... But what will someone be able to pick this up for with all of this going on? Much less than $10M. This is similar to a foreclosure where we are looking at pennies on the dollar.
I think the most likely scenario is for a single investor or a small group of investors to pick it up at a bottom feeder price, make some modest improvements, and try to flip it. The investors will hope to lure enough skiers back to the mountain to convince a bigger fish that the Timberline could draw even more skiers and sell a lot of passes good at numerous resorts.
Big difference between Timberline and MRG is the housing and homeowners who line the slopes and have some stake in what happens. It's not a place that can get by on the minimal infrastructure of an MRG.
And I don't know that the entire mid-A had enough hard core skiers looking for terrain and minimal grooming like MRG promotes.
Or, Vail buys it and McEverythings the crap out of it perhaps even adding their own slopeside lodging/
Not to mention MRG offers more runs, 2 times the vertical and close to twice the length of ski season. I’d also think MRG is in an area where there are many more skiers to spend their money there than in the Mid-Atlantic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m rooting hard for TL to pick things back up. I just don’t think a comparison to some of these other areas is realistic.
I wonder what Mike D. from Ski SE would say now. "Careful what you wish for", "we’re pulling for them" he says. That's absolutely laughable, if not downright immoral given the recent news. Besides- One run open in Feb? What's left to be "careful" with? I'll take my chances on a T-line closure/sale/seizure.
Snowshoe also has something for everyone. My wife doesn’t ski. She loves snowshoe because she can get a massage and we can go out for a nice meal. My kids like snowshoe because of the big top and the pool. My friends like snowshoe because there are a bunch of bars.Snowshoe is some weird marketing anomaly and maybe a Ponzi scheme.
MRG has the skiing city of Burlington and the entire ski population of the Northeast to draw from. There are another 10 perhaps good ski areas within an hour to prime the pump. Tline is not closer to anywhere than somewhere else. I don't even meet many skiers from Morgantown. Snowshoe is some weird marketing anomaly and maybe a Ponzi scheme. Banner Elk has way more local skiers than Davis. It's very frustrating. There is a potential gem and no one cares. WG has a more loyal base.