AlliSports, of Burr Ridge, IL, is the company responsible for marketing and promoting the Winter Dew Tour. The Winter Dew Tour is a two-sport series featuring the top athletes in freestyle skiing and snowboarding. It has attracted several X-Games and Olympic champions. AlliSports announced on Monday the selected venues for the 2010-2011 Winter Dew Tour. They are Breckenridge, CO, Killington and Snowbasin, UT. Mount Snow was notified by AlliSports that they were not returning, even though AlliSports and Mount Snow agreed to a Winter Dew Tour contract through 2011.
According to Winter Dew Tour general manager Chris Prybylo, the Winter Dew Tour is switching to 22-foot halfpipes for major snowboarding competitions. Mount Snow has an 18-foot halfpipe, which was used for the 2009 and 2010 Winter Dew Tour events. Prybylo said AlliSports is moving to 22-foot halfpipes because they believe it will attract top athletes who prefer taller heights for better tricks and smoother transition lines.
“We heard a lot of comments about the halfpipe at a recent ski areas management conference in Orlando, Florida. There were athletes, halfpipe builders, the United States Snowboarding Association, and others, and the industry made it clear that a high-level event needs to be a 22-foot pipe,” said Prybylo.
Mount Snow general manager Kelly Pawlak said Mount Snow discussed whether to build a 22-foot halfpipe. Mount Snow thought the ideal spot was the same location where the 18-foot halfpipe is now situated. But the slope isn’t steep enough to build a 22-foot halfpipe and Pawlak said Mount Snow would have to go through a long permitting process to obtain approval.
Pawlak said if Mount Snow was going to build a 22-foot halfpipe it wouldn’t be ready until the 2011-2012 Winter Dew Tour season. But Pawlak said that AlliSports “couldn’t wait until 2012” and they began looking for other venues, even though AlliSports had agreed to one more season at Mount Snow.
“We thought it was still secure,” said Pawlak. “We’re disappointed we couldn’t get through this year, but we have to do what is right for the resort. Carinthia is a snowpark for all ages and abilities. It’s not an elite park.”
Mount Snow events director Greg Fisher was very disappointed when the news hit. Fisher worked with AlliSports for three years to make Mount Snow a part of the Winter Dew Tour and he hoped that AlliSports would honor the remainder of the contract. Fisher was also surprised that AlliSports dropped Mount Snow so suddenly and that AlliSports had alternative plans to relocate.
“In my opinion AlliSports didn’t really do a great job of saying ‘we need Mount Snow to build a 22-foot pipe in 2011 or we are going to go somewhere else.’ Had they said that in the winter, we would have had a better idea this was coming and we could have prepared the valley,” said Fisher. “This came as a shock to us. After talking more and more about the future with the folks at AlliSports, it seemed that they were leaning toward leaving without actually saying it. When we found out it truly was Killington, I wasn’t shocked.”
Mount Snow attracted 24,000 fans over three days in the Winter Dew Tour’s inaugural season. Only Lake Tahoe surpassed Mount Snow’s Winter Dew Tour numbers. This year, Mount Snow attracted 33,000 fans and had the largest totals among the three 2009-2010 host sites (the other sites were Breckenridge and Snowbasin) and the largest fan numbers over the two-year span of the Winter Dew Tour. The Winter Dew Tour was a boon to Mount Snow, Deerfield Valley businesses, and area lodges.
So if the Winter Dew Tour was a money-maker for AlliSports and the Deerfield Valley, why did they pack up and leave for Killington? According to Prybylo, it all came down to Mount Snow providing a 22-foot halfpipe. “We had two great years at Mount Snow. It was a fantastic event. We tried to work with (Mount Snow) but we couldn’t solve it in either scenario,” said Prybylo. “It’s important to the athletes and our sponsors to put together the top tour in the world and competition venues need to follow suit. We had to make a long-term decision.”
The 2010-2011 Winter Dew Tour season opens at Breckenridge and the halfpipe competition takes place on a 18-foot halfpipe, the same size halfpipe at Mount Snow. When asked why the Winter Dew Tour is competing on Breckenridge’s halfpipe and not Mount Snow’s, Prybylo said it wasn’t advantageous for the Dew Tour or the athletes to compete on two 18-foot halfpipes. Breckenridge is also investing in a 22-foot halfpipe for the 2011-2012 season and will host more elite-level competitions.
Fisher questions AlliSports’ decision-making. “The fact that the Dew Tour will be visiting Breckenridge this year and they’ll feature an 18-foot pipe is my biggest question as to why they wouldn’t give us the chance to throw them one big party in 2011,” said Fisher. “The premise of a tour is to keep standings and award a champion at the end of the season. If the tour argues that athletes are demanding this and they won’t compete in an 18-foot pipe, then they’ll really only have the top of the top athletes at two events theoretically. So if the goal is to maintain points throughout then how does that work?”
Mount Snow Chamber of Commerce executive director Laura Sibilia said Deerfield Valley businesses will miss the Winter Dew Tour and the economic boost it gives to the economy. She said the absence of the Winter Dew Tour doesn’t help in the short term, but the Deerfield Valley benefits in the long term as a result of the national exposure it received on major television networks.
“It’s important to recognize that great events, positive change, and growth take significant financial investment and sustained effort over time to build. It is disappointing that the Dew Tour and the national televised press coverage it brings will not return this year ... but at the end of the day, the Dew Tour is only one event. Mount Snow’s long-term investment in Carinthia has not gone away,” said Sibilia.
Fisher said he will miss working with college students, the chamber, and the town of Dover. Despite the Winter Dew Tour moving on, Fisher commended the community for making the event a big success. “I know that this is a big letdown for the local economy and to the people who worked hard ... but we did an amazing job putting on a great show and I hope no one out there in this valley believes that the tour left because of that. They left over four feet of (extra) snow,” said Fisher.
The Mount Snow marketing department hopes to announce a new snowboarding event in the next few weeks.
There are bigger and better mountains in Vermont and Killington is number one!! every ski Killington but anywhere but Mount snow..
They treat thier season pass holders with no respect. I have purchased season passes in the past from Mount Snow. But not now, I felt like was be taken because every time I when sking. I would have conversations with other skiers and snowboarders on the mountain. I learned Mount Snow ran so many special discounts for groups like pay your age, what state youe live in. etc. that unless i when sking more 20 to 25 times year. I was paying more than the special lift pass Mount Snown offers. So I stopped buy the season pass.