rfarren
New member
Last night out of boredom I read all of the Shames thread followed by the Death of the Resort Model, followed by the Serious Vert thread. It is very interesting how emotion tends to get the best of us (including me) on these forums. I will say however, that Soulskier's idea was not initially that poor. I felt he made a major mistake when he criticized MRG right from the get go. He seemed to not understand the challenge that mountain presents, and rather than pleading his ignorance he flat out dismissed it. Even JSpin, who seems as even keeled as anyone on this board, responded unkindly to those comments.
As far as his MRA model was concerned, I think his error was in insisting upon using green energy. That left him vulnerable to questions of finances and where his limited spending was going. His further error was in pushing the idea that the MRA's core value was to be ski bum friendly. These should have been ancillary issues, figured out after the area was opened and not a core business practice. I think overall people were skeptical over the amount of ideology behind his business model, and were hoping that he would be a bit more pragmatic in his approach.
If I had some suggestions to Soulskier going forward they would be:
1. Don't criticize other peoples mountains or ski regions, rather stress the positives behind yours.
2. Forget the green energy component until you are well established. Don't use start up money that may be needed in case of a bad weather year etc...
3. A place like shames, albeit with better location would be optimal. It was a small family mountain with access to great BC. Keep the serious skiing as a side country/back country option. This will help to contain costs and best enable you to maintain a margin of profit.
4. Don't enter this with a wide eyed naivete, understand there are lots of mountains that are competing with you for different reasons. It's best to start small and no to take on everything at once, i.e. the urban jibber experiment, green energy, etc...
5. Don't ignore valid criticism and try not to perceive these as personal attacks on you. When you do that, it often does result in personal attacks, and worse, you ignore valid criticism that could help you going forward.
6. If you want big mountain skiing inbounds, insurance cost will be a huge part of your budget along with avy control. This will make it relatively expensive for a day ticket, think of Silverton, it's fairly expensive to ski.
7. We live in a litigious society, you will need to make sure you've done everything in your ability to avoid being found negligent in case of accident. That will raise costs, and perhaps lower the skiing experience as you see it, but understand the bar is quite a bit higher here than in Argentina.
8. Lastly, fund the project yourself and then sell shares after it has started. It may result in more risk for you, but most people would be willing to buy into something that already exist than an idea.
Those are my 2 cents. I wonder if anyone else has constructive points to lead the MRA going forward?
As far as his MRA model was concerned, I think his error was in insisting upon using green energy. That left him vulnerable to questions of finances and where his limited spending was going. His further error was in pushing the idea that the MRA's core value was to be ski bum friendly. These should have been ancillary issues, figured out after the area was opened and not a core business practice. I think overall people were skeptical over the amount of ideology behind his business model, and were hoping that he would be a bit more pragmatic in his approach.
If I had some suggestions to Soulskier going forward they would be:
1. Don't criticize other peoples mountains or ski regions, rather stress the positives behind yours.
2. Forget the green energy component until you are well established. Don't use start up money that may be needed in case of a bad weather year etc...
3. A place like shames, albeit with better location would be optimal. It was a small family mountain with access to great BC. Keep the serious skiing as a side country/back country option. This will help to contain costs and best enable you to maintain a margin of profit.
4. Don't enter this with a wide eyed naivete, understand there are lots of mountains that are competing with you for different reasons. It's best to start small and no to take on everything at once, i.e. the urban jibber experiment, green energy, etc...
5. Don't ignore valid criticism and try not to perceive these as personal attacks on you. When you do that, it often does result in personal attacks, and worse, you ignore valid criticism that could help you going forward.
6. If you want big mountain skiing inbounds, insurance cost will be a huge part of your budget along with avy control. This will make it relatively expensive for a day ticket, think of Silverton, it's fairly expensive to ski.
7. We live in a litigious society, you will need to make sure you've done everything in your ability to avoid being found negligent in case of accident. That will raise costs, and perhaps lower the skiing experience as you see it, but understand the bar is quite a bit higher here than in Argentina.
8. Lastly, fund the project yourself and then sell shares after it has started. It may result in more risk for you, but most people would be willing to buy into something that already exist than an idea.
Those are my 2 cents. I wonder if anyone else has constructive points to lead the MRA going forward?