Thursday Night Red Sox Game to Give Away $2.4 Million in Sunday River Lift Tickets

[snowman]

and if you've got a free ticket in hand, you're going to be more likely to spend some money on lunch and beers at the hill. Passholders will use the tick to bring a friend...maybe its the first time they've gone to SR...and maybe they like it so much they end up like BobR...property owner, passholder, loyalist. How much $$ do you think it would cost to be the major advertiser for the entire game...and that's cash gone, spent...vs a voucher for a service...that leads to some incremental revenue...plus all the advertising. Maybe it convinces some never evers to come up and learn to ski or ride...this industry needs new customers. It'll be interesting to see what sort of limits are placed on the vouchers too...could be non holiday mid-week only.

I understand the promotional aspects of it and the value of coupons vs. money, however, this is just too much. They've flooded the market with vouchers equal to darn near the entire full revenue ticket base for the year. So, yeah, maybe they get a never ever or 2 trying out skiing. Great. So the never ever likes skiing, and they want to go again...then what? Well, for this season atleast, they're going to go to Ebay and get another ticket voucher for $20 to $30 vs. paying $67 at the ticket window. Yes, we're talking about it, but, well, I atleast, am talking about the stupidity of it and how we're going to be able to get cheap tickets to ski Sunday river with no revenue to them. I would normally do a package deal at the river or loaf, however, if I can snap up $20 tickets on Ebay I'd sooner stay in Portland at a hotel and travel to the hill to ski. That is EXACTLY how I plan to benefit and how they will lose. That would be $600 worth of revenue they would normally get from me for 3 days down to 0 because they apparently don't even own their cafeteria operations anymore. I honestly can't wait to see how many vouchers are on Ebay 2 hours after the game.....

 

[snowman]

I plan on checking out ebay .. what should a max bid be for a ticket ... my other concern is counterfeit vouchers..

I also thought about the fact there's going to be such a slew of these that counterfits are also a distinct possibility. Where EVERYONE at the ticket window is going to have one the ticket staff may grow weary of actually checking authenticity. I would HOPE in this day and age they have some sort of protected bar code system, but you never know. Price to pay? I have no idea. I imagine the deals to be had will be on Ebay in the next week vs. people putting them on during ski season. They could go for .99 cents... they could go for $50. It all depends on how many people hit Ebay to buy them.

 

[tjf67]

I plan on checking out ebay .. what should a max bid be for a ticket ... my other concern is counterfeit vouchers..

I am interest to hear what you find if you would be so kind.

Personally I dont know if its good or bad. Time will tell. You have to applaud them for there attempt.
I dont think Boyne got to where it is by throwing money out the window.

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

I don't know if I'd call the plan "stupid"....I mean, clearly this has been thought out. 35,000 free tix is a big number.

The ski industry is really competitive. A number of people might end up checking out Sunday River this year that wouldn't have gone otherwise, find out they like it, and come back again. Plus, genearlly speaking, it's great publicity. Even all that eBay traffic people here are complaining about has to be worth something. At the very least, the people skiing for free might buy an extra $20 burger or take a lesson while they're enjoying their free skiing....

The only downside I see is if they don't do the same promotion at Yankee Stadium. I'm fiercely loyal to my team, and if Sunday River's playing favorites with baseball fans, so will I! Well, actually, not really. The place is too far for me.

 

[Vortex]

I guess i don't think that way.

 

[snowman]

I am interest to hear what you find if you would be so kind.

Personally I dont know if its good or bad. Time will tell. You have to applaud them for there attempt.
I dont think Boyne got to where it is by throwing money out the window.

I don't know. This move is reminding me of the early days of ASC. They're basking in the euphoria of their new bigness :flag:... and then acting like rappers with new money running out spending it all on 5 escalades with chrome 30's :flag: to prove something without thinking it thru. I am willing to bet they were counting on what threecy mentioned, a low rate of redemption, taking redemption rates from promotions for cheaper "products". I don't think they counted on the "Ebay Factor" at all and Steve may well be reading this thread with pains in his chest.

 

[snowman]

I don't know if I'd call the plan "stupid"....I mean, clearly this has been thought out. 35,000 free tix is a big number.

The ski industry is really competitive. A number of people might end up checking out Sunday River this year that wouldn't have gone otherwise, find out they like it, and come back again. Plus, genearlly speaking, it's great publicity. Even all that eBay traffic people here are complaining about has to be worth something. At the very least, the people skiing for free might buy an extra $20 burger or take a lesson while they're enjoying their free skiing....

The only downside I see is if they don't do the same promotion at Yankee Stadium. I'm fiercely loyal to my team, and if Sunday River's playing favorites with baseball fans, so will I! Well, actually, not really. The place is too far for me.

I already shreaded all your points 4 posts above (before you even posted) I'm afraid.

 

[tjf67]

I don't know. This move is reminding me of the early days of ASC. They're basking in the euphoria of their new bigness :flag:... and then acting like rappers with new money running out spending it all on 5 escalades with chrome 30's :flag: to prove something without thinking it thru. I am willing to bet they were counting on what threecy mentioned, a low rate of redemption, taking redemption rates from promotions for cheaper "products". I don't think they counted on the "Ebay Factor" at all and Steve may well be reading this thread with pains in his chest.

Why cause he laughing so hard?

 

[Vortex]

Lets what the ticket vouchers say and the restrictions. 1st time something has been done here. Maybe its been done another place and its been planned. Seems like Sk is pretty internet savy.

 

[snowman]

Why cause he laughing so hard?

No, because his "people" are so industry focused that they forgot Ebay and free enterprise existed.

 

[snowman]

Lets what the ticket vouchers say and the restrictions. 1st time something has been done here. Maybe its been done another place and its been planned. Seems like Sk is pretty internet savy.

It would be nice to hear SK's take on this if he hasn't gone to get those chest pains checked out....

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

I don't know. This move is reminding me of the early days of ASC. They're basking in the euphoria of their new bigness :flag:... and then acting like rappers with new money running out spending it all on 5 escalades with chrome 30's :flag: to prove something without thinking it thru. I am willing to bet they were counting on what threecy mentioned, a low rate of redemption, taking redemption rates from promotions for cheaper "products". I don't think they counted on the "Ebay Factor" at all and Steve may well be reading this thread with pains in his chest.

Big diff between ASC and Boyne...Boyne has been running resorts for DECADES, they've got a good idea of what they can and can't afford to do in this industry. ASC was financed on pricey debt, Boyne doesn't have much debt if any from this transaction because they didn't BUY the resorts, CNL did...Boyne leases them. Go ahead, buy all the vouchers you can off ebay and stay in a hotel in Portland and commute...then you can think about all the $$$ your saving while you drive the extra 70 miles each way...you're really sticking it to THE MAN! The ski industry execs ought to hire you to do their jobs for them :lol:

 

[Vortex]

Aw he does post here and on the Sr board and the Sugarloaf board. He might just answer you when he is surfing around. I'm sure he'll be lurking with the big promo coming.

 

[snowman]

Big diff between ASC and Boyne...Boyne has been running resorts for DECADES, they've got a good idea of what they can and can't afford to do in this industry. ASC was financed on pricey debt, Boyne doesn't have much debt if any from this transaction because they didn't BUY the resorts, CNL did...Boyne leases them. Go ahead, buy all the vouchers you can off ebay and stay in a hotel in Portland and commute...then you can think about all the $$$ your saving while you drive the extra 70 miles each way...you're really sticking it to THE MAN! The ski industry execs ought to hire you to do their jobs for them :lol:

Ummm, I was thinking that staying in a nice hotel vs. a seen-better-days-and-full-of-strange-odors condo, eating lobster at the Weathervane for the same price as burgers in Bethel and having something to do after 4 pm was more appealing. I wasn't out to stick it to the man, I just prefer the Portland option. The only way they can suck me into staying in the woods is with their lodging packages that are less than lift ticket prices. My view might change if they put in a decent amount of night skiing to eat into the 8 hours with nothing to do but watch TV and get the bubonic plague in the hot tub.

P.S. Boyne has followed an almost identical path to Leslie B. who started ASC. Small time for many years to a 3 year build into big time. It's not like he hadn't been running resorts for decades either!

 

[snowman]

Aw he does post here and on the Sr board and the Sugarloaf board. He might just answer you when he is surfing around. I'm sure he'll be lurking with the big promo coming.

I know...thus my comment.

 

[Vortex]

Wasn't sure where you were going. good enough

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

P.S. Boyne has followed an almost identical path to Leslie B. who started ASC. Small time for many years to a 3 year build into big time. It's not like he hadn't been running resorts for decades either!

Wow...that's a stretch. There is huge difference in the way the ASC was built and the way Boyne has grown...its called debt.

 

[snowman]

I guess i don't think that way.

You probably don't even understand how right you are. There are 3 types of thinkers in this world. Linear thinkers, multi-linear thinkers and star thinkers. Linear thinkers have a thought and it's simply that, a thought, they think about it for a bit, typically in a 1 dimentional way and then go on to thinking about something else. Multi-linear thinkers think about several things at once in a linear pattern. Star thinkers take a thought and basically there is an explosion of thoughts at once weighing the pros and cons of an idea in a multitude of directions. Star thinkers also have the ability to see things that don't even exist in their heads in 3 dimentional form to a degree of clarity that they can even make improvements on it like they are using computer cad software. The downfall of star thinkers is that when they have these explosions of thoughts they have trouble thinking back to what they were doing in the first place labelling them "scatter brains". The break down of the population is something like 80-19.9999999-.00000001. It's been determined that I'm actually one of the "scatter-brains"....basically by the military. The Military does the most testing into this stuff. Almost every famous General has been a star thinker. The military has always tried to utilize star thinkers for front line battle decisions over the years because they can usually see in their heads what's going to happen before it does. A couple presidents have been star thinkers as well, the current one excluded.

How does that fit in here? Well, this is why board rooms exist today. You put 12 linear thinkers in a room and hopefully you get an analasis of a sitution similar to what a star thinker can come up with. You have some that may think it's a great idea, you have others who immediately think of the pitfalls. If you have a boss however, with an idea, and the other 11 people in the room are too scared to tell him it's a $hitty idea, you have a definate problem. (BTW, this is totally not an analasis of Boyne SK...it's a generalization). Being a star thinker, I now can't even remember why I got into all this, lol, I guess my point is...if the idea was come up with by just a couple of people in a marketing dept with the same thought pattern and rushed to implimentation due to time constrictions from the short term of ownership and ending ball season, it could end up being one of the greatest ski resort management blunders of all time.

 

[skidude172]

It was being said on the SR forums that the tickets are only valid if the Red Sox win the World Series. Can anyone substantiate that?

Thanks.

 

[snowman]

Wow...that's a stretch. There is huge difference in the way the ASC was built and the way Boyne has grown...its called debt.

There is, and there isn't. The debt is still there. CNL could belly up. The lease agreements could be growth stiffling or be too sweet and end up in re-negotiation litigation. The only real difference now is the resorts have hopefully been blead down to something a bit closer to functional financed values than they were under ASC... enabling them to actually stay afloat. My view is 2 companies are actually worse than one, as they are likely going to burn up a lot of money in legal fees in negotiations amongst themselves.