ORDA Appoints Pratt as permanent CEO

GP is exactly what I was thinking about that you cant build a hotel at a non destination ski area and expect people to want to stay there.

Coach Z wrote

GP is exactly what I was thinking about that you cant build a hotel at a non destination ski area and expect people to want to stay there.

Belleayre is a lot more of a ski area than GP right now and if (big if) Highmount gets connected, it is a pretty decent sized area. GP is about 4 hours from NYC. If you want to drive 4 hours out of NYC, you are not going to GP. Belle is about 2 hours from NYC, has the added attraction of Plattekill 20 minutes up the road, and Hunter about 35 minutes away.

If the Crossroads project does get built, it would certainly be a boost to the local economy and that is good justification for the upgrades at Belleayre. ORDA will just have open the vault for marketing.



http://www.belleayreresort.com/index.htm

Maybe it will work closer to NYC but it sure AF didn't work in Virgil NY

GP is a better ski hill than Belleryre is

Try to remember that NYC / NJ is not the only market out there.  GP is less than 4 hours from Philly and a pretty easy drive and much better skiing than in the Poconos.

We get a lot of skiers from Philly

campgottagopee wrote

Maybe it will work closer to NYC but it sure AF didn't work in Virgil NY

Too many slednecks and rednecks out that way for the metro crowd.  GP should focus on the monster truck crowd!  

hahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahhaaa

Hahaha. Camo and Budweiser Git-R-Done!

ScottyJack wrote

campgottagopee wrote

Maybe it will work closer to NYC but it sure AF didn't work in Virgil NY

Too many slednecks and rednecks out that way for the metro crowd.  GP should focus on the monster truck crowd!  

hahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahhaaa

One of the reasons GP went broke was that they put all of the money into the homes, hotel and water park and nothing into the ski area for 30 years. Their pockets weren't deep enough to improve the ski area while building the non skiing stuff. It's my impression that the hotel gets a lot of families who only go to the hotel for the water park and don't ski or tube. If they were able to do both the situation likely would have turned out differently.

Oh, I agree with you trackbiker. If the ski area were on par with the hotel and condo's it would be another story. They truly are beautiful.

campgottagopee wrote

We get a lot of skiers from Philly

You mean the ones that get lost on their way to Vermont, they turned left when they should have turned right...

No clue

I haven't driven from Philly to anywhere ever before

I bet a lot of the vacationing skiers from Philly don't care that much about total vertical, steep glades, moguls, etc. They just want to go somewhere for a vacation and strap some snow sliding things to their feet and have fun. I think that says something about the potential market for a place like Bell but they need to create the total package and market the shit out of it.

Actually, a lot of skiers from Philly area go to GP and stay in the hotel or timeshares. It's an easy drive straight up the PA Tpk. Then 81.

trackbiker wrote

 It's an easy drive straight up the PA Tpk. Then 81.

That explains it. Makes sense tb. Couple that with....

raisingarizona wrote

I bet a lot of the vacationing skiers from Philly don't care that much about total vertical, steep glades, moguls, etc. They just want to go somewhere for a vacation and strap some snow sliding things to their feet and have fun. I think that says something about the potential market for a place like Bell but they need to create the total package and market the shit out of it.

..... and maybe Belle could be a hit. Maybe even become a good revenue source for ORDA. I can see the attraction of an easy drive, closer to home, good hotels and a " decent " hill for thousands of people downstate. Plus they could ski three different hills on one trip if they desire.

Coach Z wrote

GP is a better ski hill than Belleryre is

I disagree that GP is better than Belle and it is not better than Belleayre + Highmount full build out. Belle also has some of the best learning terrain in the East.

Coach Z wrote

Try to remember that NYC / NJ is not the only market out there.  GP is less than 4 hours from Philly and a pretty easy drive and much better skiing than in the Poconos.

Try and remember that the NYC metro area is 20,000,000 people. That is about 7 million more than the next largest metro area in the US. Using an address near Willow Grove, PA, Belle is roughly a 20 minute longer drive vs the drive to GP. ORDA needs to market in NYC Metro, but Philly metro (6 million, 7th largest) should also be a marketing target.

x10003q wrote

Try and remember that the NYC metro area is 20,000,000 people. That is about 7 million more than the next largest metro area in the US. Using an address near Willow Grove, PA, Belle is roughly a 20 minute longer drive vs the drive to GP. ORDA needs to market in NYC Metro, but Philly metro (6 million, 7th largest) should also be a marketing target.

Wilmington, DE has a pretty active ski club.  Pretty sure they do bus trips driving north every so often.  Definitely quite a few people who drive north from Baltimore to ski.  From there, it's possible to drive north without taking I-95 or the NJ Turnpike.

Some of those people consider Elk a reasonable place to drive to.  Belleayre definitely has more to offer than Elk.  Especially for those who want to go exploring off the groomers.  No off-piste skiing allowed at Elk.

Orda is aggressively marketing WF in Philly.  There are electronic billboards all over the place for WF and we saw a lot of bus groups and ski clubs from down there this year.  Bellerye is not worth marketing to that market.  It's a 800 Vert ski area and you can ski that in the Poconos much closer to Philly than the Cats which require driving thru Jersey traffic to get to.

trackbiker wrote

Actually, a lot of skiers from Philly area go to GP and stay in the hotel or timeshares. It's an easy drive straight up the PA Tpk. Then 81.

I know this to be true. I meet a lot of really cool people from Philly that love coming up to the Valley.

For our size we have damn good tree skiing. Most are marked which makes it nice for the visitor. It's just too bad we're closed now. Being the first place to close on the east coast is fucking embarrassing.

U gonna run that sled uphill