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The Big Ski/Ride Three—Alterra, Boyne, and Vail: Is Their Fate Sealed?
The big threes of yesteryear seem different, or may be not.
In World War II, the big three Allied powers—Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States—formed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory. Next came the big three television broadcast networks—American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and National Broadcasting Company (NBC), followed by the three big vehicle manufactures Chrysler Stellantis North America, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors (GM).
Those big threes came and went. World War II ended and the factors that ended it were quickly forgotten in a sea of domestic prosperity, television broadcast networks were eclipsed by cable television and ultimately by online streaming, and the three big vehicle manufactures were blindsided by foreign imports and never fully recovered.
The big three of ski/ride resorts—Alterra Mountain Company, Boyne Resorts, and Vail Resorts—now own and operate approximately 60 ski/ride resorts in North America, including some of the biggest and most successful ones. The ski ride resorts (areas then) of yesteryear were individually company or family owned, but today the industry is dominated by those big three. It would appear that these big three will run their course like their predecessors, and it will likely be climate change that diminishes them. However, declining participation in the sport driven by a variety of factors, mainly that far too many Americans are overweight or obese, and/or their extreme vulnerability to mass shootings, because to varying degrees, they’re all soft targets and crowded places, are also possibilities. Less likely is the spiraling cost of participation in the sport and the COVID-19 pandemic. While it might be a combination of any or all of these factors that decide their fate, their downfall (or downhill if you will), and in some cases their demise, seems relatively close at hand.