SAM Magazine--McLean, Va., Sept. 15, 2004--SnowSports Industries America (SIA) and VERB, a national government-funded kid's marketing campaign, are launching the first-ever VERB SnowSports Day on Dec. 4, 2004. The event will take place in retail stores nationwide and will introduce kids of all ages to snow sports. Retailers across the nation wil...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., Oct. 1, 2004--Apollo Ski Partners plans to convert its Class A shares to common shares and to distribute its holdings to its limited partner investors, ending Apollo's reign as controlling partner in Vail Resorts. Apollo held 17.8 percent of Vail's shares, but nearly 100 percent of the Class A stock that gave it the r...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., Oct. 1, 2004--Vail Resorts reported improved results for fiscal 2004 compared to the previous year. VR posted a 7.4 percent rise in resort revenue, to $676.8 million, for fiscal 2004 compared to 2003. Resort expense increased just 1.7 percent, to $530.1 million. Despite a warm March and an early end to the 2003-04 season,...

SAM Magazine--San Diego, Calif., Oct. 4, 2004--Future Network USA is launching a new Future Action Sports group that will include consumer and trade snowboard magazines. The group is headed by Fran Richards, former VP sales and marketing, publisher at TransWorld Media. Both publications will be based in San Diego. The quarterly Snowboard Trade N...

SAM Magazine--Ludlow, Vt., Oct. 6, 2004--Top executives Bruce Schmidt, Jay Gamble, Dave Wilcox and Jim Remy have new positions at Okemo, Vt., and Mount Sunapee Resort, N.H. Schmidt becomes VP and general manager at Okemo, where he will oversee Okemo's summer and winter operations. He has been with Okemo for 27 years in a variety of positions in ...

SAM Magazine--Durango, Colo., Oct. 6, 2004--The Ski Area Citizens' Coalition (SACC)'s annual Ski Area Environmental Scorecard has fingered the top and bottom 10 areas in the West based on their environmental performance, according to the group's rating system. Among those receiving A ratings in SACC's report-card-style system are Aspen Mountain,...

SAM Magazine--Pennsylvania, October 14, 2004--Laurel Mountain Ski Area has had its fair share of problems lately. The state-owned ski area, which has lived through several different concessionaires, may have finally found a home with Seven Springs Mountain Resort. The most recent concessionaire, George Mowl, took over operations in 1999. After inve...

SAM Magazine--Oceanside, Calif., Oct. 15, 2004--Whistler tops the TransWorld Snowboarding Resort Guide list as the best overall area for snowboarding in North America. The magazine guide includes ratings on 56 areas across the continent on pipes, parks and overall quality. The Resort Guide hits newsstands Oct. 19. Rounding out the top three are ...

Georgetown, Colo., October 15, 2004 -- Loveland kicked off the 2004-05 US ski season today with record opening-day traffic. "We don't like to talk about specific numbers, but we sold over 1000 tickets," said marketing director Kevin Wright. The previous record opening was about 800 tickets. It was Loveland's fifth consecutive year as the firs...

SAM Magazine--Boulder, Colo., Oct. 27, 2004--Areas have been opening at a record clip across the West as a series of storms and favorable snowmaking weather have cloaked the mountains in the white stuff. Loveland, Colo., was first, on Oct. 15. Loveland had a solid manmade base, plus nearly four feet of natural snow over the previous month. Arapa...

SAM Magazine--Oceanside, Calif., Nov. 1, 2004--Freeze Magazine will cease publication with its January 2005 issue, TransWorld Media (TWM) vice president/general manager Brad McDonald told SAM. In addition to the Freeze staff, TWM has cut loose director of marketing and business development Mike Jaquet and vice president of marketing and sales Al...

SAM Magazine--Park City, Ut., Nov. 1, 2004--American Skiing Company improved its financial results for the 2004 fiscal year and fourth quarter ended July 25, 2004, compared to year-earlier periods. But the company also acknowledged that its independent accounting firm, KPMG, had not been able to determine "whether substantial doubt exists about the...

SAM Magazine--Copper Mountain, Colo., Nov. 5, 2004--Copper and Snowbird, Ut., have joined the ranks of open areas in the U.S. today, with Killington, Vt., planning to open early next week, perhaps as early as Tuesday. Copper opened with 2,300 vertical feet of top-to-bottom skiing and riding, nearly 60 acres of terrain and 20 inches of man-made a...

SAM Magazine--Vancouver, Nov. 9, 2004--Intrawest saw revenue decline for the fiscal 2005 first quarter ended September 30, 2004 to $206.5 million from $276.6 million for the same period last year, due to an expected drop in real estate sales. But revenues and profits increased in the resort, travel, and management services divisions. The company in...

SAM Magazine--Dillon, Colo., Nov. 12, 2004--Resort openings are beginning to grow at an exponential rate as more areas across the country will join the ranks of the operating by tomorrow. Keystone opened today with 36 hours of continuous skiing and riding, thanks to its lighted slopes. This is the first time Keystone will launch with an all-nigh...