Did Park City Execute the Greatest Blunder of All-Time?

A recent court order all but seems to have closed the book on the struggle to control the resort at Park City, Utah.  In what apparently was an oversight of the most colossal variety, the former operators of Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) missed the deadline for renewing their lease.  Always the opportunist, Vail Resorts swooped in and snatched it from their grasp.  A shocking turn of events to say the least.  Somewhere, someone at PCMR screwed up royally, really terrifically, stupendously, royally.  It seems plucked straight from an episode… every episode really, of The Dukes of Hazard.  Throw the Duke boys in jail so they can’t mail the mortgage payment and swindle Uncle Jesse out of the family farm.

Somewhere there lies a man, Sir Barnaby Bungles who is responsible for perhaps the worst administrative oversight in ski industry history.  The question becomes, where does this place him in the annals of all time boneheadedry?  How does this gross incompetence stack up against some of history’s greatest bungles?

Red Sox Sell Babe Ruth:

So say you’ve won five out of the first 16 World Series played?  What comes next?  You sell your best player… THE best player ever to your underachieving league rivals.  (Ruth at one point had pitched a 29.2 consecutive scoreless innings in the World Series for the Sox)  Oh yeah, you sell who would become the greatest hitter (he set the single season HR record while playing what would be his final season for the Sox) of all time for $100,000 + a loan for $350,000.  Sure this wasn’t chump change in 1919 but the ultimate price that Boston paid was innumerable.  The Yankees become the most winning franchise in baseball history you don’t win another title for 85 years.

Bigger Bungle?  The change in operator will probably bum some people out in Park City.  Then again, one big ski area conglomerate for another big ski area conglomerate is kind of splitting hairs.  Trading Babe Ruth haunted several generations of New England baseball fans.  Boston blew it big time.

Sale of Manhattan to Dutch:

Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the local Indians in 1626 for 60 Guilders ($24) worth of goods.  U.S. History is catalogued with examples of settlers taking advantage of the native people with unscrupulous land deals, however, given the extraordinary value of the land today, that it was traded for a basket of camp wares and strings of beads, boggles the mind.  To the Indian’s credit they had what at the time seemed to be vast holdings of land, and the usefulness of manufactured goods was unquestionable.

Bigger Bungle?  Have to give the nod to Park City here.  The Natives may have undervalued their assets but at least they got something for them.  PCMR simply got a kick on the way out the door.

Merkle’s Boner:

In the heat of the 1908 National League pennant race the NY Giants had appeared to have won a game against the Cubs on a walk off base hit.  In the excitement of the winning hit, Giants player Fred Merkle, who had been on first base, failed to run all the way to touch second.  In the ensuing pandemonium the crowd rushed the field and the Cubs appealed the play at second base.  Merkle was ruled out.  The game remaining a 1-1 tie, was suspended due to mass confusion.  Several weeks later the season would end with both the Giants and Cubs tied at the top of the standings.  The game would need to be replayed in a playoff.  The Giants would ultimately lose and the Cubs would go on to win their last World Series.  The play would remain in infamy as “Merkle’s Boner.”

Bigger Bungle?  Renewing a lease by the scheduled date seems like a reasonable task to be accomplished.  Touching second base is also pretty fundamental.  A battle of the basics.  Merkle wins because no man wants his name to be accompanied by “boner” for the rest of history.

The Fab Five:

Perhaps the most apt sports comparison.  Chris Webber’s fateful delay of game technical foul to conclude the 1993 NCAA Tournament.  For me probably the height of my basketball fandom, because, really, who didn’t think the Fab Five was cool.  I had a sweet Starter Michigan jacket and everything.  Seriously, you’re supposed to be the best player on the team and it all comes down to this one play and you’ve been dreaming of this all your life and you could be the hero of the NCAA Finals and you could be way cooler than Laettner and Hill and even though it says it right up on the scoreboard and everything you still don’t know how many time outs you have.

Come on man…

Bigger Bungle?  This one is close.  Knowing when to pay the lease is the grown up business game version of knowing how many time out your team does, or doesn’t have. In this case Vail was “omnipotent on the D,” as Clyde Frazier would put it, but it all falls in Powder Corp.’s lap.  The NCAA stripped Michigan of it’s Final Four appearance because of various violations, involving primarily, Chris Webber.  So technically if they had won, they would have technically not have won in the end.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter then, but they did play that game and they did lose and it really was Webber’s fault.  He went on to make Millions in the NBA but I’m sure he still pretty embarrassed by the whole ordeal.  Seriously man…  I think this is near a draw, but I give the edge to Webber because there will be no You Tube videos of some bean counter missing a deadline.

Never Go In With a Sicilian When Death Is on the Line:

Bigger Blunder?  Inconceivable.  PCMR got outwitted big time.  Vail has become way too big to poison, no one will take them down at their own game.

Conclusion:

PCMR by the narrowest of unscientific margins seems to have avoided title of worst blunder ever, but still it seems pretty bad.  Will we really remember this come next year at this time?  I suppose it depends heavily on just how Vail treats it’s newest holding.  All said and done I’m glad I don’t live in Park City these days.