The Indy Pass

[Brownski]

It’s hard to imagine not getting your 4 days but it’s nice to know

 

[MarzNC]

Never good at this word math problems, but based upon podcasts I heard Doug Fish talk about Indy passes sold last year, my guess and only a guess , they sold 2250 last year, so would you use six times on 2000 or 1000? My guess, they sold 1000 last year at this time and added another 1000 or so as the ski season approached, so they are between 6 thousand and 12000 Indy passes right now, approximately , could be more could be less. I was hoping for 10,000 passes this year, hoping they hit 100k five years down the road, epic passes were 350000 the first year, now around a million. For the record, I have both the epic and Indy pass, second year on the epic, first year on the Indy.

I'd be surprised if there were 1000 Indy passes sold by late Sept 2019. Not enough people knew about it yet. However, even for a second season, selling six times the amount in the first pre-season month wouldn't be expected. So the implication is that the pandemic is having a positive impact on sales. That makes sense given that there are people planning to stay closer to home and only planning on driving to ski. Certainly true in the northeast and mid-Atlantic from what I can tell. I would guess it's also true in the midwest and the PacNW.

The southeast may be a bit of an outlier in terms of having more people willing to fly. But the addition of Winterplace in southern WV should boost sales for people in NC, TN, and GA.

No point to compare numbers for Epic with Indy. Completely different products and markets. Only thing they have in common is that most people only plan to get to a few locations, meaning less than five, even though both multi-resort passes cover multiple regions.

 

[Brownski]

It’s probably too big an ask but I would like to know where all those Indy passes are being sold.

 

[Epicone]

It’s probably too big an ask but I would like to know where all those Indy passes are being sold.

if I remember the interview, from storm skiers podcast, it was pacific north west area, then Minnesota, then New England, could be wrong but that’s what I remember

 

[MarzNC]

if I remember the interview, from storm skiers podcast, it was pacific north west area, then Minnesota, then New England, could be wrong but that’s what I remember

That makes sense. Doug started with a few locations in the PacNW where people know him and his company best. The midwest has the most locations that are reasonably close together. For the mid-Atlantic, Indy is probably doing better this fall given that some people aren't willing to shell out money for Epic since they aren't thinking about going out west. Or they are getting Indy in addition to the Northeast Epic for a little more variety.

 

[Brownski]

So if we’re talking about 6000 passes then probably less then 2000 are in the northeast? I guess that shouldn’t blow up the lift lines too much

 

[Epicone]

I'd be surprised if there were 1000 Indy passes sold by late Sept 2019. Not enough people knew about it yet. However, even for a second season, selling six times the amount in the first pre-season month wouldn't be expected. So the implication is that the pandemic is having a positive impact on sales. That makes sense given that there are people planning to stay closer to home and only planning on driving to ski. Certainly true in the northeast and mid-Atlantic from what I can tell. I would guess it's also true in the midwest and the PacNW.

The southeast may be a bit of an outlier in terms of having more people willing to fly. But the addition of Winterplace in southern WV should boost sales for people in NC, TN, and GA.

No point to compare numbers for Epic with Indy. Completely different products and markets. Only thing they have in common is that most people only plan to get to a few locations, meaning less than five, even though both multi-resort passes cover multiple regions.

Wasn’t really comparing Indy pass to epic except to say that it took time for the epic pass to go from 350000 to roughly 1 million. Just like I think it will take time for the Indy pass to build out to 100 k, which I think is possible at some point in the future. Although at some point if Indy is successful another competitor will arrive on the scene, maybe someone is working on it now. As Indy builds out to 100k, epic or ikon may decide to buy it and have it as an add on to their pass. It’s amazing to read Vail’s 10ks from 08 to the present as the epic grew and vail started buying resorts, when vail introduced the epic pass, they only owned 5 resorts, beaver creek, heavenly, vail, Breckinridge and keystones. It’s amazing how much Katz has changed skiing, for good or bad it has changed.

 

[Harvey]

So if we’re talking about 6000 passes then probably less then 2000 are in the northeast? I guess that shouldn’t blow up the lift lines too much

Adding more passes hasn't shown to increase skier visits.

 

[Epicone]

So if we’re talking about 6000 passes then probably less then 2000 are in the northeast? I guess that shouldn’t blow up the lift lines too much

Might be closer to 3k, my guess September of last year was 500 tops, COVID 19 is a wild card in all this, who knows if it will
hurt sales or help.

 

[MarzNC]

Adding more passes hasn't shown to increase skier visits.

Are you thinking about multi-resort passes like the MCP or the short-lived MAX Pass?

With Indy, it may be too soon to tell. I know that for Massanutten and Bryce there were people who checked them out last season with Indy who otherwise wouldn't have considered it. I'm guessing the same happened in the midwest for sure. Not a big number, but still new revenue to those ski areas.

What happens in the northeast is not the same as other regions.

Since this season is completely weird due to COVID-19, not sure the numbers will be a useful predictor for the future in general.