topic:Duck_Sauce said:
There are a few ski hills here in Massachusetts that are under 500 feet vertically, and have a run set up with a park. Just curious if there was anywhere that was just one run thats not indoors and is just a park! I could see it being a very lucrative idea if it was put in the right spot with the right setup/features. I know there would be a hundred hoops to jump through financially and with insurance and stuff, but it seems like a possible business idea. any comments or ideas about one of these popping up?
Not really "very lucrative".
If it's done in the right place and you can get people out you can survive but beyond that good luck.
These days there are a couple places going bankrupt every season. And that's mountains that cater to everyone, families, lessons, rentals, park people, tubing, etc.
It's tough to survive as a mountain in general. Some of the smaller operations are just 2 bad consecutive seasons away from bankruptcy. It sucks but that's how it is.
Most mountains have a park these days so you aren't building something nobody has. If you look at a few random mountains, the amount of park skiers to regular skiers is generally pretty slim. Most mountains make their money on families. The park really isn't bringing in much of an income.
At the same time there are mountains that have kept a steady park scene or developed one, gotten the people, out, invested in it, and do pretty well off it.
It really depends on the location, what else is around, what the people want, how good your marketing skills are. You could put the best features, a $$$ budget, the best builders at a small hill, build epic stuff and even that doesn't mean that people are going to come out. Of course some people will but enough to stay afloat? it's risky.
I mean snow park NZ has some epic shit, big contest, magazine coverage, constant stream of pros, and they only made it a decade.
I think echo only made it 5 or 6 years.
Some places like boreal seem to have done much better. Just saying that even with the right features there are no guarantees.
Ski areas can run up some huge costs pretty quickly, if you're trying to only cater to a small piece of the pie, and the poverty end of the spectrum at that, it isn't easy.
