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Need help: Proving terrain parks are worth having...
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Alright, here's the back story:
Little hill I worked at last year didn't really have a park, (a couple rails, and a couple jumps that were made at the start of the season, and then weren't maintained after that)
and I want to be in charge of the design/construction of the park this year.
Problem is, I asked alot last year and got the whole 'We'll consider that', or 'We'll work on that when we have some time'...basically they don't care, so my plan is to come up with a full blown park proposal over this summer, and present it to my manager last summer/early fall.
I need some help coming up with sources and info.
I need to show that having a terrain park has a history of increasing revenue for ski resorts, bringing in a more diverse business base, is generally worth having, that sort of thing.
Any info you think I could use to help convince the people in charge to put some effort into having a park would be great.
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there is an article in skiing magazine titled "salvation in a halfpipe" i think it was from 2 seasons ago that could be helpful.
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maybe try doing surveys and collecting all taht info might help. try to contact other resorts either in the air or that are similar to this mountain and see 1. if they have a terrain park . and 2. if it has had any effect on their revenue or demographic.
those would be a couple basic things that ud probably want to check out. then from there decide how to manage the park and where to put everything and all that jazz. mention safety issues and solutions.
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but yeah also just get into their position and think about every single reason why they wouldnt want the park and make a counter argument out of them
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at some mountains...coughcrystalmountaincough....the management is so shitty that they refuse to accept any argument that is pro-park.
Just make sure you talk to the head guy directly, don't email anything.
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storm in to their offices with full confidence that they'll comply with your demands, and don't leave until they agree to do as they're told. yell a lot, and generally make a huge scene telling them how far behind in the times they are. it'll be fun!
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Heres the info.... if your mountain doesnt realize or doesnt want a " terrain park " on their mountain they either are going down hill and wont tell you ... or they just have no reason from a business standpoint of having one due to the fact that maybe its a small mtn and it really wounldnt increase visitors at all... i dunno
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im not sure about the whole small mtn part of that, the littlest hill ever called Maple Ski Ridge near me built a full park thats actually half decent,and it has its own rope tow
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its all about the management if the owner is open minded and willing to try some new stuff it should work. but if he is a closed minded doosh who still thinks skis are strait and moguls is the way of hte future good luck
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if u can prove it can increase revenue and they still dont like parks, then they're retarded. its a business. if they dont like making more money then they can just go get punched in the face by gary coleman
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agreed. our mt. still needs to grasp that concept too
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It's not that they don't like parks, like I said we had some features last year, I just want them to see that having a nice park that is properly maintained will be worth putting the man hours and cat time into. I think they'll be ok with some more park features this year, as me and some other employees will be pushing for better features and all.
I just want to have a legit platform to present to them.
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Just remember that building and maintaining a park is ALOT of work so know what your getting into before you commit to taking on the challenge as saying your do all the work.
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terrian parks are great things. you throw up a sing mark it on the trail map put in some boxes rails and a few jumps, and it keeps all the snowboarders off the real mountain.
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Yeah, you should make a project and show it to sponsors first so you put their simbols and names in the aprk and they give you some cash to run it. Try getting a lot of them. Try to elavorate a convicing project I know companies will listen you. Then go to the resort with all that and I know they will catch it. Good vibes
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maple ridge has a park? i didnt know that haha
well oak mountain was actually pretty big (i assume you know where that is) they had a high speed quad and everything but they didnt have a park and went outta buisness last year. it really sucks because it was such a cool little mountain
to the creator of this thread, refrence oak mountain to the owner. that will probly help, just gather some info on it it will probly ring a bell in his head that you need terrain parks for more buisness. more buisness=more $$
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dude. i work there. a bunch of us proposed a t park and they did it. they have rails from straightlinerails company (which if you know is quite decent) and they have an ok park. W/ their resources, it could be better, but we're working on that next year. I had no input on the design of the park / flow, which was kind of disapointing. The groomer at maple isn't too great, acidentally running though the landing of a jump, creating a gap jump, which turned out really fun and a bit balsy at first. I'm hoping next year i can talk to the groomer / park manager to help create some more flow, better features and such. Me and a liftee proposed a few rail and box ideas to the builder, and he was all for it. He had to talk to the owners of the mtn though, to get some financial backing. Hopefully it'll be better next year, come visit. i'm there almost everyday
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id say best thing to do is, propose a slighly bigger park than your last season and if all goes well, then keep progressing the resort and see if the new park is used and tell your boss that newschool is the way forward in skiing now. Also all the big resorts like aspen and park city for example have built their resorts on the parks. People go there purley to ride the parks. good luck man
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Our Ski hill, Hyland Hills, in Minnesota, has like 100+ feet of vertical; there are maybe 7 runs, and almost 90% of the people/skiing boarding there are in the park
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The biggest thing you have to prove is not that terrain parks increase income, but that a better terrain park will increase income. I come from a mountain that was the same way, only they used to throw down, but went way down hill after changing management. Draw up plans for a competition/festival/gathering that will promote terrain parks, and also bring in money. This past fall, a friend of mine organized a rail jam with multiple movies premiering afterwards, and we had an incredible turn out. Even New Way Productions sent a majority of it's riders down to hit the setup, and premiere their movie, Snowy Delight. The whole day was filled with opportunities for the ski center to capitilize from.
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appterrainpark.com
little hill has 2 really nice parks and brings alot of business from people in neighboring states
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that was more to Matt talking about crystal mountain. but word, maybe even work on a couple features too to make it look like ur committed to it.
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haha yea its better than the one at gore mtn, not sayin much but w/e, they have a few rails, and they had a 30ft jump with the suicide gap or w/e its called in the middle, anyways that maple ski ridge got like 3x the business cuz they had rail jams like every other week it was really cool, plus the park patrol guy was really chill
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your aware it increases their insurance rates as well? so it has to bring enough buisness in to cover that.
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This hill is located on and operated by the USAF, so I'm not to sure about getting sponsors or the insurance thing, but thanks for the replys, I plan on drawing up a rough version of the park features I want to have, and just a general idea of how it'll work and stuff, and go from there.
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yup. maple really did get sooooo much more business because of the park, and they even raised their prices. it was a sick season no doubt for maple, i just hope they can step it up a bit more next season. i'll be talking to someone who works w. the park to see if i can get a job, or probably just voluntarily rake out and fix features. last year we sculpted the gap jump (after the groomer ran right through the landing and created the gap) and the quarter pipe. i'll admit though, the qp blew ass. i always thought it was a terrible idea. but anyways, look for maple ski ridge to be stepping up next year
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haha i'm glad i read through the responses b/c i was going to bring up that exact point... if you can organize an event that will bring some people out and generate some revenue the management at your mountain will take notice. just as an example for you to go by we had roughly 225 people come out with a net profit of somewhere around 700 bucks after all our expenses. and trust me, when management sees over 200 people coming out for your event they'll finally understand what the whole terrain park thing is about. PM me if you want to try to do something like that, it's a lot of work but definitely worth it in the long run...
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Word.
Last year i would have never gone to Maple Ski Ridge. They had no park and it absolutely sucked. This year they added a pretty decent terrain park and it attracted a lot more customers. I went probably at least 5 or 6 times there. Just tell them how it will attract our crowd.
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switchup rail jam next year. i'll talk to people there and get one setup. or should i say, CDC rail jam. BYAHHH!
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