A Welcome Letter from Ted Blazer of ORDA to Belleayre

brn2skifst wrote

One of the nice things about Belle is (was?) the availability of discounted tickets from a local shop and the $25 days.

Those would be the passes that the Bell former GM gave away to his buddies that owned ski shops that got him fired.  I would not be expecting to see them again.

skunkape wrote

There is an unmeasurable statistic that goes with this. Passholders quite often bring more people to the mountain....

There are many unmeasurables that passholders give you.  Passholders are often committed to the area. Maybe it's real estate or family, friends.

Passholders are often BRAND CHAMPIONS for their hill. They love what they have and tell anyone who will listen.  Some crazy dudes start websites to post content about the mountains where they have passes.  There is a hell of a lot of marketing going on in forums like this one.

brn2skifst wrote

One of the nice things about Belle is (was?) the availability of discounted tickets...

I realize the state run areas need to stay in the black, but taking into acccount how economically depressed  the Belleayre locale is,  you need to get as many people to the area as possible to make the greatest economic impact on the Highmount/Margaretville/Pine Hill area.

Many parts of the Catskills need more commerce. All four ski areas thriving is the best solution IMO.

Part of the problem with Bell flooding the market with tickets is that they were UNDERCUTTING other private businesses that - by paying taxes - were funding Belleayre's losses.

(Forgive me X!)  Think of Plattekill, running a break even business, paying income tax, while Bell rings up state-funded losses to lure your customers away.

brn2skifst wrote

Belleayre showed its true worth after TS Irene when it was the focal point for a good part of the aid the local communities received.

Plattekill was relatively undamaged from IRENE opened a shelter after the storm.  Plattekill owners made their facilities available and fed many victims, funded out of their own pocket, without gov't backup.  (See there I go advocating for my mtn).

The point is that ticket dumping by the government isn't acceptable.  That's my opinion.

Rant over.

brn2skifst - dig the avatar.

I do agree that the ticket dumping at unsaidski shop and unsaid motels was indeed undercutting the surrounding areas but it alsogot some folks more interestedin the geographic in general. I drag people to Platty a few times a year too if the snow is good. The terrain there is reminiscent of MRG or Magic.  BTW, any Belle skiers notice where my avatar was taken? There is some great tree-skiing there and to the east of it.

Never been there when it was good, but I can easily picture it from summer wanderings.

Harvey44 wrote

Plattekill was relatively undamaged from IRENE opened a shelter after the storm.  Plattekill owners made their facilities available and fed many victims, funded out of their own pocket, without gov't backup.  (See there I go advocating for my mtn)

We did a lot at Hunter as well...  We collected a ton of clothes/goods and basically setup a store at the Learning Center at Hunter where people coule go and find clothes to replace the ones lost..  

DMC inda House!  

The flip side of you occasionally bringing people is that most season tickey holders I have known over the years do not spend money for food and beverage on the mountain (including me when I have owned a season pass). Feeding a family on the mountain every weekend  can add up quickly.

I'd gladly spend a little money on food if it wasn't complete crap !

I wonder if they can find, yet another, brand of pass scanner that will be incompatible with both Gore and Whiteface. That'ds a prerequisite to interchangeable passes!

Agreed, the food at Belleayre ranks somewhere in between yellow snow and making your own tomato soup with only packets of Heinz and hot water.

ADKskier - are you for serious that they have different scanners? At Belleayre they don't scan or even charge for tickets!

ba dum ching!

Just joking, but I actually don't remember anyone checking. which I prefer to aggressively checking while the line builds and empty chairs just go around and around aka every stupid resort that uses those broken hand scanners.