With College Football dominating weekend TV and big rivalries around the corner, the BCS poll will dictate which teams get a chance to play in the coveted championship game on January 8th, 2009. For those of you who don’t follow College Football, the BCS Poll is a formula based on several ranking polls and six unique categories like “strength of schedule” and “margin of victory”.
What does this have to do with picking bands for our events?
Let me introdce Rodney Stammel to you all. He is an unsung hero that works closely with Sixthman to arrange all the production equipment, cranes, stages, etc. for each cruise. He and I also act as a tag team committee in selecting the bands and making the onboard schedule. For years, we have searched for a formula to help us identify the artists that we think will have the biggest overall impact on the event.
This past summer, Rodney sent me an excel document called “TRBCS” with his version of the BCS poll applied to bands instead of college football teams. He created 6 categories and assigned each artist a 1-5 (1 for lowest and 5 for highest).
Categories
1) Strength of Schedule – how active is the band touring and how many tickets they are selling
2)Adaptability – can they play on any stage at any time and “rock the house”
3) Personality – how are they to work with and do they “play well with others onboard”
4) Band Stability – how likely are they to be a band in 3 years
5) Achievement – what kind of commercial success have they had (albums sold, radio hits)
6) Passion Factor – of the people who are fans, how passionate are they for the band
If you are so inclined, feel free to play along at home by downloading this excel sheet with some bands that have performed on The Rock Boat in the past. Feel free to add your own bands and see how they rank. TRBCS File
Thanks Rodney. Your passion for sports and music has birthed an objective tool for us to make good decisions.
Andy