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(April, 2000) - Although the jury—who are skiers and boarders enjoying unlimited access to the slopes thanks to pre-season value passes—is out sliding, early indications suggest pre-season passes will be a boon both to snow sliders and the resorts they are frequenting.  

When Bogus Basin’s President Mike Shirley floated a $199 season pass back in the spring of 1998, his aim was to increase skier days and revenues. He never expected to start a revolution. While Bogus Basin’s inaugural season value pass, which had to be purchased in the spring, was viewed skeptically by most ski area operators, it was enthusiastically embraced by 24,859 Idaho skiers—only 2,854 guests had purchased season passes during the 1997-98 season, when season passes cost $500.

During the fall of 1998, at Gart Sports’ annual Sniagrab (bargains spelled backwards) in Denver, Colo., Colorado’s Winter Park Resort tore a rent in the pattern of Front Range skiers’ loyalties with the introduction of the 4-Pack “buddy pass,” which allowed any four persons to share the cost of a $795 pass. (Winter Park was even grouping people on its web site.) After a day or two of watching the long lines at Winter Park’s booth, Copper Mountain Resort and Vail Resorts scrambled to create variations of multi-person passes for unrelated skiers and riders. Smaller hard-hit areas followed with their own versions. After a season of watching and monitoring whether or not the resorts involved were going to lose a ton of money, it became apparent that the presale of value-priced season passes was a very smart move.  

The immediate gain is, of course, the financial windfall prior to ski season. Just ask Dick Ludwig, owner of Boston Mills/Brandywine Ski Resort in Ohio, who last spring offered $199 passes for the 1999-2000 season, which had to be purchased by April 31 (and could be used for the last three weeks of the 98-99 season). Last year, he said 340 season passes were sold; this year the number is 2,739 and the money was in by late spring.  

“Obviously the dollar impact is very important to us. We get money that we can use during the off-season rather than having to borrow it from our friendly banks!” Ludwig said.

Bogus Basin’s Shirley, who said they sold 25,360 passes for the 1999-2000 season, noted that in the first year Bogus Basin had a 60 percent increase in skiers and a 60 percent increase in revenue. This winter they again started the season with money in the bank.

Beyond the up-front financial windfall, there is the potential of increased revenue from ski school, retail, food and beverage, lodging and other sources.

Although Winter Park Resort’s Marketing Director Paula Sheridan declined to give numbers, Winter Park tracked data last season and “saw yields in everything go up.”  

Last summer saw a veritable blizzard of value-priced unrestricted season passes go on sale nationwide. Several had to be purchased in the spring, but even Keystone/Breckenridge was among the group that let skiers and riders purchase the passes well into the fall. Many were offered at the $199 price, but a few resorts gave a sliding scale with the lower prices leaning toward midweek.  

Spirit Mountain in Minnesota, where the price of a season pass is $179, offered new pass holders a $99 pass. Current pass holders who brought in two new pass holders could also get their passes for $99. Pre-season passes totaled 8,391, according to Rick Certano, Spirit Mountain’s executive director. “The area was starting the season with well over a million dollars,” he said.

This summer Booth Creek offered variations of “buy early, buy cheap” season passes at every resort except Northstar.  Booth Creek Vice President of Marketing and Sales Julie Maurer wouldn’t give the specific number of passes sold, but indicated they were delighted with the results.

“We tripled our season passes at the Summit at Snoqualmie located near Seattle, Washington,” said Maurer. “The Summit passes, which had to be purchased by Oct. 31, ranged in price from $169 for Monday through Friday skiing to $299 for a good-anytime pass. At Grand Targhee in Wyoming, we did five times the season passes, but it’s a smaller market and price sensitive.

“Judging by the demographics of the people who purchased the pass, we definitely reached the family market,” said Maurer. A preliminary survey of pass holders suggests they will ski more days. “We feel like this is a big upside opportunity to increase spending in ancillary products.”  

The $199 Threedom Pass, an interchangeable season pass at Booth Creek’s Loon, Waterville Valley and Cranmore mountains in New Hampshire is designed to increase market share. The pass was developed in mid-July, so anyone who had already purchased a regular-price season pass was offered a refund. According to Loon’s Marketing Director Dave Anderson, many people took their refund and purchased additional Threedom passes for other family members who never had season passes. “That’s when we knew that this was a good idea,” he said. A new bar code system at Loon will be tracking pass usage, but Anderson says preliminary research indicates that pass holders plan to ride and ski more often, especially midweek.

“That’s great news for us, because that’s what we want to accomplish,” Anderson said. “Even in early December, there was an upswing in the numbers going to Loon’s snowsports school.”

Some resorts going into a second year of value passes are tweaking the programs. Winter Park added a midweek component in part to help with weekend congestion on the highways and in response to Copper Mountain Resort’s popular value-priced “hooky” pass for midweek skiers.

Keystone and Breckenridge sold 15,000 passes (four persons to a pass). This winter they’re offering special lodging and dining discounts.

Officials agree perception is a critical word in this industry and the public has long perceived that skiing is expensive. The consensus among ski area management informally queried is that these value-priced season passes are changing this perception.

“Skiing has always been visualized as an expensive sport, even at our level, and we’ve tried very hard to keep it down by trying to drive people to a season pass but not lowering our daily price,” Boston Mills/Brandywine’s Ludwig said.  

The resorts are aware that the pass holders are a mix of hard-core skiers, lapsed skiers and newcomers. But no matter the demographics, these pass holders will be a pot of gold for savvy resorts.

“We have a captive audience and we intend to ‘speak to them,’” Booth Creek’s Maurer said. She intends to experiment with pass-holders to “try to motivate and influence their behavior.” She believes that the key is creating a sense of community and involving them through targeted programs.

As for the downside? Now that nearly two seasons have passed, few see major downsides. Last summer, the industry was talking about losing the money because skiers will no longer buy higher-priced passes, and concern that the skiers would “brown bag” lunches and boycott ski school, but the dramatic increase in the number of pass holders is bringing far greater dollar amounts than did the high-priced passes. Although most refused to give revenue numbers, spokespersons for the resorts that sold passes last year said that revenues were up.

“The mathematics at Bogus Basin have worked out so that revenue increases are at about the same rate as the skier visits,” Shirley said. Another big concern is the sheer volume of skiers on the slopes certain days. However, with many resorts underutilized, the influx generally is welcome. At Bogus Basin, management is concentrating on creating a good guest service experience,” he added.  

Certano sums the topic up well: “I think Mike Shirley hit the nail on the head. ‘It’s the price stupid!’ I don’t care what the multiple of a lift ticket is, and I don’t care what your season pass is worth. The only thing that matters is what the public is willing to pay for it. You’re not in competition with other ski area season pass prices; you’re in competition with all the other forms of recreation and entertainment that are available to people today. We’ve talked about the NSAA campaign to focus on bringing skiers back. Here’s the answer.”  

Lois Friedland is a freelance writer who covers the snowsports industry. This article is reprinted with the permission of the National Ski Areas Association.