$250 Magic Mtn Freedom Pass under 30

[deadheadskier]

And that was exactly what Win Smith said that Sugarbush's numbers showed when they did the analysis and why they came out with the For 20s pass when they did.

Hopefully the gamble pays off for the industry and things get back to a growth stage in participation and not the decades long stagnation.

 

[cdskier]

Hopefully the gamble pays off for the industry and things get back to a growth stage in participation and not the decades long stagnation.

While I'm only one person, I can tell you that I probably would not currently own a condo and be a passholder if it wasn't for that For 20s program starting 5 years ago. I would hope I'm not the only person that was converted to a long-term passholder by these type of programs.

 

[Smellytele]

I have always been a "spread the love around/ variety is the spice of life" kind of skier> they also never had any 20 something deals when I was in my 20's.

 

[steamboat1]

Screw all you young guys. Boomer passes is where it's at.

 

[MEtoVTSkier]

Hopefully the gamble pays off for the industry and things get back to a growth stage in participation and not the decades long stagnation.

Growth is good, but the ever increasing prices of tickets every year is only going to be sustainable for so far, and I'd be willing to bet sooner than later, Passes are going to be getting out of reach of average skiers. (was it posted Stowes's prices have increased 35% in JUST the last 5 years? Just using them as an example)

 

[deadheadskier]

I used to think skiing was really expensive, then I put my kid in daycare. I could buy 12 Peaks season passes for the same money and that's with only sending him two days a week.

 

[cdskier]

Growth is good, but the ever increasing prices of tickets every year is only going to be sustainable for so far, and I'd be willing to bet sooner than later, Passes are going to be getting out of reach of average skiers. (was it posted Stowes's prices have increased 35% in JUST the last 5 years? Just using them as an example)

The New England Ski History website shows a chart of season pass (and day ticket) prices over time for many resorts. They also show you the number of days you need to ski to break even on a pass. One big downside of these charts though is that they show the full pass price and not the price if you purchase early.

Using these charts though show that Stowe has increased from $1350 in 2001 to $2300 in 2016. In 15 years it has climbed almost $1k. Day ticket prices climbed from $58 to $124 over that same time-period. Since day ticket prices are increasing at a higher rate than the season pass prices, the break even point for a pass has actually dropped for Stowe from 23.3 days to 18.7 days.

Sugarbush has increased from $1350 to $1779 (although if you bought it at the early rate this year it would have been less than the regular rate back in 2001...only 1199 I think it was back in April)

Okemo went from 1200 to 1619 during this same time.

It would be interesting to see how much the early rates have increased, but that data would take a bit more digging to compare.

Overall here are the 15-year increase rates for full price season passes for the 3 resorts I looked at - Stowe 70%, Sugarbush 31%, Okemo 35%. Day tickets at these 3 areas have increased 113% (Stowe), 76% (Sugarbush), and 71% (Okemo).

While both passes and day tickets have gone up, for the most part the pass price increases (with the exception of Stowe) aren't terrible over a 15 year period. If you add in all the new pass products that didn't exist previously, the rates are even better because there are smaller and smaller windows where you are paying full price for a pass.

The day ticket prices are what scare me though and where I really worry it will hurt getting new people into the sport. Those prices just scare new people away. Sure you can get deals for ordering online ahead of time, etc, but still for someone new they may not dig that deep once they see the normal prices.

 

[spring_mountain_high]

I used to think skiing was really expensive, then I put my kid in daycare. I could buy 12 Peaks season passes for the same money and that's with only sending him two days a week.

this is what i'm saying...now wait until he gets to skiing age and you want to take the family for a day or a couple days or a week...ho-lee-fuk those costs add up real quick and make it really tough to introduce your kids to the sport

 

[dlague]

Growth is good, but the ever increasing prices of tickets every year is only going to be sustainable for so far, and I'd be willing to bet sooner than later, Passes are going to be getting out of reach of average skiers. (was it posted Stowes's prices have increased 35% in JUST the last 5 years? Just using them as an example)

Plus - the Boomer crowd is getting older and the diehards (no pun intended) there will eventually slow down and with that being the largest population group, how will that get back filled.

Of my kids,

one buys a season pass does not eat or drink at the resort and stays off the resort or day trips it
one is still skiing with us - so we will see what happens there
one lives in CA and snowboards like 6 times per year at best
one is in college and he is broke. He ill probably buy a Gunstock NH College Break Out Pass, but he just got and apartment and works full-time too so .....

We did our part but not sure if they will all continue.

 

[gmcunni]

my daughter, at the wise old age of 17-
"why do we ski? it is so expensive. when i have kids we're not going to ski, it costs too much"

 

[deadheadskier]

my daughter, at the wise old age of 17-
"why do we ski? it is so expensive. when i have kids we're not going to ski, it costs too much"

Was your response, "That's fine. You can stay home and the kids can go skiing with Grandpa."

 

[gmcunni]

Was your response, "That's fine. You can stay home and the kids can go skiing with Grandpa."

i tried to turn it in to a teachable moment - tried to explain passion and sacrifice, planning and budgeting. family bonding and stuff. don't think it went well tho. i'll use your line next time.

 

[dlague]

my daughter, at the wise old age of 17-
"why do we ski? it is so expensive. when i have kids we're not going to ski, it costs too much"

By the time our kids are grown up and have kids of their own this sport is going to become unreachable. In fact, the cost of many sports is sky rocketing. MTB is costly when doing that right. I know some kids who decided not to go to college because they thought that was too expensive too.

 

[coolflippers]

I was going to complain about how I get to ski, but then I decided I'd rather be a poor single mother working 80 hour weeks in a delapidated multistory sweatshop in a blighted area of this world sewing cheap garments to be sold as expensive outdoors attire for those who complain about how they get to ski, or be ripped from my family, watch them raped and then hacked to death, then be forced by the local guerilla forces to slave away at a mine owned and managed by ignorant slobs 5000 miles away so the same aforementioned skiers can have the raw materials to make the skis they complain about using.

Thanks for ruining the thread. I hope I never meet any of you self-centered, bigoted, naive assholes. You could enjoy life without skiing. If you can't be grateful for when you can ski, go back to school so you understand the market forces that determine your fiscal circumstances. Your local community college is probably as much as your skiing habit.

 

[dlague]

I was going to complain about how I get to ski, but then I decided I'd rather be a poor single mother working 80 hour weeks in a delapidated multistory sweatshop in a blighted area of this world sewing cheap garments to be sold as expensive outdoors attire for those who complain about how they get to ski, or be ripped from my family, watch them raped and then hacked to death, then be forced by the local guerilla forces to slave away at a mine owned and managed by ignorant slobs 5000 miles away so the same aforementioned skiers can have the raw materials to make the skis they complain about using.

Thanks for ruining the thread. I hope I never meet any of you self-centered, bigoted, naive assholes. You could enjoy life without skiing. If you can't be grateful for when you can ski, go back to school so you understand the market forces that determine your fiscal circumstances. Your local community college is probably as much as your skiing habit.

WTF? Take a look in the mirror!

 

[farlep99]

I was going to complain about how I get to ski, but then I decided I'd rather be a poor single mother working 80 hour weeks in a delapidated multistory sweatshop in a blighted area of this world sewing cheap garments to be sold as expensive outdoors attire for those who complain about how they get to ski, or be ripped from my family, watch them raped and then hacked to death, then be forced by the local guerilla forces to slave away at a mine owned and managed by ignorant slobs 5000 miles away so the same aforementioned skiers can have the raw materials to make the skis they complain about using.

Thanks for ruining the thread. I hope I never meet any of you self-centered, bigoted, naive assholes. You could enjoy life without skiing. If you can't be grateful for when you can ski, go back to school so you understand the market forces that determine your fiscal circumstances. Your local community college is probably as much as your skiing habit.

cool post!

 

[coolflippers]

WTF? Take a look in the mirror!

I only posted 2 things prior to that last post.

1) Happy to see the $250 pass

2) That your signature wasn't updated for '15-'16

Not once did I expound upon how unfortunately expensive skiing is.

I know precisely how much my skiing costs. I will never complain if I can't afford it. I can count the days I've gone skiing, including with nephews and nieces on beginner slopes, on my hands since college in 2010. I could not afford skiing last year. I am excited about having some additional disposable income this season and an affordable pass option.

This thread was not meant to be an opportunity to splenetically complain about the cost of skiing. Clearly, nothing about the original post indicated as much.

If you would rather have more money, quit skiing, move to a big city, dump all your earnings on education, and stay at work 80+ hours a week. While doing so, do not complain about your fiscal straits. We are lucky to even have time for Alpine Zone, let alone even entertain the thought of skiing.

You could also put snowshoes on and hike up the hill. Snowshoes cost about as much as a couple lift tickets and last a lifetime.

 

[dlague]

I only posted 2 things prior to that last post.

1) Happy to see the $250 pass

2) That your signature wasn't updated for '15-'16

Not once did I expound upon how unfortunately expensive skiing is.

I know precisely how much my skiing costs. I will never complain if I can't afford it. I can count the days I've gone skiing, including with nephews and nieces on beginner slopes, on my hands since college in 2010. I could not afford skiing last year. I am excited about having some additional disposable income this season and an affordable pass option.

This thread was not meant to be an opportunity to splenetically complain about the cost of skiing. Clearly, nothing about the original post indicated as much.

If you would rather have more money, quit skiing, move to a big city, dump all your earnings on education, and stay at work 80+ hours a week. While doing so, do not complain about your fiscal straits. We are lucky to even have time for Alpine Zone, let alone even entertain the thought of skiing.

You could also put snowshoes on and hike up the hill. Snowshoes cost about as much as a couple lift tickets and last a lifetime.

In case you have not noticed, many threads diverge into other conversations and some even get hijacked into totally different discussions. I myself can afford it and do not complain about cost specifically because as many here, we look at ways to reduce the average cost per visit. However, those getting into the sport do not have that knowledge and it can seem costly.

I too like the idea of a $250 season pass since I have had a season pass for under $300 for the past two years thanks to people on this forum. While that pass is targeted at 20 somethings is good and I hope that strategy works to keep people in the sport or at least stay hooked. But there is definitely pass price confusion going on smaller ski areas costing more that some larger places, multi mountain packaging etc. Will be interesting to see how it all unfolds and the impact it will have overall.

 

[4aprice]

I too like the idea of a $250 season pass since I have had a season pass for under $300 for the past two years thanks to people on this forum. While that pass is targeted at 20 somethings is good and I hope that strategy works to keep people in the sport or at least stay hooked. But there is definitely pass price confusion going on smaller ski areas costing more that some larger places, multi mountain packaging etc. Will be interesting to see how it all unfolds and the impact it will have overall.

Not quite sure I understand the explosion but oh well. I just checked it out, and this is a pretty cool product, I hadn't realized they had expanded west. It would be useful to making a Southern Colorado/New Mexico trip in a year the snow is good down there. I enjoy most of the east coast selections as well. Magic is a real feather in their cap. I thought Suicide Six was in with them last year as well but I could be wrong. If costs are a problem that's not a bad solution.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[KustyTheKlown]

dafuq happened in here?