The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Is Vail “the dragon sitting on its pile of gold in its cave…”?
By Mark Reaman
Some explicit disappointment with Vail Resorts was voiced at the January 10 Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) board meeting. Local officials plan to connect with other mountain town community leaders with ski resorts owned by Vail and see if they can figure out how to productively engage them in community endeavors. There is an upcoming CAST (Colorado Association of Ski Towns) meeting later this month and VR relationships are expected to be a major topic of discussion.
At the recent RTA meeting, Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) executive director John Norton was giving his monthly report on the air program and TAPP’s efforts to market CBMR. “We continue to overspend in Chicago on the seven new flights that start in February. We hope to build those flights to the degree we can, to get more Chicago flights next year,” Norton said. “We’ve requested some help from Vail for Chicago, and they’ve refused. Overall, we’re pleased with what we see coming together on our air front this winter and we wouldn’t expect airlines to reduce service next winter. But Vail has not been responsive.”
“Is there anything constructive we can do in terms of our relationship with Vail?” asked RTA board member and Crested Butte mayor Ian Billick. “My understanding is that historically the ski resort has been a strong partner on the flight guarantees. To hear they’re not supporting the advertising to get people to the ski resort is really disappointing. Is there something we could do to nudge them along?”
An airline guarantee is the amount of money a ski area or community guarantees to pay airlines if a minimum revenue is not attained through direct flights from places like Houston or Chicago to Gunnison.
“We tried and failed,” responded Norton. “It may take a discussion with people above who we are currently working with. Historically, CBMR carried almost all the guarantees. That changed when the community agreed to help support them. When the RTA was formed, I think the Muellers (former CBMR owners) agreed to an annual $500,000 contribution to the air guarantees.
“Normally, that would be a Vail responsibility,” Norton continued. “We allowed that if Vail Resorts kept the air desk open and continued to support our key air markets with extra spending, we would not hold their feet to the fire for the $500,000. At this point, we’re not getting extra spending in the air markets, the air desk doesn’t exist and we’re not getting anything to help with our guarantee expenses.”
The air desk allowed someone to call CBMR Central Reservations and buy air tickets as well as lodging and lift tickets.
Norton said he and RTA air consultant Bill Tomcich have had some preliminary conversations on how to change that situation, not for this year, but for future years.
“It’s starting to feel a bit like Vail is the dragon sitting on its big pile of gold in its cave,” said Billick. “We’ve gone from a very strong partnership with CBMR thinking strategically to now where we can’t even get them to help with a little bit of advertising in this situation. It seems like they’re just going to push the liabilities and responsibilities off on us to advertise their business while they build up their declining stock price. So, it seems we’re fundamentally off-kilter with our relationship with the ski resort. It is very disappointing.”
“It seems Vail Resorts advertises its Epic Passes and not individual resorts,” noted RTA executive director Scott Truex. “We are maybe asking for something outside their model.”
“I don’t think it’s a simple thing and I can understand why they wouldn’t do it,” said Billick. “But they are doing it all from their perspective. In the long-term, there has to be a collaboration between the communities they are in. We saw that break down in Park City (and the ski patrol strike). It goes straight to the stock price.”
Norton said he is hearing it is not just a Crested Butte situation. “I imagined we had less of a relationship with Vail executives than say, the town of Vail had,” he said. “But I spoke with Vail town manager Russ Forrest last year and he said the town of Vail has no relationship with the Vail executives either. I haven’t heard from any officials in places where Vail does business that they have a suitable working relationship with the corporation.”
“I’m not sure we can do anything today other than gnash our teeth,” said Billick, suggesting local Crested Butte and Gunnison County officials broaden the discussion with similar Vail-owned ski resort communities. He noted a CAST meeting was scheduled in Breckenridge on January 30. “This doesn’t appear to be a one-off so I anticipate it will be a topic of conversation.”
RTA board member and Gunnison County commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels agreed it would be a good next step to ascertain if other elected officials in similar towns have similar feelings. She said she and fellow RTA board member Valeda Scribner along with Billick were going to be at the January CAST meeting. “We might all be able to coordinate a little bit beforehand and see who here might have relationships that can be used,” she said.
Norton said he has approached BOCC chairperson Jonathan Houck with a draft letter to come from the county commissioners requesting a meeting with Bill Rock of Vail and top-level executives of the ski company. “We have ideas that show there is an opportunity here that could provide a return on its investment for Vail,” Norton said. “Obviously there are things like making improvements to the base area but also expanding skiing to Teo-2. It would be interesting to hear their perspective on both those opportunities.”
Local officials have made clear they are not happy with the relationship with Vail and plan to see if there could be a broader coalition of government officials from towns with VR-owned ski resorts that might work to catch their attention.
The CB News’ Kendra Walker reached out to CBMR officials for their perspective on the situation and CBMR vice president general manager JD Crichton said the ski company wants to be involved as an active part of the community.
“Thank you for reaching out and for the inquiry regarding our engagement with local community matters such as the RTA, Gunnison County and Mount Crested Butte. As I mentioned in our initial conversation, connecting with the team at CBMR, operating with excellence over the peak holiday period and engaging with the community are all top priorities,” he expressed in an email. “My initial month as the VP-GM of CBMR has been filled with excitement professionally, all while welcoming my family back to Crested Butte and reintroducing our sons into the local school system, club sports and of course our Mountain Sports Teams at CBMR. Nonetheless, our most talented Senior Leadership Team is heavily vested in numerous committees, boards and elected positions in support of our collective community priorities. These efforts are collaborative, and I look forward to engaging with and listening to the numerous perspectives of our local stakeholders in the coming months.”
