missing a significant portion of their members, both the group development and performance suffer.

We can shorten these long days by only asking them to perform once per weekend. They still get feedback from the judges and they still qualify for awards. The only thing they have to lose is arriving home in the early AM after a long, uncomfortable bus ride back from the contest.

Conclusion

In my opinion, finals is not worth it. It doesn’t make more money, it is extremely stressful for everyone, it limits recognition of hard work by the smaller groups, it diminishes the potential value of the judges’ feedback, and it exhausts the performers. There are several alternatives which have already been implemented in contests all over the world. The good news is, no matter what your contest looks like, Carmen can do it all! If you are interested in our services, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!

I acknowledge that my view is more business and logistics oriented and I am most likely missing some perspective on the value of finals. Please share your thoughts of what you think makes finals valuable by leaving your comments below. This is a community conversation. Make your voice heard.