riverc0il said:
they prob can't swing the staff this early unfortunately.
I'm pretty certain that they can swing the staff, they're just unwilling to pay the staff. All of the ski bums are dying for work right now in ski country. Late October until Thanksgiving and early April to mid June are killer shoulder seasons for most who work in these areas. People are chomping at the bit to work. If they wanted to open, they'd have the staff to do it easily, its more of question of whether or not things make fiscal sense. Right now it doesn't. Honestly, the only time staffing is an issue at Eastern ski resorts is Christmas week, MLK weekend and Presidents week.
My experience as a manager trying to staff F&B operations at a ski area (and I know its the same for other departemtents) is reminiscent of the movie Brave Heart. There's that scene where Wallace (Mel Gibson) is on the battle lines and he keeps saying, "Hold, hold, hold" as the masses are rushing towards them. Then at the last minute, he says "Now".
Same thing at a ski resort. The CFO's hold everything back until the last possible moment knowing that you've got 12 weeks out of the year to make money in operations - that's it. The profits are huge during those twelve weeks, but the other 40 weeks are a struggle to break even at all.
The only reason any resort opens at all before Thanksgiving are for marketing reasons - most specifically appeasing the people who shell out millions for on slope Real Estate and attracting new buyers.
MRG or any resort for that matter has people willing to work yesterday if they wanted to open. They'll only do it though if the 'live profits' make sense or they think their decicion will result in new Real Estate sales. Obviously MRG is not in the Real Estate business, they are in the ski business and looking to maximize profits during that 12 week period or in their specific case - fund the year long operating costs for the co-op
