ORDA's Biggest Mistakes

[x10003q]

First this:
Upgrades before WUG.

Ski jumps hit cost bump

LAKE PLACID — The ongoing state-funded upgrades to the Olympic Jumping Complex have hit a speed bump. The Olympic Regional Development Authority received just one response to a request for proposals to regrade the landing hills at the 90- and 120-meter ski jumps, in order for them to meet...

www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com

Then this just happened :

Lake Placid ski jumping World Cup is canceled

LAKE PLACID — One of this village’s most well-attended events, the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup, which was scheduled for mid-December, has been canceled and relocated, due to needed repairs to the Olympic Jumping Complex’s HS128 observation deck. This comes following a recent inspection, which...

www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com

Post in thread 'ORDA's Biggest Wins'

Sep 19, 2023

For the FISU games, I don't think the teams themselves spent much time or money at local businesses. There were also far fewer spectators than anticipated. I consider it to have been a flop. The world cup at the ski jumps though? That drew near Killington world cup crowds and was a resounding success. Yet no one talks about it.

• snoloco

• 

Is this any way to run an airline?

What do you expect? They hired Walden with zero experience in running a large organization to be the CEO. The results speak for themselves. The cancellation of the Wold Cup jumping events is a huge failure for ORDA. Why plow so much money into the jumping venue if you cannot use it for a World Cup event?

Has there been any mention of the replacement for Transue? He was promoted to VP of Alpine Venues Operations Nov 26, 2024 and gone 5 months later. It seems like a position running operations at the 3 ski areas is pretty important especially when you consider CEO Walden's complete lack of knowledge about running any ski area, let alone 3 ski areas.

The hits just keep on coming at ORDA.

 

[tirolski]

What do you expect?

Not much anymore.

They hired Walden with zero experience in running a large organization to be the CEO. The results speak for themselves. The cancellation of the Wold Cup jumping events is a huge failure for ORDA.

Yup.

Why plow so much money into the jumping venue if you cannot use it for a World Cup event?

Who knows?

The hits just keep on coming at ORDA.

Maybe zippycoastering will become an Olympic event.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Auditors: Olympic authority loses record $50 million last year

Lake Placid's Olympic authority loses record $50 million despite revenue gains. Audit shows event spending and personnel costs drive mounting deficits.

www.adirondackexplorer.org

 

[Peter Minde]

The improvements to the ski jumps, Mt van Ho etc, in advance of the FISU Games, were done on Mike Pratt's watch. Walden came along in 2024.

With the $$ and labor ORDA is pouring into the sliding track this summer, I'd prefer to think that ORDA would have been proactive about the observation deck if they thought there was an issue. But this is kinda like sports talk radio where guys argue after the fact about that dropped fly ball.

As long as I've been following ORDA, their credo has been putting heads in beds - driving the local economy - more than turning a profit. We could camp out at RiverTrail Brewing and drink them dry arguing over their finances, especially since their annual reports are so opaque these days. Where they talk about increased compensation, let's hope some of that's going to the lifties and maintenance workers and not just C level executives.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

The Transue thing says a lot about ORDA management. He was the savior of Whiteface in 2024 and then of Gore last year. But in the case of Gore in 2025, he was responsible for operations from the beginning of the season. Why did he let it get so bad? Why did it take half the season before ORDA corrected them? That tells me that there was poor internal communication. No one in North Creek was telling Lake Placid the truth until it broke out in public.
Transue was apparently the only one in the whole organization who knew how to make snow, but they had to fire him because they promoted him before he was trained up enough to deal with the union or simple HR stuff.
It makes me wonder what next season will be like.

mm

 

[Ripitz]

We could camp out at RiverTrail Brewing and drink them dry arguing over their finances,

Sounds like a plan.

 

[tirolski]

The improvements to the ski jumps, Mt van Ho etc, in advance of the FISU Games, were done on Mike Pratt's watch. Walden came along in 2024 2023.

FIFY, twas announced August ’23.

Olympian Ashley Walden is new ORDA CEO

LAKE PLACID — Ashley Walden has been named the new president and CEO of the state Olympic Regional Development Authority and will take over from current ORDA CEO Michael Pratt starting Sept. 11. Walden, 41, is a former Olympic luge athlete and a current resident of Lake Placid. She will be the...

www.lakeplacidnews.com

She’s a slider not a jumper.

We could camp out at RiverTrail Brewing and drink them dry arguing

And/Or we could civilly discuss on The NYSkiBlogForumThingy.

 

[Campgottagopee]

As long as I've been following ORDA, their credo has been putting heads in beds - driving the local economy - more than turning a profit. We could camp out at RiverTrail Brewing and drink them dry arguing over their finances, especially since their annual reports are so opaque these days. Where they talk about increased compensation, let's hope some of that's going to the lifties and maintenance workers and not just C level executives.

I hear ya. If they broke even or even close I doubt anyone would even complain. But, to lose $50 million in one year and have no accountability is madness to me. If these people worked in the real world they'd be gone.

 

[Peter Minde]

I hear ya. If they broke even or even close I doubt anyone would even complain. But, to lose $50 million in one year and have no accountability is madness to me. If these people worked in the real world they'd be gone.

Gotta love these semi-private authorities.

 

[x10003q]

Gotta love these semi-private authorities.

They are all public.
There are almost 600 of these public authorities in NYS. Some serve legitimate purposes as a way to operate NYS infrastructure (highways, bridges, public transportation). There are many that do not fit this definition. They are used to get around voter approval required by the NYS constitution for public borrowing and debt. Official monitoring by NYS elected officials can be lax or nonexistant.

"Most State public authorities are authorized to issue bonds — without voter approval — to develop, operate and maintain infrastructure or to fund projects for third parties. More than 95 percent of all State-funded debt outstanding was issued by public authorities without voter approval.

The debt service for these bonds is usually supported by revenues of the project, such as tolls that are levied by the authority, fees paid by the third party or appropriated payments from the State to repay outstanding debt. The State has also assigned specific revenue streams to an authority as a way for the authority to pay debt service."

Public Authorities

Public authorities are corporate instruments of the State created by the Legislature to further public interests.

www.osc.ny.gov

ORDA is a prime example of the lack of monitoring as all these discussions and threads point out.

ORDA is currently spending at least $15million (probably more) on the NEW North Creek Ski Bowl Lodge that does not have any provision for sewage.

ORDA is currently spending $22 million (or more) expanding the Discovery Lodge at Belleayre. In 2019, ORDA spent $9.1 million or $14.6 million (depending on sources) on rebuilding the Discovery Lodge. Why was this new, additional expansion bid for the Discovery Lodge not included in 2018? Oh, right, ORDA. By the way, the current rebuild contract for the Discovery Lodge was cancelled Dec, 2024.

According to the Belleayre website, construction is continuing at the Discovery Lodge and the Overlook Lodge is closed for renovations.

https://www.belleayre.com/mountain/improvements/discovery/