The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Season’s pass-holder pre-sale Feb. 13-14
In the spirit of spring skiing, bluegrass, and bolstering the mountain’s economy, Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) requested $50,000 in two separate grant requests from the town of Mt. Crested Butte during the February 2 Town Council meeting.
Half of that money, $25,000, was requested to assist CBMR with its airline-marketing program. The other $25,000 grant request was to bring Yonder Mountain String Band to the resort on the weekend of March 27-28. The band will play on Warming House Hill on Saturday afternoon.
Daren Cole, CBMR’s vice president of sales and marketing, presented to the council and clarified that the Yonder Mountain event was the resort’s first priority. The event has the potential to draw a significant number of visitors, which will give local businesses a boost before the shoulder season starts. And it will put Crested Butte Mountain on the map for end-of-ski-season events. Given the town’s tight budget, the council agreed to provide the money for the Yonder Mountain String Band event, but did not move to allocate funds to the airline-marketing program. The $25,000 from the town will be used to pay the band.
Councilperson Mike Kube supported the idea. “I think we ought to spend the money on the event—with the Performing Arts Center project going on, it’s a commitment to going a little bit in a new direction and helping the businesses up here.”
Mt. Crested Butte Mayor William Buck said he’s seen Yonder Mountain play to a sold-out crowd in Telluride and thinks the band is a spectacular draw. “This is a great opportunity,” Buck said. The funds would come from the town’s admission tax that is earmarked for promoting Mt. Crested Butte.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is be more event based,” Cole said. “If we do jump into this we have to make it a success. I think this is going to be a great event.”
CBMR will manage ticket sales and production. There will be a season’s pass-holder ticket pre-sale on February 13-14 at $25 each. From February 15 on tickets will be on sale to the public for $35 each. CBMR will also be offering ski/stay and concert ticket packages from $135 per person.
Cole said the resort is considering a one-year agreement with the band right now, and said it’s possible they’ll sign a three-to-five year contract after they see how this first year goes. The economic impact of selling 1,000 tickets, according to Cole, is $292,000 in resort revenues from rooms, ancillary guest spending, lift ticket and event ticket revenues. The tax totals for the town based on those numbers were $24,110. The goal for this year is 1,000 concertgoers, and Cole said Yonder Mountain foresees 3,000 to 5,000 attendees as the event grows over the next few years.
