Vail is not the enemy
By Derek Taylor, Outside
When it comes time to throw stones in the ski world, there’s no easier target than Vail. A $3 billion-plus publicly traded company, Vail is an easy target because it’s a big target. Taking it down verbally is a rite of passage in many mountain communities. Just as a generation of Red Sox fans can’t mention Bucky Dent without giving him a middle name that starts with F, many denizens of ski towns across the nation find it impossible to say the word Vail without immediately following it with “sucks.”
Vail, there is no doubt, brings much of this on itself. Look no further than the recent diarrhea storm it recently created when it purchased Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort after the ski area inexplicably failed to renew the terms of its lease. Even setting aside that it was Canadian real estate developer Talisker, not Vail, that originally evicted PCMR, or that it was neither Talisker’s nor Vail’s responsibility to remind PCMR that its sweetheart lease was about to expire, the strong-arm tactics Vail employed in acquiring its nearest competitor for just slightly more than Randolph Hearst’s former Beverly Hills home were decidedly “un-bro” and left many people with a bitter taste. When Outside first reported that Vail acquired PCMR, the comment section of our Facebook wall overflowed with vitriol directed at Vail.
But before you grab a torch and join the lynch mob, I have something to tell you. Vail is not your enemy. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done more than my fair share of Vail bashing. I used to live in a town (Crested Butte) that sold “Vail Sucks” shirts in most storefronts. And if I were to compile a list my favorite ski resorts, there might —might — be one from the Vail Resorts portfolio on the list. But when it comes time to spew venom, there’s something else to remember. Unlike many entities that storm in and adversely affect our little mountain utopias (Talisker?), Vail is a ski company.
Not only is Vail a ski company, it is a successful ski company. The 11 areas the company runs survive. They attract people. They create skiers. At a time when the buzz in the long-struggling ski industry is about increasing the size of the pie rather than fighting over the pieces, Vail is actually doing that.
I manage a (USA Owned!)tv/internet/phone communications company (that shall remain nameless!) locally, and I can tell you the majority of our customers are happy with our rates and service. Then there is the 10% that bash us anyway they can. A big company cannot keep everyone happy all the time. This country has become a nanny state of entitled spoiled individuals. “Poor me!” My spouse calls it the ‘white boy from California’ crybaby syndrome. I too have bashed Vail, but Vail, like my company, is a publicly traded company, made up of employees that make their homes here and are members of this community. So when you hate on my company, me, my co-workers and my family sort of take it personnaly. No fortune 500 company is perfect, and the puritanistic hypocritical history of this country is what allows big homogeneous please the masses companies like Vail to thrive. We do not allow ourselves to embrace unique quirky and different. Bow to the almighty dollar.
Business is business. If you don’t like the way a certain business does business, take YOUR BUSINESS elsewhere. Very simple.
My 2 bucks
Umm Dan, boy that thinking has never resulted in any problems has it? Let see, I’m thinking 1960s the south, don’t eat in my restaurant, don’t drink from my fountain, don’t pee in my bathroom, sit in the back of the bus, can’t live in this community – Yeah, now I remember, we all have equal opportunity – right?
My 2cents.
Rick
Rick. Nowhere was that kind of discrimination mentioned or implied in the article.
Every business markets itself to a certain niche. Some might cost more money than others. Example: Hilton customers are a different niche than Motel 6 customers.
Idiot local yokels in Park City screwed up, smart business persons who apparently weren’t stoned took advantage of their mistake, game over. Vail did nothing wrong here.
Vail is an easy target but the company is working on bringing people to South Lake Tahoe year round and keeping more people employed full time. I don’t think that would happen if Heavenly were still owned by an independent. I have noticed more people from the Midwest and the East over the last couple years visiting and spending their vacation dollars in Tahoe and not somewhere else.
Get into January without significant natural snowfall and the guns of Heavenly will keep this town alive and on life support. Cheap season passes, upgraded facilities, nation wide marketing…..any questions? As a customer, I have no complaints. Just get out and ski and quit your crying. Good article, it’s how I’ve always felt.
I love everything Vail has done with Heavenly and I live next door to the CA base. With one exception……they no longer groom the East Bowl run or Little Dipper. The previous owners used to do it every Thursday night. Us old folks still want to ski the steep but just can’t handle the moguls any longer. If they would just get back and occasional treatment I would be happy as the proverbial clam. They claim they do not groom those runs to keep the intermediates off. Wake up folks that does not work.
the problem in not Vail per se as some sort of unique or even purposeful evil, it it the negative effects of a vertically integrated corporation that in effect becomes a monopoly (e.g., owning not just the lifts, but gift shops, clothing stores, hotels, etc., and in some places even the transportation). That monopoly can have a stranglehold effect on both a town and other businesses (it’s funny we used to actually enforce anti-monopoly laws once upon a time!). So in effect, you have what has happened in other industries – companies get so huge, when they fail they bring down everything around them. That is enough to view such companies with a wary eye!
The problem with large corporations like Vail is they cheat to get ahead. If people are content to let them do it – to pay their employees a pittance, to take what they want regardless of what communities think about it, and to destroy the environment for increased profits, then so be it. But know that supporting Vail and being content with their practices only makes it that much easier for them to keep doing it. I’d like to think there is a better way to truly benefit ski communities – and everyone in them.
This has all been laid out for those interested, check out – Downhill Slide. Published in 2002. Author Hal Clifford.
It’s not just Vail. Look at KSL (Squaw, Alpine) too.