Thursday, March 12, 2015

Ski resorts swapping hands

It is getting where you can't keep track of all the ski resort ownership.  We have seven ski resorts, all fairly large, within a few miles of us (as the crow flies).  Recently a number of them have changed hands:
  • Vail bought the rights to run Canyons.  They don't own the resort, but do have 350 years worth of lease renewals.  The earth should have dried up by then.
  • Snowbird was bought by Ian Cumming, the owner of Powder Corp, which is the company that owned Park City Mountain Resort. Powder owns multiple ski areas, but Ian bought this with his own money, which I found interesting.
  • Park City Mountain Resort was bought by Vail.  It is now being combined with Canyons to form the largest ski area in North America.
  • Deer Valley bought Solitude.
That leaves Brighton and Alta.  Now the strong rumor is that Deer Valley is about to buy Brighton, which is adjacent to Solitude (which they bought).  You hear lots of rumors floating around a small town, but this rumor is coming from lots of directions with considerable consistency. I give it a 98% chance.

Anyone out there planning to buy Alta?  Can I start spreading the rumors for you?

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