Announcing our 2024 Championships Venue!
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the location of our 2024 State Championships, which we know you have all been eagerly awaiting. After a very long process of research, discussions, and site visits, we have selected Western Michigan University as our location for this season.
It's important for us, as the Board of Directors, to share with you our process in arriving at this decision. We're aware that it is a significant geographic change from Saginaw Valley State University, where we have held our Championships for decades, which presents new logistics for many units. We are not unmindful of those potential challenges and want to help everyone understand the reasons why we believe this venue is the best one for our circuit this year.
As many of you know, SVSU was not available to us this year due to a scheduling conflict with other organizations who utilize the Ryder Center for their events. We were made aware of this conflict early on, thankfully, which gave us the time we needed to investigate all of our options. At the Spring membership meeting this last May, we polled all of you as to whether you would prefer to change the proposed date of Championships (limited by Easter on March 31 and WGI World Championships on April 11-13) or seek an alternate venue, and the membership was very clear that they would prefer a different venue on the scheduled date. So, we went to to work identifying our options.
All major universities statewide were investigated as possible options, as well as large high schools and private venues. You'll be unsurprised to know that our needs, as a large organization with an equally large-scale event to run, are very specific, and not all venues offer the necessary facilities for us to hold the kind of event our performers expect and deserve. There were also considerations of availability on the weekend we needed, and of course cost. One by one, venues were eliminated from our consideration for a variety of reasons. We're happy to speak on any specific venue we investigated if you are curious--please don't hesitate to ask. This process of investigation lasted throughout the summer and into the fall.
On November 15, we toured WMU's facilities and found them to be a good fit for our needs--the best of all venues we considered. It will provide a wonderful, collegiate atmosphere for our performers, and the surrounding city hosts many attractions and plenty of lodging for anyone wishing to stay over. We feel confident that your teams will have an amazing experience and make memories that will last a lifetime!
If you have any questions or concerns about our new 2024 Championships venue, or the process by which we selected it, please don't hesitate to reach out. As previously stated, our goal is transparency in all decisions, large and small, and obviously this is a big one! We hope to answer all of your questions and address all of your concerns as best we can. We also ask for your patience and support as we all navigate something new--together!
With excitement for a new season of great color guard,
The MCGC Board of Directors
