Parade crowds along Broad Street were OK, using post-millennium standards. I guess we will never again see the hundreds of thousands the parade attracted in the last century.

The spectator base has devolved into mostly hard-core Mummers fans, who will suffer weather hardships, ear-shattering air horns, blocked views of string bands and near-terminal gaps in the parade.

How do we improve a cherished, tarnished Philadelphia institution?

The delayed start provided happiness for at least the Comics. They stepped off from Washington Avenue around noon and, for a change, they had an audience. The bitter truth is that when the first-departing clubs step off at 9 a.m., Mummers on Broad Street often outnumber fans on sidewalks.

"The delay was good for Comics," said Al Lancellotti, president of the Jesters.

A white-faced Jesters' strutter, City Councilman Frank DiCicco, agreed that "starting later, you get more of a crowd," but said he's not for shortening the parade.

I am.

Because I love the parade, and I want it to thrive, it has to change. It has changed, slowly and begrudgingly, over the years, but it has to change more.

Forcing fans to wait 20 or 30 minutes between performances abuses them. The parade must be tighter, faster, with more entertainment and fewer gaps. Parades are supposed to move. This one staggers.

A trim eight-hour parade is better than a slovenly 10-hour parade.

Where shall the surgeon cut?

The Fancy Brigades, which performed at noon and 5 p.m. in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, were excused from Broad Street, the parade's performing-arts coordinator, Tom Dignam, told me, so they could make their 5 p.m. show.

With the Brigades absent, Dignam hoped for an 8 p.m. parade finale at City Hall.

The parade ended at 9:45 p.m. Had the Brigades not been cut, the parade might still be going on.

The Brigades - with their massive props, sets and scenery - have outgrown Broad Street. Their performances on the street aren't a fraction of what they are in the Convention Center.

"They feel - and they should - they are part of the parade; marching means something to them," Dignam told me. That's true.

It's also true the Brigades voluntarily took their Really Big Show to the Convention Center starting in 1997. It's also true they don't march into Center City so - by choice - they do only half the parade now.

For the good of the parade, I'd boot them and send the beautiful, but delicate, Fancies with them. Like the Brigades, they could do so much more in the Convention Center.

That would shave hours off the parade, but wouldn't solve the mysterious gap problem, and the associated problem of lack of entertainment.

Let's stop my parade to applaud the first-time-on-the-street Pennsport String Band (led up Broad Street by U.S. Rep Bob Brady and Mayor-elect Michael Nutter, who got huzzahs and high-fives). Pennsport did what too many bands don't

do: It played music while it marched, providing E-N-T-E-R-T-A-I-N-M-E-N-T for fans along the rope line.

"We play every block where there are people," said drill master Bob Corcoran. If more bands did that, there might be more fans. It's like those bands are saving themselves for the six performance areas before the City Hall judges.

The performance areas? Double them to 12.

If 12 is too many times to play before getting judged, half the bands can play performance points 1-3-5-7-9-11 and the other half can do the even numbers.

Now, too many fans crowd too few performance points with the result that few people can see enough. That's no way to treat your fans and explains why most melt away when the sun goes down.

The gaps seem to baffle parade officials, who keep in touch by walkie-talkie. Maybe they need cattle prods instead.

When I asked why the string bands left Oregon an hour late, string-band director Marty Good told me that he heard they were delayed by the Fancies, which were delayed by the legendary, 700-strong Froggy Carr wench brigade (which is "escorted" up Broad Street by city cops).

"They blame us every year," said Froggy Carr Captain Michael "Tooth" Renzi. "Why not throw a dart?"

As to the gaps, Nutter told me, "We've got to work on that."

He may find that a bigger challenge than the budget. *

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.