Along with everyone else in ski media, The Denver Post yesterday reported that Vail Resorts has extended its tentacles into the Utah ski scene by entering into a 50-year lease of The Canyons ski resort. Vail will lease the operations side of the mountain from Talisker for roughly $25 million a year, while Talisker retains the four million square feet of developable real estate and has rights to 42% of whatever revenues Vail makes with the place over $35 million.
Vail Resorts sees it as a ploy to add yet another mountain to their behemoth season pass offering, the Epic Pass, while also hoping to boost skier traffic at The Canyons well beyond their current 450,000 annual skier visits, which they consider a difficult volume to be profitable at. Which means The Canyons' relatively calm pow day traffic should soon climb to feverish levels more familiar to visitors of Alta and Snowbird. All indications are that the deal ends whatever animosity between the two ski resort giants still lingered from Vail Resort's 2007 lawsuit against Talisker, which was intended to keep The Canyons from switching hands from a broke American Skiing Company to one of Vail's biggest competitors.
Vail Resorts lands 50-year lease on Canyons Resort in Utah [The Denver Post]
Loading comments...