Golfers on the 8th hole on
the Green Mountain National Golf Course
at Killington playing in the
Thursday Night Scramble

Golfers on the 8th hole on
the Green Mountain National Golf Course
at Killington playing in the
Thursday Night Scramble

Putting the public relations debacle of the lifetime pass issue aside, I am very optimistic about Killington with the sale of the resort by ASC to SP Land and Powdr Corp on May 11th. Since February when the announcement was made by the American Skiing Company that they were going to sell Killington, I have received numerous requests from inn guests and blog readers to comment. As the ski season came to a close in April, I doubt that there was a single guest at the inn who did not ask a question about the then pending sale. With the successful completion of the sale, it is appropriate too look forward to the implications of Killington under new ownership.

In writing this, I have a couple of caveats which are important. First, other than synthesizing conversations that have taken place with many people over the last year about the future of Killington, I have received no formal briefing nor do I possess any direct knowledge about how the new owners, in particular Powdr Corporation, intend to operate the resort. Second, I do have a vested interest in the resort being operated successfully, as I am a Killington resident and business owner, being the innkeeper of the Birch Ridge Inn.

As background, let's look at the transaction which took place on May 11th. On that date, the American Skiing Company transferred all of the assets from all of the subsidiaries and corporations owned by ASC for both the Killington and Pico resorts to 3 different entities, MBT Killington LLC, AMSC Killington LLC, and SP II Resort LLC. In the process, ASC effectively ended the continuous chain in the business life of the resort starting with the Sherburne Corporation and including Killington LTD, and Ski LTD among others. MBT Killington and AMSC Killington are both entities created by Powdr Corporation to operate as yet undefined segments of the resort. (The MB stands for Mount Bachelor and the AM stands for Alpine Meadows, both of which are resorts currently owned by Powdr.) SP II Resorts LLC is the next generation of SP Land LLC. SP Land originally entered the Killington lexicon 3 years ago as part of a financial restructuring on some of ASC's debt. SP Land is publicly on record as taking responsibility for the future development and implementation of a Village at Killington, including both residential and commercial properties. Concurrent with the sale, Powdr Corp announced the appointment of Chris Nyberg as the new President of Killington responsible for mountain operations. SP Land reaffirmed the position of Steve Selbo as President with his charter to do real estate development. Missing from all of the announcements was any statement concerning the senior staff previously employed by ASC to run Killington, including the future of the president of Killington during ASC's ownership, Allen Wilson. Also concurrent with the sale was the transfer of all leases of public lands owned by the State of Vermont from ASC entities to the new resort owners.

It should be noted that both Powdr Corp and SP Land are privately held corporations with no requirements to report on their business activities to the general public. ASC is still a publicly held company. Documents relating to the transaction from ASC's side of the deal have been provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available for public inspection on the SEC's Edgar online Database of corporate documents.

So what does this all mean for people who visit Killington (and guests who stay or dine at the Birch Ridge Inn)?

In simple terms it means that Killington is back!

Killington is a great winter and summer resort. In the 70's and 80's and most of the 90's, Killington was the premiere resort destination for skiing on the east coast of the US, bar none. When ASC purchased Killington 10 years ago from the resorts founder, Preston Leete Smith, ASC invested over $50M dollars in improving the resorts infrastructure. In particular, ASC installed new high speed gondolas, and built a water distribution system tapping the Woodward Reservoir in Plymouth VT to feed Killington's voracious snowmaking system. The last 5 years have not been kind, to say the least, to ASC and by association to Killington. ASC, in severe financial difficulty, had quite visibly cut corners on resort maintenance, operations, and marketing of the Killington resort. The new owners have made it abundantly clear through the local grapevine, and limited public statements, that they intend to restore Killington to a preeminent position as a destination resort.

In the near term, it is difficult to say what physical changes will take place at the resort. Any discussion on new lifts, or base lodges or village construction is purely speculative. Even though Powdr and SP Land are private companies, any activity they take in the construction area will be very visible publicly, starting with the myriad permits they would have to file with the Town of Killington and the State of Vermont. That not withstanding, I do believe that there will be significant cosmetic changes to the resort which should be visible to visitors very quickly in the form of a cleaner, freshly painted, more efficiently run operation, all aimed at immediately improving the Killington guest experience. ergo...Killington is back!

While it is natural to focus on the physical changes at Killington, I also perceive the potential for some significant, positive, unintended consequences of the break-up of ASC and the sale of Killington for Vermont, resorts in the Northeast, and the ski industry in general.

Over the last 10 years, the ski industry experienced mega consolidation. In the Northeast, ASC was effectively the largest single operator of ski resorts. This unfortunately had a corrosive effect on the ski industry, and travel and tourism in the northeastern US in general.

Prior to moving to Killington full time, Mary and I resided in the Boston area. In the 70's, 80's and early 90's, Boston saw intense competition from ski resorts to attract people to skiing, and to create a mindset of traveling to the mountains for recreation. Adults playing in the snow was the "in" thing to do. That message was constantly being reinforced by every ski resort via the marketing vehicles of the day including TV, radio, billboards, direct mail and ski magazines. In Boston, you could not get away from it. Killington, Mount Snow, Sugarbush, Stowe in Vermont were all household names. Ski 93 in New Hampshire became famous. And of course Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine were also trying to be invited to the party. Ski resorts genuinely competed for skiers. It sounds so basic.

But in reality, when ASC came along everything in the Northeast changed. In the Boston market, ASC effectively stopped advertising Killington, focusing the message on Sunday River instead. When ASC ran into financial difficulties, they significantly cut their advertising. Have you seen an ad for Killington produced by ASC in the last couple of years... No.. I though so. And guess what.. because ASC curtailed their advertising, the other Northeast resorts felt that they could cut back as well. So winter sports in the mountains fell from it's place front and center in peoples minds. The skiing population started to shrink as new skiers were not being added to the pool to make up for aging baby boomers departing the scene. The business of skiing for northeast resorts was literally going downhill, no pun intended. But I perceive that we are about to witness a change.

The demise of ASC has created an environment where intense competition should be re-ignited in the Northeastern US. Instead of one ASC entity marketing skiing with a highly segmented geographic message and very limited funding, there will be at least 3 new entities attempting to attract visitors (Mount Snow/Attash, Sunday River/Sugarloaf, and Killington/Pico). Because of the increase marketing of the now separate former ASC resorts, other resorts within the Northeast will have to turn up the volume of their marketing messages to be heard as well. And all of the resorts will be telling people to participate in winter sports, and visit the mountains of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In the marketing business, getting your message out is what counts. More impressions generate more business. Hence the unintended consequence of the purchase of Killington by Powdr and SP Land, and the demise of ASC, in the near term should be a resurgence of the winter sports industry in the Northeast as people get saturated by marketing messages about winter resorts. Of course, early on there will be cannibalization of skier visits as one resort attracts a larger audience of existing skiers that in prior years had previously played at other resorts. But ultimately the renewed marketing efforts of the industry will grow the population of people participating in winter sports as a whole. In marketing speak, the pie will get bigger. The winter sports industry as a whole will benefit as well as the states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine as new visitors flock to the mountains. (or so I hope... I am an innkeeper afterall!)

It is impossible to tell how it will all play out as the new owners of Killington come to grips with the opportunity they have purchased. But life in Killington has just gotten a whole lot more interesting again. Come to Killington... it's a great place to visit. You might decide to stay a while. Mary and I did!