Is Vail Resorts’ Downfall Inevitable?
Our overall assessment of Vail Resorts’ financial state as of the end of their 2024 Fiscal Year.
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0:00 Intro
0:42 Revenue Overview
2:01 Skier Visitation Change
3:20 Ticket and Pass Price Increases
5:46 Lodging Revenue
6:46 Ski School and Dining Revenue
7:32 My Epic Gear
8:04 Expenses Overview
9:12 EBITDA and Net Profitability
10:34 Trends in Recent Years
11:16 Stock Price Decline and Cost Cuts
12:43 Executive Pay Compensation
14:44 Decline in Ski Resort Upgrades
16:31 Final Thoughts
18:02 Become a Peak Patron
30 Comments
CORRECTION: We erroneously characterized Capital Expenses (CapEx) as expenses in the "Other Expenses" category of Vail Resorts' P&L Statement at 8:23. Turns out CapEx isn't actually an expense at all š
This might be a bit confusing if you're not from a finance background, but here's why:
CapEx is technically the funds used to purchase acquisitions, new lifts, etc. So this line item is actually an asset on the Balance Sheet ā and does not play a part in Vail's Net Income.
"Other Expenses" include purchases that typically happen on a one-off basis and are hard to group with another typical line item for the business. It might include things like one-time legal fees or settlements, unusual maintenance costs (e.g., an unexpected bullwheel replacement for a 30-year-old lift), or losses on investments.
My girlfriend dislikes only one place in Colorado and of course its Vail. The corporate feel and prices are a big turnoff
300 bucks a ticket is preposterous.
Ikon is just as bad
Canāt wait, locals will actually be able to ski their mountains again
Like so many businesses, theyāve failed to recognize and adapt to the changes as doing so requires less profit. The changes being a larger proportion of the population whose real income has been decreasing for many years, and the decrease in snowfall long term due to climate change.
Congratulations to Vail for killing the ski industryā¦ as a European skier those prices are pretty ridiculous especially when you consider the state of the lifts in NA resorts
Vail Resorts and Disney Parks as a business have more in common than you would think. Disney is fortunate to have a diversified business and do not need to rely on park attendance. Nevertheless they have seen flattening attendance and are increasing prices to accommodate like Vail. Vail is more in trouble being a singular business. Ultimately they both start to price people out and move to being more of a luxury product. The problem with that, is they make profit at scale. Itās not like Rolex who makes profit on low sales high margins. I think overtime weāll start to see the luxury competition problem. When something costs $5k+ now you are competing with people who have more ātripsā entertainment alternatives. I would imagine their only path to continued growth is 1) acquire more mountains 2) incentivize more passes with maybe lodging/rental/dining perks
Personally I think they can screw off.
After a few month long trips to Europe itās clear that in North America weāre paying at least double lifts, lodging, and food. This is the case whether itās a summer resort or a winter resort. And the transportation logistics there are far easier to deal with. Exceptional public transportation means there arenāt thousands of cars fighting for limited parking space.
I live in Colorado and the corporatization of lift-serve skiing over the years has been positively nauseating.
Problem is its not just Vail, there are a handful of other PE firms buying up resorts as well, our local resort got bought out and they are revamping and adding lifts all over…season passes will be doubling in price shortly as they've already gone up significantly in the last 2 years. Ski bums are gonna be rich guys in 2050?
I skied vail and beaver creek a few years ago. It was easily the worst experience I have ever had in skiing by a lot. No grooming, angry out of control skiers, no food in lodges, no toilet paper in bathrooms, their transit app was awful. But we got a free chocolate chip cookie at beaver creek – hopefully they don't cut those!
I'm 92 and Vail priced me out of my favoite ski resort, Okemo. I was so sorry to see the Mullers sell. The Vail Corp. also purchased one of my local resort Jack Frost in Pennsylvania. A small local ski resort can not be operated like a mega ski resort. A small resort can't support the over head of the mega resort.
EBITDA is a bad metric
I've come to dislike the trustafarian granola ski resort people and really come to enjoy the back country where I may not see anyone all day. The snow is better too.
There are many ski resorts in Utah, and most of them are not Vail. The smaller the resort, the cheaper the cost. For example, children aged 3-12 ski free, and all-day tickets cost around $30. Even lift tickets at larger resorts like Snowbird are only $185, and Brighton's range from $89-$120.
Greed is good, right? Profit is good. Greed destroys.
There are so many things wrong with this argumentā¦
1. A super decline from 2023 but barely glazing over how much growth there was from 2000-2023.
2. Using lift builds as a metric when they recently updated tons of lifts and only have 20 or so that are old now across all resorts.
3. Pretending like a CEO getting a huge salary while people are laid off is anything new or telling at allā¦
Vail is fineā¦ your own numbers prove thatā¦
Fun edit thoughā¦ big fan of the content in general my guy.
I grew up skiing a lot, but the costs are so ridiculous now I don't bother. I feel scammed every time I've gone in the past years, $500 spent in a day. I can get WAY better experiences for that same money. They have squeezed out the hobbyists in favor of the vacation spender that is willing to drop $5k to $10k for their annual winter trip. I hope Vail goes bankrupt and is forced to sell their resorts to operators that actually live skiing.
I live in northern Utah. Skiing is so cost prohibitive that Iāve pretty much given up on it.
Vail ruined Heavenly and Kirkwood. Both were great 20 years ago. Alterra ruined Squaw Valley (wokely now called Palisades Tahoe) BS.š
Vail sucks ass.
Skiied 10 days with your mom in Japan last year on epic pass it was sick
Wow! Glad this showed up in my feed. Nice dissection š I live at a non-vail resort that is not publicly traded and I suspect something similar is taking place at this resort, also. In 2022, a burger at the resort owned cafeteria was $15 CAD. It shot up to $25 CAD the following year. And, that doesn't include cafeteria fries. With fries and tax, the price tops just over $30 CAD. It also seems the resort is no longer struggling to recruit staff, which was a major problem from 2020-23. Rents are still high, but the resort owns and controls most staff housing, so that is not a surprise.
Vail is the Walmart of skiing.. Friends dont let friends ski Vail
These prices are wild. Growing up in Portland Oregon, since I owned my own gear and could drive up for night ski and bring my own meal, the whole trip would cost ~$50.
Bike Parks are the answer!
Vail resorts might be evil, but they did put in a 6 person lift at Whistler, and the line flies.
Vail is evil they have done nothing good for the snow sports community besides turning nature into a theme park. Get a season pass and ride your ass off that is the only way to beat them. If you buy day passes you are only contributing to their evil growth. 3 days passes are equal to one season pass.
Telluride even did away with the free pass for 80yo..if you can still ski at that age, you've earned your turns
https://youtu.be/a03zqzBhJBo?si=jekfbwuVnrJ9jAZv
Thanks, Vail ! for turning skiing into nothing more than a money sport and industrial wasteland. Never going to get a dollar out of my wallet. Family gave it up 20 yrs ago ! Now we just watch the horror show of crowds, traffic and $$$$$'s