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Vail bighorn sheep

neffa3 said:
I think they're take is that they need staff. And this is where those staff were supposed to live. Not a lot of places for lifties and servers to live in that area.
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I get it, but for $12M you could have limos transport staff from 20 miles away for 100 years.

Edit: I guess my real point is that it is about the money, but apparently $12M is not enough. There's definitely a price, they're just playing hardball.
 
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“With all that input, we felt this was a very, very fair offer to Vail Resorts. I really hope Vail Resorts will respond favorably. I mean why don’t they put it in a conservation easement and get an amazing PR story and do the right thing? We all are just scratching our heads wondering why they are fighting this.”

Bill Rock, chief operating officer of Vail Resorts’ mountain division, resoundingly rejected the offer this week, telling the town in a letter that “this is not, and has never been, about money.”


Sure Bill, it's clearly not about the money...I'd really hate for them to have to build affordable housing closer to the people who purchase season passes too, that would be just gross. :rolleyes:
 
neffa3 said:
I think they're take is that they need staff. And this is where those staff were supposed to live. Not a lot of places for lifties and servers to live in that area.
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I think the take is "It's way cheaper to build shitty employee housing, than pay our staff a living wage."

Fact of the matter is the last couple seasons Vail has fired all of it's senior staff (across the country, also not executive but like folks who have worked as lift maintenance for 20 years and make more than min wage) as a means of reducing overhead and bumping their stock price.

A lot of family friends work for the mountain, they've all said it's been a dumpster fire everyone who knew how things actually work is out.

As far as Vail's new acquisitions on the east coast things are waaaay worse. In order to turn "break-even" resorts into "money makers" Vail has closed mid mountain lodges, shut down lifts and entire sections of the mountain, reduced operating days... so shutting down mid week, and then again fired staff who make above min wage.

You can literally make more working at Walmart in Avon than you can as a ski instructor at Vail... so there's your problem.

But yeah let's nuke the sheep for a Q4 earnings bump.

Maybe ski resorts aren't a great idea for a public company :rolleyes:
 
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wllm said:
I think the take is "It's way cheaper to build shitty employee housing, then pay our staff a living wage."

Fact of the matter is the last couple seasons Vail has fired all of it's senior staff (across the country, also not executive but like folks who have worked as lift maintenance for 20 years and make more than min wage) as a means of reducing overhead and bumper their stock price.

A lot of family friends work for the mountain, they've all said it's been a dumpster fire everyone who knew how things actually work is out.

As far as Vail's new acquisitions on the east coast things are waaaay worse. In order to turn "break-even" resorts into "money makers" Vail has closed mid mountain lodges, shut down lifts and entire sections of the mountain, reduced operating days... so shutting down mid week, and then again fired staff who make above min wage.

You can literally make more working at Walmart in Avon than you can as a ski instructor at Vail... so there's your problem.

But yeah let's nuke the sheep for a Q4 earnings bump.

Maybe ski resorts are a great idea for a public company :rolleyes:
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I can vouch for all of that first hand. In attrition to that new hires are getting hired in at higher wages than 20 employees are currently making. Dumpster fire is a very kind way to put it. It’s really a bummer to see what has happened in our lifetimes from hanging out on the big wood deck in gold peak to the corporate takeover and commercialization of the whole town.
 
Dsnow9 said:
I can vouch for all of that first hand. In attrition to that new hires are getting hired in at higher wages than 20 employees are currently making. Dumpster fire is a very kind way to put it. It’s really a bummer to see what has happened in our lifetimes from hanging out on the big wood deck in gold peak to the corporate takeover and commercialization of the whole town.
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IMHO the whole model is just going to implode. Ski areas aren't really huge money makers, rather community rec opportunities.

Obviously there are some exceptions with some of the really high end resorts, but even then I've always understood the real money at Vail comes from real estate/hotels. You can only keep your balance sheet looking good from hosing employees so long.

Between the crappy guest experience and the destruction of their own labor force I think Vail is going to have some major issues in the not too distant future.

"We can't run the lifts because we lose money" v. "We can't run lifts and maintain a 30% profit margin" hit very differently.
 
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wllm said:
I think the take is "It's way cheaper to build shitty employee housing, then pay our staff a living wage."

Fact of the matter is the last couple seasons Vail has fired all of it's senior staff (across the country, also not executive but like folks who have worked as lift maintenance for 20 years and make more than min wage) as a means of reducing overhead and bumper their stock price.

A lot of family friends work for the mountain, they've all said it's been a dumpster fire everyone who knew how things actually work is out.

As far as Vail's new acquisitions on the east coast things are waaaay worse. In order to turn "break-even" resorts into "money makers" Vail has closed mid mountain lodges, shut down lifts and entire sections of the mountain, reduced operating days... so shutting down mid week, and then again fired staff who make above min wage.

You can literally make more working at Walmart in Avon than you can as a ski instructor at Vail... so there's your problem.

But yeah let's nuke the sheep for a Q4 earnings bump.

Maybe ski resorts are a great idea for a public company :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Agree, I have a good friend who worked for Vail Resorts for a very long time, starting as a liftie and getting all the way up into corporate. Per him and other people he knew there, Vail Resorts is a garbage employer/company and is only getting worse, they care very little for their workers or anybody else.
 
wllm said:
I think the take is "It's way cheaper to build shitty employee housing, then than pay our staff a living wage."

Between the crappy guest experience and the destruction of their own labor force I think Vail is going to have some major issues in the not to too distant future.
Click to expand...
wllm, you're slipping.

You're fellow pilkunnussija.
 
Sadly this situation is prevalent throughout the ski industry. I was a dedicated ski bum for about 12 years. Worked at 5 different mountains. Had enough of being broke and had to walk away. There are some area that are privately owned like deer valley and Alta that aren’t quite as bad but really hard to get a job there. Big Sky and Boyne are right up there with Vail. Employee moral at big sky is horrible.
 
It's Vail. It has to be about the money, they have shareholders to protect. For $12 million they could probably build something in Avon or something for their employees. Or they could just pay their employees some form of a living wage so they could afford their own place in the area.

They should have seen this need for affordable housing coming for years, right? The fact that Vail is playing the victim card here is pretty weak.
 
Good Video, I have been talking to some buddies where I grew up in Oregon one of which has become a Guide and they are seeing similar concerns there for their local herd though I honestly don't know if they are endemic. I still dream of getting a Bighorn someday!
 
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