I'm not belittling band. I'm defending a broad attack against football as a whole and how it sucks up all the money - as charged by the OP, whom brought the subject up in the first place. If she hates the football games that her DD's marching band supports and plays at, then it's too bad that they don't live in your school district....she wouldn't have to worry about having to go to the football games that so clearly get in the way of her enjoyment of her daughter's marching band halftime performances.
I reread my OP and I swear I don't see an attack of any kind, broad , narrow or oblong. It's almost like I'd said that I love green but can't stand all that red with it at Christmastime only to be told that I can enjoy green other times of the year so don't celebrate Christmas. Wow. It's oddly disproportionate and defensive and still leaves me scratching my head. But this
is the Dis so it's all good.
I have a coworker whose son is a star with one of our rivals. She can't stand football either so she works the concession stand so she can still be supportive but doesn't have to watch it. (But I think her issue is that she's worried about seeing her boy get hurt). No one would ever know she doesn't like football. No one would ever know
I don't like football. I clap and cheer appropriately and chat with the other parents and snuggle with my blanket. I adore our football
players. The ones I know personally are fine, happy friendly kids. Our boosters are foul- but I think that's just ours. I know football boosters from other programs who are awesome. Our band is a show band. We don't compete like the PPs band. That's because we are from a relatively poor community and can only fund raise as much as the community will allow - and when I say we don't get any money from the school, I am serious. To actually compete is very expensive and is either done by more well-off communities or communities where the school supports the arts. I would love to live in PP's district! We scrounge and fund-raise every penny. We do two or three invitationals a year and the festival. We do a parade at a non-disney theme park. We don't do away games because that's one more thing we would have to pay for. The halftimes are practice and get freshmen used to marching in front of a rowdy crowd.
We have a jazz band - it's a class. Anything they do outside of class is fundraised by the boosters. We also have a symphonic band - it's a class. Any solo & ensemble or all-state or clinics are paid for by parents and boosters together. The week-long camp three hours away is paid for by a combination of boosters and parents. When I say we get no money I am not exaggerating. We pay for all uniforms for all the bands as well as all the instruments. All instructors besides the directors (who are teachers) are paid by boosters.
If I told you how much our district of two high schools spent on football in 2014 while laying off teachers, I would be called a liar. I even went to the trouble of pulling up a link for proof in case I got called a liar. But I don't really want y'all knowing where I live so I'll just say it's high seven figures and leave it at that. I think that's a lot, and I resent it a little, but I know my priorities are screwed.