I sat down this morning and read both the Placement Memo and the Business Plan for the mountain, which are found here.
In sum, the management really knows what needs to be done and it is overwhelming. The fact that they need to offer a consistent product is repeated ad nauseum, and really drives the message home that their first priority is improving snowmaking. The business plan sets out the projected capital projects, and that is first on the list. They also have targeted marketing, improving the grooming fleet, completing the lower chairlift, ordering spare parts for the double and getting the triple back up and running again as part of the list. And yes, they do have $100k listed for "lodge improvements," so that was on the list.
The management and ownership get major kudos for sticking with this place, despite 9 out of 10 seasons of losses, some heavy. If you don't believe me, read the business report. This season they lost some money, but not as badly as it could have been. Most impressive is that they have tripled the visits. The first season they had 5,000 skier visits :blink: and this past season was 16,000. They are optimistic that they can increase their share by over double again in the next three years. They have a three-year plan which puts them at 35,000 skier visits in their third year, with a projected profit that year. They are honest that the place will lose money for the first two years, but that they will turn it around in year three.
While going from 16,000 to 35,000 might seem like "pie in the sky" thinking, I think that there is much potential here, especially if we roll good dice on the weather this season and they get the word out. Folks want to ski, but if the conditions are good, they'd probably be interested in spending less on a day ticket than what Stratton or Mount Snow charges. With this economy, folks will be looking for ways to stretch their dollars and Magic can tap that market.
I hope that they can get enough investors on board. They have proven that they can increase skier days and they do realize that reliability is what matters. I hope that some of the folks on here who are passionate about the place voted with their dollars and stepped up when the mountain needed them.
In sum, the management really knows what needs to be done and it is overwhelming. The fact that they need to offer a consistent product is repeated ad nauseum, and really drives the message home that their first priority is improving snowmaking. The business plan sets out the projected capital projects, and that is first on the list. They also have targeted marketing, improving the grooming fleet, completing the lower chairlift, ordering spare parts for the double and getting the triple back up and running again as part of the list. And yes, they do have $100k listed for "lodge improvements," so that was on the list.
The management and ownership get major kudos for sticking with this place, despite 9 out of 10 seasons of losses, some heavy. If you don't believe me, read the business report. This season they lost some money, but not as badly as it could have been. Most impressive is that they have tripled the visits. The first season they had 5,000 skier visits :blink: and this past season was 16,000. They are optimistic that they can increase their share by over double again in the next three years. They have a three-year plan which puts them at 35,000 skier visits in their third year, with a projected profit that year. They are honest that the place will lose money for the first two years, but that they will turn it around in year three.
While going from 16,000 to 35,000 might seem like "pie in the sky" thinking, I think that there is much potential here, especially if we roll good dice on the weather this season and they get the word out. Folks want to ski, but if the conditions are good, they'd probably be interested in spending less on a day ticket than what Stratton or Mount Snow charges. With this economy, folks will be looking for ways to stretch their dollars and Magic can tap that market.
I hope that they can get enough investors on board. They have proven that they can increase skier days and they do realize that reliability is what matters. I hope that some of the folks on here who are passionate about the place voted with their dollars and stepped up when the mountain needed them.
