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July 2014

Speak Out :: Letter to the Editor and Remembering Tom Jacobs

Letter to the editor and remembering Tom Jacobs.

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Letter to the Editor
I am responding to Ski Area Management’s (SAM) “Best and Worst Marketing 2013-14: Worst Timing of Bad News.” Like many in the industry, we will often disagree with your assessments of our marketing efforts. However, we all need to take them in good fun. But this year, that piece and your publication crossed a serious line. Your inclusion of the eviction notice sent by Talisker to Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR), as an “advertising and marketing effort” to be judged by your panel, was wrong on every level. The notice and the timing of its delivery were dictated by the legal process itself and I can categorically state that marketing or season pass sales did not factor into that decision in any way. Any suggestion to the contrary is both baseless and false and counter to public statements made at the time. To make such an inflammatory accusation, even in passing, is irresponsible and the fact that no one at your publication called us to comment is a breach of basic journalistic protocols. To include this in a light-hearted piece on industry marketing efforts shows poor taste and bad judgment. We expect SAM to hold themselves to higher editorial standards than what was demonstrated in this piece.

Sincerely,

Blaise Carrig

President, Vail Resorts, Inc.

Remembering Tom Jacobs
Thomas Jacobs, founder of Reliable Racing Supply with his wife Marilyn, died on April 10, 2014, in the comfort of his home.


From early childhood, Tom was an avid skier and was proficient in all four disciplines of ski racing, including slalom, downhill, cross country and jumping. Tom competed in the 1952 Olympic Games in Oslo, Norway, in the Nordic Combined events. Since his graduate studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder were interrupted by the Olympics, he returned to the university as a ski coach instead of a student.


Tom and Marilyn eventually moved East and were owners of the Inside Edge Ski and Bike shop and a catalog business, Reliable Racing Supply, now owned by their son John Jacobs. Tom’s many contributions to the sport and the industry led to his being inducted to the National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2007.