I have been going to Windham for 13 years now and have mixed feelings now that my kids have almost aged out of the programs. When we started the mountain was owned by someone who was very hands on and seemed to love the mountain (he has since passed) and treated it less as a business, and more as him adding a value to the public (while still making very good money). The lift tickets/season passes were very reasonable, kids programs financially accessible to many, and always family oriented unlike Hunter. Lets face it skiing has always been expensive and not accessible to most.
As ownership changed hands prices spiked for Lift Tickets/Daycare/Lessons/etc, Whisper Creek was built on the closest parking lot, long standing Ski Clubs were eliminated, etc. I feel very fortunate to have started and experienced that Windham, but now have to accept what Windham is and will become soon. The current owners have Zero obligation to the general public to even allow access if they so choose. Will an upstate congressperson embrace this issue for political gain if they go 100% private? You bet they will. Threats of environmental "issues", permitting, utilities, etc might be just enough for them to stop or delay a private club, but I don't think the State of NY has any legal foot to stand on. People can post articles all day long about how private mountains have failed, but none of them were 2 hours from Manhattan.
I mean ask yourself if you owned the mountain would you rather make the same money (or more) servicing 600 people or 4,000? When you look at social media all you see are pictures and complaints of ridiculously long lift lines at Windham and most Northeast ski resorts. The only solution is to thin the herd. Leaving Ikon and only allowing much higher priced Windham season passes could do the trick, but my guess is 100% private is inevitable. If you join an expensive Golf club do you want to wait to tee off as 3 backed up non-member foursomes are ahead of you? Ownership I am sure has done their homework and determined they will have enough commitment to thrive. Will they survive 20 years? Who knows. Maybe they will just bundle it up in 7-8 years and sell off to the next entity.
None of us have access to Windham's books but what does it cost to run the soon to be closing ski rental shop in terms of buying/maintaining hundreds of pairs of skis, boots, etc. and the associated labor cost to rent those skis? This large footprint the rental shop sits on I'm sure could be used to generate more revenue while outsourcing ski rentals to Windham Mountain Outfitters. I mean do they want to cater to a skier who rents skis by the day anyway? Would they need the same size ski patrol and emergency services with 1/3 the people? How many parking attendants do they need for 4,000 people vs. 600? You get my point.
It would be IMPOSSIBLE to build a new ski mountain today in terms of cost and environmental issues so Windham owns an irreplaceable asset which will now be leveraged to it's maximum in the next 3-5 years. Windham, Hunter, etc have been operating on an unfair playing field with NY State pumping 10's of millions into Belleayre, Gore etc
Is this the best way to support winter recreation in New York?
www.stormskiing.com
If Windham does go private it will be a sad day but people were sad 30 years ago as well. Houses off mountain will basically be worthless in the sub 1M range as it like's owning a beach front home and they take the beach away or charge 200K to walk your dog on it. Sure quality places like Millrock will survive but there will be no need for spill over places Brandywine, Vesuvio's, etc. Even the Chicken Run will feel the pain but the mountain makes Zero off these businesses and the new owners probably don't care. Harsh but true.
Hopefully the memberships are transferrable so when you buy a home perhaps the hook is it comes with a membership.
Sunday and Triple Play passes no longer available BTW. I'm not sure how many more hints we all need to reach the inevitable conclusion.
