Mountain Times
April 3, 2017
Killington Resort to host races Thanksgiving weekend 2017-2018
By Evan Johnson
Some of the best ski racers in the world will again be carving turns down Superstar at Killington Resort, Mike Solimano, resort president announced Monday, April 3. The FIS World Cup will return to Killington Resort over Thanksgiving weekend 2017, Nov. 24-26.
“We wanted to announce to the community first,” he said. “We’ll be getting the word out soon.”
Solimano made the announcement at a summer kick-off event at the Killington Grand Hotel on Monday evening. The news, which had been rumored in the previous weeks picking up credibility after the Aspen Daily News announced that Aspen would not host the race due to needed infrastructure improvements at the resort.
“Hosting the World Cup event last year was an amazing opportunity not just for Killington Resort but for the entire community and region,” said Tao Smith head of Killington Mountain School. “For our students at KMS the experience was especially inspiring and we supported the event in many ways… we hope to have that opportunity again!”
Confirmation of the news that the World Cup will indeed return to Killington elicited very positive reactions from the community members in the audience, with hoops and hollers and a long-lasting round of applause.
When the resort hosted the World Cup over Thanksgiving weekend last year, the event attracted 30,000 spectators—many times more than other early season races held worldwide. It marked a return of World Cup ski racing to New England after a 25-year hiatus and a return to Vermont after 38 years.
The event was also a huge boost for business and helped kick off the early season.
Now, Killington will be the host of the early season Thanksgiving races for the next two years
Killington’s World Cup races will be followed by races in Beaver Creek, Colo., not long after. Those two events are the only to take place in the U.S.A. next race season, according to Rob Megnin, director of marketing, sales and reservations for Killington and Pico.
“We’re working to make it the best we can,” Solimano said.
Solimano said the race raised the profile of skiing in the East and at Killington, but was an expensive endeavor. The resort and its parent company Powdr Corp have been working on ways to make the event more sustainable for the future. The race came to a net cost of $1.2 million, according to Solimano.
One of those ways is local support. On Town Meeting Day, Killington residents approved a town budget that included $100,000 to help cover expenses associated with the race. The money would be paid to the Swiss-based Federation Internationale de Ski, which organizes the World Cup. Moving forward, the resort will hope to attract sponsors at all levels.
Comment: According to Mike Solimano last year's attendance was the most ever at any women's World Cup event.
The town's support also came in the recession of the One Percent Sales Tax, which is by far a more significant offset to the World Cup expenses. Wonder why nobody mentioned it.
Vito
7 comments:
The options tax will not be rescinded until 2018, so won't have any effect this year.
Thanks Dave, that's true, sorry for not being clear about that. However close to a million dollars additional cash flow in the following year and every year thereafter is a much more significant boost to the resort than the 100k one time contribution.
Was it really a million dollar difference? I followed pretty closely and I thought it was considerably less. ?
In a quote from a previous posting of a Vermont Standard article:
"Solimano said if the tax was repealed the Resort would not ask the town for World Cup support in the future.
Why would this make a difference to the Resort? The Resort’s lift tickets and ski-and-stay packages are priced on an “allinclusive” basis – repeal of the tax will drop 1 percent of the sale price to their bottom line, and they are the largest generator of the $1.095 million in tax revenue.
And what do taxpayers gain from this, besides 1 percent relief in the cost of utilities and retail purchases?
For one thing, the taxpayers won’t be asked to finance the World Cup if it becomes an annual event. And, chair McGrath said, the Events and Marketing Department would be “dissolved,” which would eliminate the lingering doubts among opponents of the shared KPAA-town employee."
Not only does the resort retain the 1% of their sales but also what they would have paid for what they purchased i.e. electricity and other consumables, which was once quoted by Chris Nyberg to be about $70-80,000.
So instead of remitting 1% of the "all inclusive" price to the state and town, the resort keeps it. Keep in mind that the town only got 65-70% of that money and the state kept the rest. So the resort gets to keep all of it.
I reviewed some of the past posting regarding the 1% recession and the money going back to the resort is about $500,000 and that on an annual basis. So while not "close to a million dollars" it still is significantly more the the $100,000 one time payment.
Yep, definitely not an insignificant amount.
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