Two small Colorado ski areas won’t be attending the annual Sniagrab pre-season blowout sale this weekend, thanks in part to a new participation fee levied by owner Sports Authority.
The Englewood-based sporting goods chain is charging ski resorts either a flat fee of $2,500 or a percentage of their sales for the opportunity to sell season passes at the 52-year-old event.
“It’s not in my budget, unfortunately,” said Kristin Lee of Leadville-based Ski Cooper.
Monarch, outside of Salida, said the fee, combined with the expense of sending staff to Denver, made it a bad business decision.
“It would have been a money loser for us,” director of marketing Greg Ralph said.
Two other smaller resorts, Loveland Ski Area and Eldora Mountain Resort, said they were paying to attend because Sniagrab attracts their core market. More than 30,000 people are expected to attend the sale through Monday.
“We had to weigh the costs to the overall value of being at Sniagrab this weekend,” said Eldora spokesman Rob Linde. “It gets us out face-to-face with the skiing public.”
Sports Authority, which operates 405 stores nationwide, said the money is being used to increase its marketing efforts.
“We added a lot more print, a lot more color advertising,” said president David Campisi. “Everybody shares in the wealth. If somebody is complaining out there, I’d be really surprised.”
Industry giants Vail Resorts Inc. and Intrawest Corp. will also be there, along with Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Steamboat.
“It’s the place to go this time of year because there is always a lot of pent-up demand,” said Jesse True, director of sales for Intrawest Colorado, which operates Copper and Winter Park ski areas.
With the exception of Intrawest, most of the same resorts will also be peddling their passes at Specialty Sport Ventures’ Ski Rex sales, which also start Saturday.
Specialty Sports, owned by Denver’s Gart family, said it has no plans to start charging resorts to sell passes at its four metro-area Colorado Ski & Golf outlets and Boulder Ski Deals.
“Of course, we’re here to make a profit,” said president Ken Gart. “But our attitude is to reach out to customers and to make skiing accessible. Charging resorts to be here would be counter to our philosophy.”
Both companies said they expect pre-season gear sales to be up sharply this year, thanks to last year’s strong winter. A record 12.53 million people skied in Colorado last season.
Specialty Sports has upped its merchandise levels by up to 30 percent in certain categories.
“When Colorado has a good ski year, more people come out and buy stuff pre-season,” Gart said.
Sports Authority, which merged with Gart Sports in 2003, changed the name on the former Gart Sports stores this spring, including the downtown Sportscastle.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-954-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
