Industry News
Park City, Utah, local billionaire and Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is once again expressing interest in purchasing Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) from Vail Resorts, arguing he could drastically improve the experience for guests and employees.
On March 9, Vail Resorts reported lower-than-expected Q2 earnings. Prince did not wait long before posting on Twitter (X), “Vail Resorts ($MTN) likely to open tomorrow down to where if you invested 10 years ago you’d have done as well putting your money in a hole. It’s time for a change to become more asset-light, sell off resorts, and allow character and differentiation to return to skiing.”
While his prediction did not come true and the share price actually bounced, as investors had potentially anticipated worse news or a lower dividend, while Vail Resorts kept its dividend stable, the earnings announcement by the ski industry magnate certainly was disappointing. The company reported that due to record-low snowfall across the Rocky Mountains, earnings had fallen 14.1% for the second quarter compared to last year’s earnings.
The drop in earnings prompted Prince to once again suggest that Vail Resorts sell PCMR to him. In response, major Vail Resorts shareholder and billionaire Ron Baron allegedly told him to “go to hell,” according to Prince’s comment on his own post.
Not surprisingly, Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz also guided lower for the full fiscal year. “Due to the persistent, historically challenging weather conditions in the Rockies, which continued to limit terrain availability, the company is reducing its fiscal 2026 guidance,” the Q2 report quoted him. Vail Resorts expects full year earnings in 2026 to come in lower than initially forecast. Fiscal 2026 net income projections were lowered from between $201 and $276 million to between $144 and $190 million, a drop of 28 to 32%, while EBITDA is forecasts to drop between 9-11% from previously $842 to $898 million, down to between $745 and $775 million.
After the worst snow year on record across the Rockies, this ski season has been one that many Rocky Mountain skiers will try to forget. Starting with a warm and dry early season, many major resorts were forced to postpone opening days. The rest of the season saw high-pressure after high-pressure system, with just a few storms breaking through. PCMR has reported 157 inches as of March 13, more than 200 inches behind their average season total. Just across the ridge, Alta has reported 260 inches, when they average 548 inches across a typical season. Alta is nearly 300 inches below average, cementing it as a record-setting season, and not the good kind of record-setting. The rare bright spot has been the Northeast with sustained cold temperatures this year and consistent snowfall throughout the season.
This comes after years of ongoing issues at PCMR, ranging from lift accidents to national news during the 13-day ski patrol strike in 2024, which resulted in a class-action lawsuit. During the strike, there was chaos from communication failures to two-plus-hour-long liftlines with guests chanting, “Pay your employees.” Another issue Prince is alleging is that Vail is siphoning PCMR profits away from Park City and onto corporate balance sheets and dividends. Prince wants to turn the tables and return the mountain to local ownership.
Prince has been publicly nudging Vail Resorts over the past 11 months to sell PCMR. Prince wants to purchase PCMR so that he can revive the resort where he grew up skiing, and continue the legacy of the mountain he knew from his childhood. People have expressed concern that another billionaire will turn a major ski resort into a private club like Powder Mountain. If he were to take ownership of PCMR, Prince is determined to keep PCMR open to the public. Only time will tell how this dispute will play out, but one thing we can count on is that we will be hearing more about this in the future.
This goes way beyond the Rockies. In PA(home to 8 Vail resorts) we had probably the best winter ever. Yet it took Vail 50 days to open the premier trail at my home resort. Skiing was great a week ago then Vail let the mountain go. All eight PA resorts are closed while Camelback and Blue Mountain are blasting their snow guns.
They are diverting resources to things that do nothing to improve the mountain experience. They hired indoor trash men to sort the cafeteria waste and most annoying of all they have people walk up and scan you when you are no where near a lift. Also, prime lifts have delayed openings – one as late as 4:45.
Count me in as part of the Park City purchase.
After raising a family here and being avid skiers for 46yrs the resort was best when the Badami’s owned the resort then the Cumming family bought is and started going down hill then Vail bought it due to negligence from not renewing the lease. So what has Vail built it’s more like what Vail has destroyed we all knew Vail destroys every town and resort they buy but money talks. There has been no concerns about providing a good quality ski experience from breakdowns, low wages and allowing the mountain to be so overcrowded it’s dangerous not only have I been hit 3 times and many of my friends in the locker room some seriously. We live in an ant farm at this point Vail is all about the balance sheet need I say more.
Without the pre-season pass sales, it would have been even worse for Vail. The drop in revenue is primarily due to low spending at resorts because of low skier visits. But the pass revenue is in the bank.
Why write such a slanted article. Price is trying to steal what Vail has built. Yes, they are not perfect, but IMO, he seems like he is entitled and a bully. If truth is reported, all of the other Mountains had the same fate. Name one Mountain that made or exceed its expectations during a NO-SNOW YEAR? It sure wasn’t Vail Resort’s fault there was no snow. Yet somehow, this article appears to insinuate it was their fault. All the Mountains were victims of the same fate…. Sometimes it is better to go with the known, than the unknown. Have I missed any articles that present how Prince is going to improve the Mountain, or what plans he has. He’s doing this for the EMPLOYEES and the SKIERS?? REALLY?? If he owns the mountain, he can build his house??
Vail didn’t build Park City, POWDR (and others) built most of what is the Park City Mountain Village until they screwed up the lease and Talisker owned Park West/Canyons before Vail leased it for 100 years. Talisker also gave Vail first right of refusal to the land that Park City Mountain sat on after they (PCM) back-dated a lease and ended up giving up PCM rather than pay $8M in fines. Vail has added 2 Gondolas (Quicksilver and the new one in Canyons Village) in 10 years, but also screwed up adding/replacing two lifts on the Park City Mountain side when they fudge the Uphill Carrying Capacity numbers. They also pissed off most of the locals when they tried to trademark the town name and tried to replace a parking lot with a bunch of high rise hotel and condos without providing any additional parking.
Price is try to do what happened at Powder Mountain. He doesn’t care about the locals or those people that travel. Do something like make it so only people with homes can use part of the mountain i.e. the Colony area like Peak 5, 9990, Dreamscape, Daydream, Dreamcatcher.