Vail Resorts to Buy Stowe

STOWE MOUNTAIN RESORT
TO JOIN THE VAIL RESORTS FAMILY
FEBRUARY 21, 2017
       





I’m incredibly excited to announce that we have entered into an agreement to acquire Stowe Mountain Resort from the Mt. Mansfield Company, Inc. (MMC), a wholly owned subsidiary of American International Group, Inc. (AIG). For details about this announcement, I encourage you to read the press release we distributed this morning.

Expanding our footprint into New England is an important opportunity to provide our guest base with access to a premier East Coast ski resort. Stowe is an outstanding addition to the Vail Resorts network offering – an iconic resort with a rich history, loyal guests and an outstanding on-mountain and base area experience.

As with past acquisitions, we are committed to building upon the level of excellence already offered at Stowe. With the investments in both mountain infrastructure and base area facilities made by AIG over the years, Stowe has truly become the premier resort for East Coast skiers and snowboarders. We look forward to working with AIG (who will retain real estate development, lodging and club operations) to enhance the guest experience and to ensure the resort’s and the local community’s long-term success.

As we will not close on this acquisition until later this spring, it will be business as usual for the remainder of the ski season with no changes to any of Stowe’s lift ticket or season pass products at this time. We look forward to integrating the resort into our Epic Season Pass offering and other season pass products for the 2017-2018 winter season (subject to the acquisition closing) and plan to provide those details in March when our pass products for next season are announced.

This is a significant milestone for our Company to provide an even more compelling offering to our East Coast guests. We will continue to communicate updates throughout the acquisition process and as we finalize integration plans. I can assure you that we will be phasing the Stowe integration to ensure that it does not interfere with the ongoing integration efforts at Whistler Blackcomb. I look forward to closing the transaction and working together to create the Experience of a Lifetime for our employees and guests at Stowe Mountain Resort in the years to come.

ha. Just skied there for the first time a few weeks ago' since I have a Mountain Collective pass, and wanted to use the two free days. Awesome mountain, and the healthiest "town" I have experienced at the base of a Vermont ski hill. Makes the Killington area look like a trailer park. Too bad it's another hour away from the NYC metro. Talked to a lot of people n the lifts and elsewhere about this sale as an icebreaker, and, some were happy, some not. Although I was there on a Monday and Tuesday, I was told that the weekends were really really crowded, and, as a former Epic pass holder in Colorado, I told them, haha, you ain't seen nothin' yet. It's going to be Youuuge!
Benny will consider this over the summer (buying the Epic pass), but, there are downsides. Vail resorts out west suck, because of crowds, then again, to have an 8-900 dollar pass that gives me a mountain the caliber of Stowe in the east, and just Abasin in the west is still an awesome deal. Screw Vail and Breck, I never skied those mountains when I lived out there. And, trust me, Whistler sounds cool, but, it's a long way away to travel for rain.
This is going to be a real game changer for the big Vermont mountains like Stratton, Killington, and Jay. The first few years are going to be great, due to less crowds, siphoned off by the evil dark side Vail Corp., but, considering that the northeast ski industry isn't exactly rolling around in cash, especially after last year, you could see some failures soon, or at least more consolidation.

This is gonna ruin Bomber's.

mm

I wonder if this will impact the access to the very popular backcountry terrain at Mansfield? I don't know much about it but I think you access a lot of it from the resort side?

Interestingly, Vail did not acquire some of the the real estate/lodging, including undeveloped land.

Fail!

Benny Profane wrote

ha. Just skied there for the first time a few weeks ago' since I have a Mountain Collective pass, and wanted to use the two free days. Awesome mountain, and the healthiest "town" I have experienced at the base of a Vermont ski hill. Makes the Killington area look like a trailer park. Too bad it's another hour away from the NYC metro. Talked to a lot of people n the lifts and elsewhere about this sale as an icebreaker, and, some were happy, some not. Although I was there on a Monday and Tuesday, I was told that the weekends were really really crowded, and, as a former Epic pass holder in Colorado, I told them, haha, you ain't seen nothin' yet. It's going to be Youuuge!
Benny will consider this over the summer (buying the Epic pass), but, there are downsides. Vail resorts out west suck, because of crowds, then again, to have an 8-900 dollar pass that gives me a mountain the caliber of Stowe in the east, and just Abasin in the west is still an awesome deal. Screw Vail and Breck, I never skied those mountains when I lived out there. And, trust me, Whistler sounds cool, but, it's a long way away to travel for rain.
This is going to be a real game changer for the big Vermont mountains like Stratton, Killington, and Jay. The first few years are going to be great, due to less crowds, siphoned off by the evil dark side Vail Corp., but, considering that the northeast ski industry isn't exactly rolling around in cash, especially after last year, you could see some failures soon, or at least more consolidation.

Thanks for the info.

I think Vail buying Stowe will have less of an effect on the other large Eastern resorts than you think. People who choose Killington or the places south of Killington are not all of a sudden want to add hours of driving time to ski crowded Stowe every weekend. Stowe is about 1.5 hr longer drive than Killington and 2.5 longer drive than Gore, for me, coming from north NJ.  I understand the western ski connection, but weekend warriors with kids can be  locked in to their current situations with lodging, friends, ski school programs, and driving time.

x10003q wrote

Benny Profane wrote

ha. Just skied there for the first time a few weeks ago' since I have a Mountain Collective pass, and wanted to use the two free days. Awesome mountain, and the healthiest "town" I have experienced at the base of a Vermont ski hill. Makes the Killington area look like a trailer park. Too bad it's another hour away from the NYC metro. Talked to a lot of people n the lifts and elsewhere about this sale as an icebreaker, and, some were happy, some not. Although I was there on a Monday and Tuesday, I was told that the weekends were really really crowded, and, as a former Epic pass holder in Colorado, I told them, haha, you ain't seen nothin' yet. It's going to be Youuuge!
Benny will consider this over the summer (buying the Epic pass), but, there are downsides. Vail resorts out west suck, because of crowds, then again, to have an 8-900 dollar pass that gives me a mountain the caliber of Stowe in the east, and just Abasin in the west is still an awesome deal. Screw Vail and Breck, I never skied those mountains when I lived out there. And, trust me, Whistler sounds cool, but, it's a long way away to travel for rain.
This is going to be a real game changer for the big Vermont mountains like Stratton, Killington, and Jay. The first few years are going to be great, due to less crowds, siphoned off by the evil dark side Vail Corp., but, considering that the northeast ski industry isn't exactly rolling around in cash, especially after last year, you could see some failures soon, or at least more consolidation.

Thanks for the info.

I think Vail buying Stowe will have less of an effect on the other large Eastern resorts than you think. People who choose Killington or the places south of Killington are not all of a sudden want to add hours of driving time to ski crowded Stowe every weekend. Stowe is about 1.5 hr longer drive than Killington and 2.5 longer drive than Gore, for me, coming from north NJ.  I understand the western ski connection, but weekend warriors with kids can be  locked in to their current situations with lodging, friends, ski school programs, and driving time.

I've read more than once that the average annual day count for most skiers is maybe around twelve. Yup, not much. So, you do the math. Mr. And Mrs. Blue Trail Gaper with the 2.5 in tow in the back seat of the X3 can justify this purchase easily with a week at Stowe and a week in Vail, two mountains tailor made for them, and, what does that work out to? About 75 bucks a day ticket? Not bad, in today's world.
Vail may be Evil, but, they have figured out the market. Go to Breck out west, even on a weekday. People love that place. Like, way way too many people. Their stock has tripled in very short time. They're doing something right, and they could care less about serious skiers.

x10003q wrote

I think Vail buying Stowe will have less of an effect on the other large Eastern resorts than you think. People who choose Killington or the places south of Killington are not all of a sudden want to add hours of driving time to ski crowded Stowe every weekend. Stowe is about 1.5 hr longer drive than Killington and 2.5 longer drive than Gore, for me, coming from north NJ.  I understand the western ski connection, but weekend warriors with kids can be  locked in to their current situations with lodging, friends, ski school programs, and driving time.

X  you are only looking at this from your NYC / NJ centric viewpoint.

Lets remember that the bigger market for New England skiing is well -  in New England.  Nobody is coming from Boston to ski the Cats or Gore though we do get some at WF.  According to Google Maps Killington is 2:52 from Boston and Stowe is 3:09 so given that for very minor difference and less crowded better skiing mountain people are going to go Stowe and Epic.  

Vail / Epic is going to own New England in very short order maybe 3 years max.  This is going to cause a massive wave or take overs and buy outs as every ski area in VT, NH and Maine are going to have to join a bigger team post haste.  By the end there is only likely going to be at most 3 operators of ski areas in New England - EPIC, Powdr, and one other that is either going to be formed or will rise above the others (plus of course the state owned in NH).  Sugarbush and Okemo are the next ones that I think will have to pick a team and get bought.  For NY State they cant buy WF, Gore or Bell but I would think they would be taking a bead on Windham which fits super well with the target demographics.  They buy that and then the NYC / NJ market goes to Epic as well particulary if they score some more areas in VT in short order like Okemo.

Like the Borg in the Star Trek the next gen you can't stop Epic and it will assimilate the ski industry over time.

Coach Z wrote

For NY State they cant buy WF, Gore or Bell

They may not be able to buy the land but they don't own the land at Vail either. I would not be at all surprised if - just as they did with the food concessions, NYS farms out the operations of the ski hills in the future. Moving the operations from the DEC to ORDA was the first step in that direction and it has been moving slowly towards that end state.

PeeTex wrote

Coach Z wrote

For NY State they cant buy WF, Gore or Bell

They may not be able to buy the land but they don't own the land at Vail either. I would not be at all surprised if - just as they did with the food concessions, NYS farms out the operations of the ski hills in the future. Moving the operations from the DEC to ORDA was the first step in that direction and it has been moving slowly towards that end state.

That would make plenty of sense from a business standpoint which is exactly why Orda and the Gov won't do it.  Plus the Gov gets his name on Tv and papers every time he promises to spend millions on crap nobody wants like zip lines and a Gondi that requires building ski runs over parking lots.

PeeTex wrote

Coach Z wrote

For NY State they cant buy WF, Gore or Bell

They may not be able to buy the land but they don't own the land at Vail either. I would not be at all surprised if - just as they did with the food concessions, NYS farms out the operations of the ski hills in the future. Moving the operations from the DEC to ORDA was the first step in that direction and it has been moving slowly towards that end state.

Yep. They already sub out operations of some of their golf courses (guy at Saratoga Spa basically runs it independently).

But it's not as if they could cut costs much more at Gore and Whiteface. They already pay shit wages. Any lower, and they're importing immigrants like those places in Vermont do.

ScottyJack wrote

Fail!

Yes ^^^^^ that's how I feel as well

I'm glad I spent my time in the notch before the place became all fancy pants

I think it is a win for skiers in that area.  They are going to be able to get ski passes for 1/2 of what they currently pay and have all the resorts out west to go visit as well.  Jay and Sugarbush are both going to see season pass sales drop.  

At least in the short term this is a win for committed skiers that buy a season pass as those will get crazy cheap fast after this.  It's going to put some smaller areas that are not likely to get bought in the coming consolidation craze out of biz.  Definitely not good for the Laz's of the ski world.  Also What will it do for feeder hills is my concern.  

Day tickets also will go way up in price to compensate for the lost revenue of the lower cost seasons passes and to push people to buy passes.  All in all it's going to be a mixed bag and could turn out long term to be a bag of dog shit for skiers.

I'm intested to see the pricing for the 16-17 Maax pass after this.  I got one in the Fall and only have 4 days on it so far but have 11 days lined up to ski it this Spring as I'm done teaching for the season.  

In 11 days we may be out of snow.  

Squaw Valley sold affordable season passes this year that were around the cost of the epic passes and that place has turned into a shit show of epic proportions. People are not happy there.

Sometimes things are too good to be true. I remember Stowe in the early 90's being busy and not having enough lifts to handle the crowds. I can't imagine that things have improved much.

It's a killer mountain though.

With the potential crowds at $towe it could push more to the Smuggs side.

campgottagopee wrote

With the potential crowds at $towe it could push more to the Smuggs side.

This might not be a popular idea but I have always dreamed of them being interconnected and being one giant (for the east) ski area. Then they would really crush the competition. Killington couldn't even compete for size. Vail might actually be able to make that happen.

raisingarizona wrote

campgottagopee wrote

With the potential crowds at $towe it could push more to the Smuggs side.

This might not be a popular idea but I have always dreamed of them being interconnected and being one giant (for the east) ski area. Then they would really crush the competition. Killington couldn't even compete for size. Vail might actually be able to make that happen.

The ownership of Smuggs has said there is zero truth to Vail buying Smuggs.

Stowe has been very crowded on holidays and weekends this year. It seems they sold a load of under 30 passes. There have been complaints about no parking and traffic jams on 108 up to Stowe. If the Epic Pass increases pass sales, you might not be able to park at the mountain on any Saturday or Sunday.