Vail Resorts

Vail Resorts, Inc.
Company typePublic
Founded1997; 27 years ago (1997)
HeadquartersBroomfield, Colorado, U.S.
Key people
RevenueDecrease US$2.89 billion (2024)
Decrease US$491 million (2024)
Decrease US$230 million (2024)
Total assetsDecrease US$5.70 billion (2024)
Total equityDecrease US$1.04 billion (2024)
Number of employees
7,600 (2024)
Websitevailresorts.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Vail Resorts, Inc. is an American mountain resort company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The company is divided into three divisions. The mountain segment owns and operates 42 mountain resorts in four countries. Vail Resorts Hospitality owns or manages hotels, lodging, condominiums, and golf courses, and the Vail Resorts Development Company oversees property development and real estate holdings.

History

Vail Resorts was founded as Vail Associates Ltd. by Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton in the early 1960s. Eaton, a lifelong resident, led Siebert (a former WWII 10th Mountain Division ski trooper) to the area in March 1957. They both became ski patrol guides at Aspen, Colorado, when they shared their dream of finding the "next great ski mountain." Siebert set off to secure financing, and Eaton engineered the early lifts. Their Vail ski resort opened in 1962.[2] George N. Gillett Jr. purchased Vail Associates in 1985.[3] Vail Associates changed its name to Vail Resorts and went public in 1997[4] after Gillett Holdings went bankrupt.[5] Apollo Management, headed by Leon Black, bought the company out of bankruptcy and took Vail Resorts public, controlling Vail Resorts until 2003, when Apollo divested itself of controlling interest. The skating rink at Beaver Creek, Colorado, was named the Black Family Skating Rink after Leon Black.[citation needed]

Rob Katz, a former executive at Apollo, ran Vail Resorts as CEO until November 2021, when he was appointed executive chairperson of the board. Kirsten Lynch, the company's former chief marketing officer, then took over as CEO.[6]

In June 2024, Vail Resorts reported lower-than-expected revenue during the February-April quarter due to a significantly warmer-than-anticipated winter across western North American resorts, with snowfall 28% lower than average. The company generated $1.28 billion in revenue during the quarter despite the stabilizing effect of its Epic Pass program, which allows customers to purchase a season pass for its North American resorts at a significant upfront cost. However, Vail's stock price has declined by 50% since its October 2021 peak of $360. While this past winter was one of the warmest on record for the company, concerns exist that future winters may even be warmer.[7]

Criticism

Some of Vail Resort's acquisitions have fueled anger among local residents. Locals complain that the Vail's pass structure caters to wealthy international pass holders and reduces access to nearby residents; additionally, residents have seen their cost-of-living increase following Vail's takeovers.[8][9]

RockResorts

In 2001, Vail Resorts acquired the luxury hotel chain RockResorts, contributing substantially to its brand recognition. RockResorts was named after its original owners, the Rockefeller Family. As of January 2017, the properties include:

The Pines Lodge at Beaver Creek, CO
The Lodge at Vail, CO
The Osprey at Beaver Creek, CO
The Arrabelle at Vail Square, CO
One Ski Hill Place at Breckenridge Ski Resort
The Grand Summit Hotel in Park City Utah

Subsidiaries and affiliates

All of the company's retail operations are run by a smaller company, [Vail Resorts Retail, VRR], of which Vail owns 70%. The owners of the other 30% are the Gart Brothers, specifically Tom Gart, Ken Gart, and John Gart. The Gart family has been in the sporting goods business for three generations and was the former owner of Gart Sports, a large chain of sporting goods stores in the western US. Gart Sports was sold by the Gart family in the 1990s and then recently sold again to Sports Authority, which discontinued the use of the Gart Sports name in 2006. In 2010, Vail completed the buyout of the Specialty Sports Venture brand and is now the 100% owner of all SSV operations. In addition to all of the ski shops in the Vail Resorts portfolio of ski areas, the SSV chain of stores includes Bicycle Village in Denver, Colorado Ski & Golf, Boulder Ski Deals, Aspen Sports, Telluride Sports, and Mountain Sports Outlet in Summit County and Glenwood Springs and many others. SSV is reportedly the largest Trek bicycle dealer in the world.

Vail Resorts also owns just over 50% of Slifer Smith and Frampton (SSF), the largest real estate brokerage company in the Vail region, controlling over 70% of the real estate transactions in the market. Slifer, Smith, and Frampton were called Slifer, Smith, and Frampton/Vail Associates Real Estate, but they dropped the "Vail Associates" name in 2003. The founders of SSF are Rod Slifer, a former ski instructor who was recently the mayor of the Town of Vail, and Mark Smith, a real estate broker/turned developer who currently also runs East West Partners with Harry Frampton, who was the former President of Vail Associates and currently owns East West Partners. East West Partners has built most of the large buildings that make up the Beaver Creek Village, including the Marketplace Building, Village Hall, and One Beaver Creek. This is separate from East West Resorts, a separate property management group.

Vail Resorts Development Company (VRDC) is the wholly-owned real estate development company that Vail Resorts uses to develop all of its company-owned real estate, other than the projects East West Partners develops. VRDC developed Bachelor's Gulch, one of the business's most upscale ski-in/ski-out resorts, with its own Ritz Carlton and just over 100 slopeside mansions. President Gerald Ford kept his ski house between Beaver Creek and Bachelor's Gulch in the Strawberry Park section of Beaver Creek. Arrowhead is the third "peak" in the heavily promoted "village to village ski experience" in which you can ski from Beaver Creek to Bachelor's Gulch to Arrowhead and back again. Arrowhead was a separate ski area unrelated to Beaver Creek for years before Vail Associates finally bought them in the early 1990s. VRDC also developed the "club" division of Vail Resorts, including the Beaver Creek Club, the Arrowhead Alpine Club, and the Game Creek Club (in Vail). VRDC also developed Red Sky Ranch in Wolcott (approximate 10 miles (16 km) west of Beaver Creek), which includes two golf courses and many million dollar golf course homes. These clubs are now operated by the "Mountain Division" of Vail Resorts.

List of resorts

Vail Resorts operates 42 ski resorts in the United States, Canada, Australia and Switzerland including, notably, the Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Crested Butte ski areas in Colorado, and Northstar California, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, and Heavenly Mountain Resort on the California-Nevada border. In British Columbia, Canada, they also acquired the largest ski resort in North America: Whistler Blackcomb. Vail Resorts offers a variety of multi-resort season passes under the Epic Pass program. The Epic Pass also has partnerships that allow access to several other resorts in the US, Canada, Japan, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.[10] Vail Resorts acquired the Grand Teton Lodge Company within the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in 1999. The GTLC properties include the Jenny Lake Lodge, Jackson Lake Lodge, and Colter Bay Village.

Name Location Number of lifts Date opened Date acquired Notes
Afton Alps Hastings, Minnesota 22 1963 December 21 2012 December 6 [11]
Alpine Valley Chesterland, Ohio 5 1965 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Andermatt-Sedrun Switzerland 19 2022 March 28 Vail owns a 55% share of the resort [12]
Attitash Mountain Bartlett, New Hampshire 9 1965 January 26 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Beaver Creek Resort Beaver Creek, Colorado 25 1980 December 15 —
Big Boulder Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania 10 1947 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Boston Mills Peninsula, Ohio 8 1963 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains. * 16 lifts jointly with Brandywine
Brandywine Sagamore Hills Township, Ohio 8 1963 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains. * 16 lifts jointly with Boston Mills
Breckenridge Ski Resort Breckenridge, Colorado 32 1961 December 16 1996 [13]
Crans-Montana Switzerland 19 2023 November 30 [14]
Crested Butte Mountain Resort Crested Butte, Colorado 16 1961 November 23 2018 September 27 [15] Purchased with Mt. Sunapee, Stevens Pass, and Okemo.[16]
Crotched Mountain Bennington, New Hampshire 5 1969 December 14 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Falls Creek Bogong High Plains, Victoria, Australia 14 1946 2019 February 22 Bought from Merlin Entertainments along with Hotham.
Heavenly Mountain Resort South Lake Tahoe, California 30 1955 December 15[17] 2002 March 26
Hidden Valley Eureka, Missouri 9 1982 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Hidden Valley Resort (Pennsylvania) Hidden Valley, Pennsylvania 4 1958 2021 December 31 Bought from Seven Springs Mountain Resort, Inc. and affiliates along with two other resorts.[18]
Hotham Alpine Resort Mount Hotham, Victoria, Australia 14 1925 2019 February 22 Bought from Merlin Entertainments along with Falls Creek.
Hunter Mountain Hunter, New York 15 1960 January 9 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Jack Frost White Haven, Pennsylvania 18 1972 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Keystone Resort Keystone, Colorado 20 1970 November 21 1996
Kirkwood Mountain Resort Kirkwood, California 15 1972 2012 February 22 [19]
Laurel Mountain Somerset County, Pennsylvania 1 1939 2021 December 31 Bought from Seven Springs Mountain Resort, Inc. and affiliates along with two other resorts.[18]
Liberty Mountain Resort Fairfield, Pennsylvania 9 1960 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Mad River Mountain Zanesfield, Ohio 12 1962 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Mount Brighton Brighton, Michigan 12 1960 2012 December 6 [11]
Mount Snow West Dover, Vermont 20 1954 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Mount Sunapee Resort Newbury, New Hampshire 11 1948 December 26 2018 September 27 [15] Owned by the State of NH but operated alongside Okemo, the first resort in New Hampshire to be operated by Vail[16]
Northstar California Truckee, California 20 1972 December 2010 October 25 [20]
Okemo Mountain Resort Ludlow, Vermont 20 1956 January 31 2018 September 27 [15] Purchased alongside Mount Sunapee, Stevens Pass, and Crested Butte.
Paoli Peaks Paoli, Indiana 8 1978 December 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Park City Mountain Resort Park City, Utah 41 1963 December 21 2013 May 29 (Canyons)

2014 September 11 (Park City)

In 2015, Vail merged the Park City and Canyons resorts under the Park City Mountain Resort name, connecting them with a gondola.[21][22]
Perisher Ski Resort Perisher Valley, Australia 46 1951 2015 March 30 Vail's first Australian property.
Roundtop Mountain Resort Lewisberry, Pennsylvania 7 1964 November 28 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Seven Springs Mountain Resort Seven Springs, Pennsylvania 14 1937 2021 December 31 Bought from Seven Springs Mountain Resort, Inc. and affiliates along with two other resorts.[18]
Snow Creek Weston, Missouri 5 1986 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Stevens Pass Skykomish, Washington 10 1937 2018 June 4 Purchased alongside Mount Sunapee and Okemo.
Stowe Mountain Resort Stowe, Vermont 12 1937 February 7 2017 February 21 Vail's first resort on the East Coast of the United States.[23]
Vail Ski Resort Vail, Colorado 31 1962 December 15 — The third-largest ski resort in the United States.
Whistler Blackcomb Whistler, British Columbia, Canada 37 1966 January 15 2016 August 8 Purchased 75% interest in Whistler & Blackcomb Partnerships (balance owned by Nippon Cable)
Whitetail Resort Mercersburg, Pennsylvania 9 1991 2019 September 24 Bought from Peak Resorts along with 16 other mountains.
Wildcat Mountain Ski Area Gorham, New Hampshire 5 1958 January 25 2019 September 24 Wildcat trail cut by CCC in 1933. The original gondola started operation in 1958. Peak Resorts acquired Wildcat in 2010.
Wilmot Mountain Wilmot, Wisconsin 11 1938 February 2016 January 19

References

  1. ^ "Vail Resorts, Inc. FY 2024 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 26 September 2024.
  2. ^ Lauren Moran (March 19, 2011). "Vail visionaries". Vail Daily. Swift Communications. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  3. ^ Randy Wyrick (May 20, 2011). "1985: The year the deals got done". Vail Daily. Swift Communications. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  4. ^ "Vail Resorts Inc. - 10-K Annual Report". Getfilings.com. September 30, 1997. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  5. ^ "Gillett Bankruptcy Filing". The New York Times. Associated Press. August 18, 1992. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  6. ^ LaConte, John (2 November 2021). "Kirsten Lynch begins new role as Vail Resorts CEO". www.aspentimes.com. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
  7. ^ Badenhausen, Kurt (2024-06-06). "VAIL RESORTS MISS Q3 REVENUE, EPS ESTIMATES AS STOCK SINKS". Sportico. Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  8. ^ "Vail Resorts owns Perisher and Whistler ski resorts and the locals aren't happy". 9 April 2018.
  9. ^ "What It Means to Ski in a Vail-Dominated World". 14 October 2014.
  10. ^ "Epic Season Pass". www.epicpass.com. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  11. ^ a b "Vail Resorts to Acquire Two Ski Areas in Midwest, Afton Alps in Minnesota and Mount Brighton in Michigan". Vail Resorts. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  12. ^ Vail Resorts Inc. "Vail Resorts Reports Fiscal 2022 Third Quarter Results, Early Season Pass Sales Results, and Provides Updated Fiscal 2022 Outlook". www.prnewswire.com (Press release).
  13. ^ "History of the Breckenridge Ski Resort". Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  14. ^ Baur, Grégoire (November 30, 2023). "Crans-Montana: vous avez râlé, il va falloir assumer maintenant". Le Temps (in French). Retrieved November 30, 2023.
  15. ^ a b c "Vail Resorts Closes Acquisition of Okemo Mountain Resort, Mount Sunapee Resort and Crested Butte Mountain Resort". www.hotelnewsresource.com. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
  16. ^ a b "Vail Resorts in buying spree, acquiring Crested Butte, three other ski areas". Denver Business Journal. June 4, 2018. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  17. ^ Jeremy Evans (November 21, 2005). "50 years of Heavenly: A chronicle of skiers' dreams and change on the South Shore". Tahoe Daily Tribune. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  18. ^ a b c LaConte, John (January 1, 2022). "Vail Resorts closes on acquisition of Seven Springs, Hidden Valley and Laurel Mountain ski areas". Steamboat Pilot & Today. Vail Daily. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  19. ^ "Vail Resorts To Acquire Kirkwood Mountain Resort". Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  20. ^ Scott Miller (October 25, 2010). "Vail Resorts acquires Northstar-at-Tahoe". Vail Daily. Swift Communications. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  21. ^ "Vail Resorts Acquires Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah | Vail Resorts Corporate". News.vailresorts.com. September 11, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  22. ^ Mary Forgione (July 29, 2015). "Goodbye Canyons, hello Park City: Utah ski resort on track to be biggest in U.S." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  23. ^ "Vail Resorts To Acquire Stowe Mountain Resort In Stowe, Vermont". News.vailresorts.com. February 21, 2017. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
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