The mothership has grown

I take solace in the fact that my hill is so shitty that vail will never try to get their grubby hands all over it
 
13926386:B.Gillis said:
You people who cry monopoly need to learn how that shit works.
Click to expand...

how does it work then?

ASC was forced to sell Cranmore and Waterville valley in the 90s, and they owned less than 15 resorts
 
Sadly its not going to be even considered an issue until Vail just buys and doesn't improve the resorts while raising prices. Im guessing the ski industry will end up looking like the telcom and airline industries with only 4-5 major players owning all US/NA resorts.

"The greatest antitrust concern arises with proposed mergers between direct competitors (horizontal mergers)"

The only way i see this happening is if Vail and all the companies currently under IKON eventually merge after like 5 more years of similar acquisitions. I'm not an expert and just talking from 5 min of research. For example the FTC might allow Disney(ABC) or Comcast to merge with Fox, that is way more anti-competitive than anything in going on currently in the ski industry. I wouldn't get your hopes up about the govt stepping in anytime soon.
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/mergers
 
^alright that makes sense then, ASC was right after they merged with SKI

I'm not really concerned about the whole "the man is corporatizing my mtn dood" attitude since most of these places were corporate already but it is kind of scary to see so much of the industry in control of a publicly traded group mostly due to their ability to set precedents within the industry. Would be really shitty if some suit decided inverts were a liability and banned them in all their resorts. Not saying vail would do that, but the potential is pretty unnerving.

**This post was edited on Jun 4th 2018 at 2:08:29pm
 
This didn't surprise me too much, but still a little bummed on CB.

Something about getting dolla pizza slices and 2$ pbrs and shots on the slope will be missed.

Too bad vail is scailing down some of their parks though. If they were still growing maybe I'd swing through to work there. I fucking love CB.
 
Vail sucks, but you have to admit that it makes more sense for a few companies to control most resorts, since they are more diversified if a resort has a shit snow year (happens a lot). They have deeper pockets and more chance of getting good snow at other resorts to make up for low snow resorts. Resort holding companies sometimes make improvements, my local hill got a really good snowmaking system a while after they got bought out
 
13926442:BigPurpleSkiSuit said:
Please stay away from snowbirb
Click to expand...

Dude, you know it's only a matter of time b4 they come for snowbird. Vail is gobbling up resorts like there's no tomorrow.
 
Can someone give an example of like, what happened to a resort the year Vail bought it? Like hours, season length, etc.
 
13926529:voy10 said:
Can someone give an example of like, what happened to a resort the year Vail bought it? Like hours, season length, etc.
Click to expand...

Park City - bought out in late fall. Panic. All were told jobs were safe. Few months later, people cut, people fired. New people came. New rules. Grumpy people. Town people were about to riot with pitch forks. But first winter was same.

Second winter all went to hell. Open late. Close early. Regulations and rules that know one knew what to do. More new people. More new rules. Town people got pitchforks.
 
13926533:SkiBum. said:
Park City - bought out in late fall. Panic. All were told jobs were safe. Few months later, people cut, people fired. New people came. New rules. Grumpy people. Town people were about to riot with pitch forks. But first winter was same.

Second winter all went to hell. Open late. Close early. Regulations and rules that know one knew what to do. More new people. More new rules. Town people got pitchforks.
Click to expand...

If a person in a higher up position doesn't make changes, it can reflect badly on them in the future. If they apply for another job in the future and the employer hears that in their last position they didn't make any changes, it can infer that the person lacked initiative or drive. Not trying to defend Vail and their virus like ability to come into a resott, sweep everyone out the door and replace everyone while establishing questionable policy. I just think that it's important to know both sides of the argument.

Also what new rules?
 
13926548:-arc- said:
If a person in a higher up position doesn't make changes, it can reflect badly on them in the future. If they apply for another job in the future and the employer hears that in their last position they didn't make any changes, it can infer that the person lacked initiative or drive. Not trying to defend Vail and their virus like ability to come into a resott, sweep everyone out the door and replace everyone while establishing questionable policy. I just think that it's important to know both sides of the argument.

Also what new rules?
Click to expand...

Blaise didn’t give a fuck when he came in. He was already planning his retirement vacations with his $1m salary. He got a trial named after him. What an honor....

Rules.

No fun.

Go slow. Everywhere. No ski fast. Loose pass

Meetings

Meetings about everything

Safety shoved down your pie hole

Those dumb fucking epic verticle feet Texas tracker things at every lift

Every department must mold to the vail way

Helmets. Fuck. Every employee must ski with a helment.

Brainwash.

Repeat.
 
13926533:SkiBum. said:
Park City - bought out in late fall. Panic. All were told jobs were safe. Few months later, people cut, people fired. New people came. New rules. Grumpy people. Town people were about to riot with pitch forks. But first winter was same.

Second winter all went to hell. Open late. Close early. Regulations and rules that know one knew what to do. More new people. More new rules. Town people got pitchforks.
Click to expand...

I'd say that after Vail bought Perisher the resort has gotten better. Crowds are the only problem.

**This post was edited on Jun 5th 2018 at 5:44:06am
 
13926397:B.Gillis said:
That was a regional issue. Owning all of the areas within a specific region is a monopoly issue. Owning 15 resorts across North America isn’t a monopoly issue. Even more so now that Alterra is doing their thing. Now together these two companies could end up monopolizing the game but we’re still a few years away from that possibility.
Click to expand...

Sure it's soon to be an oligopoly but doesn't that kill competition? The effect is a lot more severe than any other industries since natural mono/oligo-polies are more realisticly formed due to the availability of land. Companies can't just go and start up a ski resort anywhere unlike something of a retail brand. We're seeing the effect already of price hikes across bought out resorts (not as severe as Canadian telecom but it's getting there). shouldn't there be a point where anti-competition laws have to kick in?
 
13926533:SkiBum. said:
Park City - bought out in late fall. Panic. All were told jobs were safe. Few months later, people cut, people fired. New people came. New rules. Grumpy people. Town people were about to riot with pitch forks. But first winter was same.

Second winter all went to hell. Open late. Close early. Regulations and rules that know one knew what to do. More new people. More new rules. Town people got pitchforks.
Click to expand...

Not to mention Vail trying to trademark "Park City" but thank god the town got ahead of them on that.
 
13926596:skierman said:
Not to mention Vail trying to trademark "Park City" but thank god the town got ahead of them on that.
Click to expand...

I don’t know how I forgot about that one. What a bunch of dirty cocksuckers.
 
13926673:B.Gillis said:
Price hikes on day tickets but lower prices on season passes. And last time I checked there were over 400 operating ski areas in North America so I would say there are plenty of options to choose from if someone wanted to step into the game.
Click to expand...

But are smaller resorts comparable? If there were another 30-100 ski resorts about the avg size of Epic/Alterra passes then yeah id agree with you but I feel like theyre snatching up all the prime ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top