Belleayre: The story that keeps on giving

"For years, the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in New York's Catskill mountains was a playground for police officers and other “VIP” skiers who were allowed to ski for free at the discretion of Belleayre management.

Two years ago, Belleayre came under fire for giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in free ski passes. At the time, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which manages the ski mountain, explained the ticket giveaways as a promotion to attract more skiers.

But the DEC is going to have a hard time explaining this one: Belleayre management routinely allowed and encouraged local, state and New York City Department of Environmental Protection police officers to ski for free."

http://www.watershedpost.com/2012/ski-vips-cops-skied-free-belleayre

Something tells me that it's going to be a little more risky driving over the speed limit to that mountain next winter.

Hmmmm... 16,000 free tickets.  If you calculate 2/3 at mid-week and 1/3 at weekend lift ticket rates, that's almost $560,000 that could have been applied to Bellayre's bottom line.

Yeah, but, it's not as though those tickets would actually have been bought and paid for. Ever watch baseball? Ever think it's funny when they declare that twice as many people went throughout the turnstiles than are actually in there? Sorta the same game.

Hard to believe that it could get any easier to get a ticket on 28.

It's not right for the government to undercut tax paying businesses by dumping tickets. If it truly is the right thing to do, then the state should buy tickets from all the ski areas in NY and give them away too.

IMO: If a demographic will only ski if the ticket is free then their business isn't valuable enough to justify the cost.

Benny Profane wrote

Yeah, but, it's not as though those tickets would actually have been bought and paid for. Ever watch baseball? Ever think it's funny when they declare that twice as many people went throughout the turnstiles than are actually in there? Sorta the same game.

Benny the difference between Bell and MLB attendence is that the reason that ball games attendence is higher than the those actually there is that tickets sold but end up no shows count into attendence so that brought money into the business.  Bell was padding their attendence numbers by giving thousands of tickets away.  It not the same its actually the opposite.  

I can't beleive what a total cluster f this whole Bell thing is as this all is coming out.  Its way worse than I even thought and I thought it was bad to start with.

One has to wonder now how many people ski free at Gore/Whiteface.

I don't really care how many people ski for free at gore/whiteface. I'm sure it's plenty. Maybe even cops, who knows... everyone knew Belle was not run very well. This is just gossip though, it doesn't impact the deal. The mountain is what it is, a decent amount a natural snow with an ok vert that's close to nyc. I'm sure ORDA wants this stuff to come out to extend their grace period a bit so they don't have to take the blame for problems four years from now (like some politicians have to accept from their predecessors, etc).

I've heard that there are a lot of state troopers and cops on WF's safety and courtesy patrols along with some in Ski Patrol / MSA.  If they were getting free tickets they would not likely be committing to work those jobs for free to get a seasons pass.  Soldiers don't get free tickets either but WF does offer a really nice discount to Ft Drums rec program which they deserve and more.

Honestly I don't have an issue giving troopers and soldiers free passes as they protect us all.  With Bell it was all the other tickets that they were giving away which undercut the other ski areas of the CATS.

ML is probably right it serves Orda's purposes to clean the slate of all the past Bell / DEC issues before taking over.  It will be interesting to see who they name as a GM to Bell especially now with WF's GM postion also being open.

I skied Bell a bunch...  I NEVER paid for a ticket..  There was always a way to get one.

ausable skier wrote

Honestly I don't have an issue giving troopers and soldiers free passes as they protect us all.  

Yeah, I never feel more threatened then when I'm skiing with all the other upper middle class white people up in the mountains.

Benny Profane wrote

Yeah, I never feel more threatened then when I'm skiing with all the other upper middle class white people up in the mountains.

Baw haw...  Good one..

Hunter has a Firefighters race and they leave the place a mess - cans everywhere - takes a week to clean it all up..
I ride with a bunch of NYPD(retired) at Hunter - they all pay for their tickets..  But I think they get free coffee... :)

free coffee....who doesn't get that???

Hey, how about free donuts? That'll keep things safe up there.

dmc_hunter wrote

Hunter has a Firefighters race and they leave the place a mess - cans everywhere - takes a week to clean it all up..

 I once belonged to the Staten Island Ski Club (don't ask), which consisted primarily of NYC fireman and drinking buddies. Hoo boy, I could tell you stories. Be happy they didn't do serious harm to anyone.

Every day I toss the Baltimore Sun into the garbage pale unread.    I dont pay for it.  I call them and ask that they stop delivering it, they say they will.     5 yrs...it still comes.    Why?  A story was written that there are 1000s like me.  Middle class white males who don't want the paper.    They give them away to boost the number of subscriptions, to increase or maintain the advertising rates.      


Will anyone lose their job?     Doubtful.    

Won't it be completely different next year with ORDA in control?  How many people ski free at Gore and WF?

Benny Profane wrote

ausable skier wrote

Honestly I don't have an issue giving troopers and soldiers free passes as they protect us all.  

Yeah, I never feel more threatened then when I'm skiing with all the other upper middle class white people up in the mountains.

I would feel safer at Hunter with lots of cops around.  I've been told lots of city folk customers there ski while packing heat.  At they pack the bar at 8 in the morning.   

To answer Marcski's question WF does not give lots of freebees away.  There are lots of locals that work for free in postions like the orange and yellow jacket safety / courtsey patrol positions so they can get a free pass but they are doing lots of work for those passes.  You can also score free tickets by tending gates or other tasks for NYSEF but again those are not free you have to work for it.

"Won't it be completely different next year with ORDA in control?"

Good question. I used to ski Belleayre, early season and late season, and ocassionally on the $25 - Wed. and Friday special. But I am going to sit back and see how ORDA runs Belleayre. There is always Hunter, Windham and Plattekill if ORDA falters.

IMO it's reasonably certain that Bell ticket giveaways will be reduced from levels of 2010-11.  They were actually reduced quite a bit this past year.  It's also my impression that Gore/WF freebies are more in line with "industry norms." Like 1% of total visits vs the 7-10% Bell was hitting back in 10/11.