Moonlight didn't almost go out of business because their tickets are cheaper, they almost went out of business because their primary lender, Lehman Brothers, filed bankruptcy. Pass sales are small part of revenue for a resort and development like Moonlight. For the price of one empty lot at Moonlight you could buy around 200 season passes.
No matter how shitty Moonlight's financial situation is the last thing they would ever do is stop operating the ski area. If they were to stop operating the value of everything on and around Moonlight would plummet.