August 9 (SnowHunter)--The Mills Corporation, leading developer of innovative retail and entertainment destinations, today announced a September 29, 2004 groundbreaking for Meadowlands Xanadu in New Jersey, USA. Following on from the company's completion of the Madrid Xanadu last year, it is hoped that this new development will house the first U...

Dear Jennifer: I am writing in response to your open letter in the July 2004 SAM. As always, I respect SAM's role as an independent voice in the industry and I appreciate your willingness to voice your concerns on the future of NSAA and the industry. At the same time, I respectfully disagree with your opinion that the leaders of the industry hav...

SAM Magazine--Crested Butte, Colorado, August 5, 2004--John Norton, president and CEO at Crested Butte, announced that he will step down from that position to pursue a career in consulting. Norton will continue to work on projects for the ski resort as the point person for planning and approvals of expansion projects. Tim Mueller, the new owner ...

SAM Magazine--Silverton, Colorado, August 5, 2004--The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has given the OK to Silverton to host unguided skiers, up to 475 a day. The Bureau conducted a survey of the area, concentrating on avalanche safety, for three years before it rendered its recommendation. The fly in the ointment, however, is the recommendation...

SAM Magazine--North Conway, N.H., Aug. 4, 2004--The Threedom Pass, good at Booth Creek areas Cranmore, Loon, and Waterville Valley, offers increased benefits and options for the coming season. Unrestricted passes include college and youth passes ($199), teen passes ($249) and adult passes ($459). An adult pass with holiday blackout dates costs $319...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., August 4, 2004--Vail Resorts' quest to find a buyer has been put on hold, according to a story in the Denver Post and other sources. According to reports, the investment firm of KKR withdrew its bid, and the offer from Texas Pacific Group was well below VR's asking price. Nobody from the companies involved has commente...

SAM Magazine--Sherbrooke, Que., Aug. 3, 2004--Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. is selling its industrial vehicle division, including snow groomers, to Quebec component-maker Camoplast Inc., which produces rubber tracks and components for groomers and other heavy-duty tracked vehicles. Terms of the transaction were not released. The sale is exp...

Vail, Colo., July 30, 2004--Two large buyout firms are finalists in the possible sale of Vail Resorts, according to a report in the Denver Post. Sources have told the paper that Texas Pacific Group and Henry Kravis, a principal in New York investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), both submitted proposals this week. Sources said that VR's b...

SAM Magazine--McLean, Va., July 27, 2004--SnowSports Industries America (SIA) has joined the VERB campaign, a program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) focused on motivating kids ages 9 to 13 to get more physically active. VERB is a comprehensive, multicultural campaign that reaches out via kid-cool advertising, promotion a...

July 29, New Jersey (SnowHunter)--The joint developers of the $1.3 billion Xanadu project in New Jersey, Mills Corp. and Mack-Cali, have launched a website atYÂ¥ www.meadowlandsxanadu.com to showcase their plans. Xanadu would comprise five themed 'districts' over the 104-acre Continental Arena site.YÂ¥ The entertainment district will be the ...

SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, July 21, 2004--OLN will broadcast 22 hours of original ski and snowboard event programming annually, with multiple re-airings, according to terms of a multi-year agreement between the sports channel and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA). OLN is in 59 million homes and televises events such as the Tour de F...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., July 21, 2004--Vail Resorts has committed approximately $600,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to the Alpino 10,000 Project, which aims to introduce 10,000 Denver-area youth to snowsports in Colorado over the next two years. For each of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, Vail will contribute $5,000 a year to the Alpi...

SAM Magazine--Lakewood, Colo., July 15, 2004--The ski industry has made substantial progress in its efforts to reduce environmental impacts, according to the Sustainable Slopes Annual Report prepared by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). The report is based on information from 62 resorts representing 19 states and three Canadian provinces. ...

SAM Magazine--Copper Mountain, Colo., July 13, 2004--Summit County Commissioners have denied Intrawest's long-term development plan for doubling the size of Copper Mountain after a three-year planning process. Intrawest was seeking land-use approval for 1,155 additional residential units at Copper, beyond the 500 remaining units in its current p...

SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, July 13, 2004--In a move that entrenches discounted season's passes in the Northeast, American Skiing Co. (ASC) is introducing an All for One Pass valid at the company's six Eastern resorts, at prices ranging from $349 to $599. The passes are based on a similar offer introduced last winter at Attitash Bear Peak and Su...

SAM Magazine--Mont Tremblant, Que., July 13, 2004--Gray Rocks Inn and ski area will close its doors on Oct. 10, marking the first time in a nearly a century that the Gray Rocks Inn will close for the winter and shuttering one of the pioneering ski areas of the region. Owner Phillip Robinson blamed the extreme cold and the general tourism slump f...

SAM Magazine--Ludlow, Vt., July 13, 2004--American Skiing Company (ASC) will pay $5.1 million to settle its lawsuit with Triple Peaks, LLC, stemming from ASC's last-minute termination of the proposed sale of the Steamboat Ski Resort to Triple Peaks in 2001. In return, Triple Peaks has agreed to a full dismissal of all claims relating to the sale. ...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., July 9, 2004--Vail Resorts has been actively seeking a buyer for some or all of its assets, according to reports in the Denver Post and the Vail Daily, based on several unofficial sources in Vail valley. Speculation about a possible sale has also been fueled by a recent runup in the price of Vail stock (currently about $1...

SAM Magazine--Vancouver, B.C., July 7, 2004--Intrawest has acquired an equity interest in the Abercrombie & Kent Group (A&K), a leading luxury adventure-travel company. The companies will offer a range of high-end travel, leisure and vacation experiences at destinations around the globe. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Abercrombie &...

SAM Magazine--Wrightwood, Calif., July 6, 2004--Mountain High Resort is purchasing neighboring Ski Sunrise for about $375,000. The sale of the 97-acre area, located about one mile from Mountain High's existing East and West areas, is set for mid-July. Mountain High GM Karl Kapuscinski told SAM that, in the short term, Sunrise will be used as a t...

SAM Magazine--June 28, Tully, N.Y.--Ski Areas of New York announced that New York State ski areas received 4,034,325 skier/snowboard visits for the 2003/04 season, making it the third best season on record. The 50 ski and snowboard resorts that call New York home had a record season last year with 4,256,507 visits and attribute the drop off this ye...

SAM Magazine--Juneau, Alaska, June 15, 2004--In addition to the $300,000 the City and Borough of Juneau gives to Eaglecrest Ski Area each year, the resort was granted another $100,000 in order to offset a projected shortfall of $652,000 next year. Eaglecrest is a municipally-owned area that relies on local users to cover 70 percent of operating exp...

SAM Magazine--Donnelly, Idaho, June 15, 2004--Tamarack resort had its second straight sell-out when it unloaded 64 real estate products, raising approximately $33.4 million for scheduled development. Homebuyers from Idaho (58 percent), California (28 percent), Oregon (4.6 percent) and Georgia (3.1 percent) bought 10 cottages, 18 resort-built chalet...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., June 14, 2004--Vail released its financial results for the third quarter ended April 30, 2004, and the news was all good. In fact, it was their best third quarter ever thanks mainly to a jump in the company's mountain segment, a 10.2 percent growth in average realized price for the ski season and record visits for Beaver ...

SAM Magazine--Hood River, Ore., June 14, 2004--The Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association (PNSAA) announced that the region is on track for its third best season ever with 4.71 million visits forecast. Washington state recorded 1.86 million and Oregon is projecting 1.63 million once the summer season ends. PNSAA encompasses resorts in Washingto...

SAM Magazine--June 11, 2004, North Conway, N.H.-- Tom Day, acting GM at Booth Creek-owned Cranmore Mountain Resort announced today that Ben Wilcox will become the new GM of the resort starting June 18, 2004. For the past 11 years, Wilcox was the marketing director at Bretton Woods Resort and the Mount Washington Hotel....

SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, May 14, 2004--American Skiing Company (ASC) has restructured its real estate debt, cutting $80.4 million from its balance sheet. The restructuring creates a new partnership between ASC's Killington Resort and SP Land, a newly formed affiliate of Eiger, Inc., one of the lenders under ASC's Real Estate Term Facility,...

SAM Magazine--Aspen, Colo., June 10, 2004--Colorado Ski Country USA reported the state hosted more than 11.2 million skier visits this season as in-state visits fell, destination numbers stabilized, and several international markets rebounded. The total represents a 3.4 percent decline from the 2002-03 season. "For the first time in seven years,...

SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, June 10, 2004--American Skiing Company reported a loss for the nine months ended April 25 of $38.4 million, slightly less than the $42.8 million loss a year earlier. The company credited increased season's pass revenues, cost controls and coordinated marketing for the improved financial performance despite a slight de...

SAM Magazine--Rossland B.C., June 4, 2004--A private investment group led by Howard Katkov of San Diego has purchased Red Mountain Resort for an undisclosed amount. With a recently approved community plan in hand to guide future development, the new ownership expects to construct 1,300 dwelling units and 70,000 square feet of commercial space ov...

SAM Magazine--Rossland B.C., June 4, 2004--A private investment group led by Howard Katkov of San Diego has purchased Red Mountain Resort for an undisclosed amount. With a recently approved community plan in hand to guide future development, the new ownership expects to construct 1,300 dwelling units and 70,000 square feet of commercial space ov...

SAM Magazine--McLean, Va., June 7, 2004--Overall sales at ski and snowboard specialty and chain stores for August through March increased a mere 0.6 percent in dollars during 2003-04 season, to $2.21 billion, compared to $2.20 billion for 2002-03, according to the end-of-season SIA Retail Audit. In snowboards, both equipment and apparel sales in...

SAM Magazine--Savannah, Georgia, May 19, 2004--Seven new members were elected to the National Ski Areas Association's board, along with a new chairman. Taking on the top spot is David Crowley, president of Wachusett Mountain, Mass. Crowley previously served on the executive board as vice chair. He replaces Sugarbowl's Rob Kautz. Also elected are...

SAM Magazine--Savannah, Georgia, May 17, 2004--The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) released the preliminary skier visit numbers for the 2003/2004 season which are projected to be 56.8 million, the third best season on record. The numbers are down 1.3 percent from the 2002/2003 season which set the all-time record of 57.6 million. The Pacif...

SAM Magazine--Big Bear Lake, Calif., May 14, 2004--Big Bear Mountain Resorts (BBMR) areas Bear Mountain and Snow Summit totaled nearly 800,000 visits this past season. As a result of positioning Bear Mountain as a snowboard and ski pipe and park mountain and downplaying those features at sister area Snow Summit, the two areas have developed two ...

SAM Magazine--North Woodstock, N.H., May 14, 2004--New Hampshire recorded its third best winter in the past decade, posting 2,044,422 alpine skier and snowboarder visits. The figure is slightly above the state's 10-year average and down just 9 percent from last year, the state's second-best ever. Mid-season estimates were for visits to fall by 10 t...

SAM Magazine--Oceanside, Calif., May 13, 2004--TransWorld Media is launching TransWorld Business, a new monthly trade magazine for retailers, that will cover the skate, surf, and snowboarding industries. The new title will debut in September and incorporate elements of, and replace, TransWorld SNOWboarding Business, TransWorld SKATEboarding Busines...

SAM Magazine--Vancouver, B.C., May 13, 2004--Intrawest recorded improved revenues for the fiscal 2004 third quarter ended March 31, 2004 despite reduced skier visits. Total revenue for the quarter was $437.3 million compared with $402.5 million for the same period last year. Total Company EBITDA was $128.1 million compared with $125.5 million in...

SAM Magazine--Scranton, Pa., May 10, 2004--Montage Mountain Ski Area, owned by Lackawanna County, is for sale. The minimum sale price is $9.6 million in cash. Three potential bidders have shown interest, including one group led by Joe Aichholz Jr., owner of nearby Blue Marsh Ski Area. A northern Poconos ski area is also said to be interested. The c...

SAM Magazine--Salt Lake City, Utah, May 10, 2004--Utah's 13 ski areas achieved record attendance this past season, with 3,386,141 skier-rider visits. That is three percent above the previous best season (2000-01) and seven percent better than 2002-03. And the record will grow, as Snowbird is still open through May 31. Ski Utah credited early and...

SAM Magazine--Telluride, Colo., April 23, 2004--Telluride Ski & Golf Resort has named Raymond Jacobi as the company's new chief executive officer (CEO). Jacobi will oversee all aspects of resort operations, sales, marketing and management as well as the overall growth and development of properties recently purchased by the resort's new majority ...

SAM Magazine--Lakewood, Colo., April 23, 2004--Troy Hawks has been named managing editor of the NSAA Journal, effective May 3. Hawks joins NSAA after a decade-long writing and editing career that includes positions with several mountain newspapers and contributions to national trade and consumer magazines, among them SKI, Fly Rod & Reel, Rocky M...

SAM Magazine--Vancouver, B.C., April 22, 2004--Intrawest has combined all of its travel and resort businesses into the newly formed Leisure and Travel Group, which includes Intrawest's mountain and warm-weather resorts, lodging and central reservations businesses, and Club Intrawest. This group of businesses generated $650 million in revenues in fi...

SAM Magazine--Sandpoint, Idaho, April 22, 2004--Ron Nova, VP of Operations for Schweitzer Mountain parent company Harbor Resorts, is Schweitzer's new GM. He replaces Tom Fortune, Schweitzer's GM for the past 5 years, who is resigning to join a local real-estate company. Nova has spent most of his career at Stevens Pass, also owned by Harbor Reso...

SAM Magazine--Boulder, Colo., April 21, 2004--Marc Peruzzi has been named editor-in-chief of Skiing Magazine. He replaces Perkins Miller, who was recently promoted to vice president, managing director of Mountain Sports Media, Skiing's parent company. Peruzzi began with Skiing in 2002 as senior editor and served as acting executive editor for mo...

SAM Magazine--Wolf Creek, Colo., April 16, 2004--The owners of Wolf Creek Ski Area are opposing a planned second home development on 288 acres in the midst of the resort's 1,300-acre permit area, arguing that the project, which would be one of the largest in Colorado, would destroy the character and the nature of the minimalist ski area. Wolf Cr...

SAM Magazine--Woodbury, Conn., April 13, 2004--Ski Area Management Magazine (SAM) is pleased to announce this year's recipients of the SAMMY Future Leadership Awards. The awards, now in their seventh year, honor those in the wintersports industry whose strong innovative leadership demonstrated at mid-career shows exciting promise for even more acco...

From April 1-4, over 300 ski and snowboard industry executives gathered at Copper Mountain, Colorado, at a summit geared to take over the roles that the Transworld Industry Conference and Ski Industry Week once played. By uniting the two conferences, Transworld Snowboarding, Mountain Sports Media and Snowsports Industries America, hope to provide a...

SAM Magazine--Keystone, Colo., April 6, 2004--Twenty-seven skiers and snowboarders, including two adaptive athletes, from 22 different resorts were named to the Next Snow Team at Keystone this past weekend. The team, chosen at the Next Snow Search finals, culminated three days of competition that drew 200 tweener athletes ages 9 to 13 from 51 North...

SAM Magazine--Washington, D.C., April 2, 2004--Sixty-seven U.S. ski resorts are urging U.S. Senators to pass the bi-partisan global warming bill introduced by John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.). A companion measure has been introduced in the House of Representatives. "Winter is short enough already. It's time to start fixing the g...

SAM Magazine--Denver, Colo., April 2, 2004--Colorado's ski industry generates $2 billion annually and provides 31,000 jobs, according to a report released by Colorado Ski Country USA. The ski industry accounts for more than a quarter of the state's $7 billion tourism revenues. Resorts take in nearly $1 billion themselves, while estimates of reve...

SAM Magazine--Big Bear Lake, Calif., Mar. 26, 2004--A forest fire that burned 400 acres led to the evacuation of Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski areas late Thursday, and Bear Mountain remained closed Friday. By late Friday the fire was under control, though, and both areas will be open on Saturday. Neither area suffered significant damage. The...

SAM Magazine--Boulder, Colo., Mar. 25, 2004--Perkins Miller has become vice president, managing director of Mountain Sports Media, a new position at the company and part of a restructuring effort aimed at developing the group's multi-media capabilities. Miller was most recently editor-in-chief of Skiing Magazine. In his new role, Miller assumes ...

SAM Magazine--Winter Park, Colo., March 25, 2004--Explosives used for avalanche control were stolen from the Winter Park ski area last weekend. On Monday morning, ski resort patrollers found that an undisclosed number of high-explosive Trojan Boosters, cylinders packed with pentaerythritol tetranitrate, had been taken from a locked storage shed...

SAM Magazine--Donnelly, Ida., March 25, 2004--Jim Spenst is joining Tamarack Resort as vice president of operations. Spenst is currently vice president of mountain operations for Copper Mountain Resort, and will remain in that position through the current season. At Tamarack, Spenst will oversee lift operations, the Alpine and Nordic trail syste...

SAM Magazine--Avon, Colo., March 23, 2004--In "Operation Freedom Lodging," Keystone and Breckenridge are offering 1,000 complimentary room nights to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan for R&R. Rooms are available between April 1 and December 16. A soldier from any branch of the military who has served on active duty for more than 30 days...

SAM Magazine--McLean, Va., March 17, 2004--Overall sales for the winter sport market (including specialty and chain stores) increased 1.8 percent in dollars to $1.72 billion for August 2003 through January 2004, according to the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Retail Audit. Unit sales were ahead 5.8 percent. Growing interest in Nordic and telem...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., March 17, 2004--Booth Creek resort operations revenues rose 2 percent for the first quarter ended Jan. 30, 2004, to $47,315,000, as earlier openings at Sierra-at-Tahoe and the Summit areas in Washington State offset a slower season in the East. Increased snow school, equipment rental, retail and food and beverage sales al...

SAM Magazine--North Creek, N.Y., March 12, 2004--The state comptroller has endorsed a proposal to link Gore Mountain and the North Creek Ski Bowl, create 2,500 new lodging beds and extend passenger train service from Saratoga Springs to North Creek, providing New Yorkers direct train service to the resort. Comptroller Alan Hevesi predicted the d...

SAM Magazine--Denver, Colo., March 12, 2004--Visits to resorts in Colorado were up 3.5 percent over year-ago levels in January and February, according to Colorado Ski Country USA. Areas recorded 4,982,652 visits during the period. Destination visits led the rise. Destination resorts hosted 1,582,555 visits (a 6.1 percent increase over 2002-03) i...