Why is Vail Resorts investing into Canyons?

Those who have followed the recent developments between Canyons (Talisker), Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) and Vail Resorts have good reasons to not fully understand what is really going on. Vail Resorts would never have plunked $25 million in annual rent for just buying Canyons that has little brand awareness and has a dysfunctional skiers access if it were not for the bigger prize that PCMR represents.

At the moment, the Cumming family – the current PCMR owner - is trapped, because of their mistake of not renewing their lease option with Talisker and will have to either accept the conditions dictated by Vail or desist. This must be incredibly difficult for Ian Cumming, the wealthy patriarch who personally purchased PCMR for his sons in the nineties.

 

In my view, Vail's strategy is to eventually grab PCMR and run it, along with Canyons, under the “Park City” moniker that is much more valuable from a consumer standpoint and that so merged, would become the largest ski resort in North America, easily passing Whistler Blackcomb in terms of total acreage. It would only be a matter of time before it would surpass its Canadian competitor in terms of skier-days...