Evren":36c0svkt said:
Snowbird at 134%, Ben Lomond Peak Snotel (8K feet) at 57% and Ben Lomond Trail Snotel (6K feet) at 26% of to-date average. Snowbasin being at the 6500 to 9K level and near Ben Lomond, should correspond roughly with the 26% to 57% readings.
Not at all. Neither of those sites are within 10 miles of Snowbasin and not on a mountain even aligned the same way, and are therefore completely irrelevant. That's like saying that Ensign Peak above Salt Lake City has snowfall analogous to LCC.
You'll have to do better than that.
In addition, looking only at averages is over-simplifying the issue. You also need to look at variability, which I suspect is huge early season at Snowbasin from year to year.
Evren":36c0svkt said:
Yes, no one is offering this currently.
There is one, and you said it yourself. If you want that flexibility pony up $2500 for a Ski Utah Silver Pass. And while on paper the number sold is limited, in reality Ski Utah struggles every year to sell out its quota. If you don't want to spend that kind of dough you have to settle for the relative value proposition that you paid for. You've instead chosen a value product, yet you expect to receive the benefit of a premium product. You don't see the failed logic in that?
Evren":36c0svkt said:
But only a few years ago there was no EPIC pass, and season passes at PCMR, Snowbasin, and Canyons cost substantially more. There does seem to be a workable model around lower prices & higher volume of season passes sold.
For those who need to provide more incentive for purchasers, they can do that by lowering prices, however for those that don't have to...
Evren":36c0svkt said:
Utah is somewhat of a unique market where a multi-area pass would make sense logistically, and many of the resorts could easily handle more volume. I don't see how the resorts lose under such a setup.
You need to remember that in our market you
can't make it up in volume. This isn't Colorado where there's a local population base of nearly 3 million. We have a population that's barely a third of that and with more local resorts from which to choose. It's a finite market where nearly all serious Wasatch Front skiers already buy a pass, so all you're doing is cannibalizing. Also, unlike Colorado (read: Vail Resorts) a full half of our annual skier visits come from locals so a substantial portion of annual revenue comes from season pass sales.
Utah resorts further don't have Vail Resorts' vertical integration where locking a visitor into their properties all winter via a low-ball season pass price generates additional revenue for the company through lodging, evening nightclubs and village dining, retail, rental and even the airport shuttle to the resort. Billy Bob from Dallas who takes two ski trips a year (or Sven from Minneapolis who normally skis during the week at Afton Alps anyway) will always vacation at a Vail Resort because he paid $569 for an Epic Pass and has a marginal ski day cost of $0, yet Vail Resorts will make an extra $2500 or more from him because they own everything in town. If Billy Bob is loaded he might even spring for a multi-million dollar residence at the Vail Resorts-owned Ritz-Carlton.
Utah resorts don't have that ability. Only Snowbird and Sundance have a corner on the lodging and dining market at their resorts and the bed bases there are tiny and therefore relatively insignificant. Solitude's village averages around 60% occupancy and the couple of village eateries are independent. Brighton owns no beds. The Park City resorts live off the countless independent hoteliers and restaurateurs in town. Hell, Alta doesn't own a single pillow or even a single one of their on-mountain restaurants - all are independently operated. In the European model, they own the lifts and little else.
Snowbasin admittedly doesn't have a bed base, either, but a) Holding doesn't really give a rat's ass whether his mountain makes money or not, and b) this year's pass price reduction there was all about trying to take local business away from other Wasatch resorts. Trying to fit Snowbasin into our local business model is like trying to force a square peg into a round hole, and it will remain that way until Holding passes on to the other side and his kids sell the place off to someone who actually cares about profits.
A season pass price war or a multi-resort pass product here might have a couple of winners - namely those resorts that have a tough time selling passes as it is - but would assuredly have many losers.
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