Business. Hosting the World Cup Finals demands much of Aspen and its businesses.
Hosting the World Cup Finals demands much of Aspen and its businesses, but delivers big marketing returns
A quick stroll along Aspen’s cobblestone pedestrian mall this week yielded a multilingual concerto.
Visitors from dozens of countries have rallied in this end-of-the-road hamlet to celebrate ski racing, a peakseason event supported by nearly every business in Glitter Gulch. Lodgers have delivered a large chunk of their rooms to visiting athletes and teams at slashed prices. The Aspen Skiing Co. has surrendered a swath of its Aspen Mountain and pretty much all of its Limelight Hotel — as well as an army of its staff and equipment — to support the World Cup Finals.
The return on that week-long investment — squeezed from a tourist-dependent community during its second busiest month of the year — isn’t money.
“It’s a brand investment,” said David Perry, the ski company’s second in command. “This keeps Aspen on the map internationally as a top brand.”
As television cameras send images of sunny Aspen into hundreds of millions of homes around the globe, Aspen grows in appeal among coveted international tourists. As dozens of ski racing clubs across the U.S. gather to watch the world’s best alpine racers compete, Aspen solidifies its status as a premier ski destination while bolstering the nation’s under-celebrated ski race culture.
The return of America’s Downhill burnishes Aspen’s long history with ski racing, which dates to 1937, when racers would hike up to the starting line. In 1950, the germinal Aspen resort hosted the world championships only four years after opening its first chairlift — Lift One — which ranked as the longest in the world.
That racing history was embraced Fork Valley was akin to working “a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.”
Tomcich cajoled his lodge owners to pony up for the World Cup. It’s easier to deliver rooms for the end-of-January X Games because that’s historically a slow season. But after 16 years of hosting the winter circus at Buttermilk ski area, that last weekend in January now ranks as the valley’s busiest of the season.
Perry said lodgers joined the city, the local chamber and a host of local residents who have volunteered to help. “The support has been amazing. The community is really behind this.”
The X Games typically fills every hotel room in Aspen and Snowmass Village, but that’s just four days. The World Cup finals is a weeklong affair. Tomcich said his lodgers were pacing toward a sell-out for the World Cup week before winter storms out East canceled thousands of flights, spurring last-minute lodging cancellations in the valley.
The lodging requirements — asking local innkeepers to provide discounted rooms — mirrors the needs of the defunct USA Pro Challenge bike race. Organizers of that race asked host cities to deliver hundreds of free rooms to racers, teams and staff.
“The World Cup is the exact same formula but on a much bigger scale,” Tom- cich said.
Aspen’s hosting of the X Games and the Pro Challenge has enabled its ability to throw a weeklong ski racing party.
The town’s Wagner Park has been transformed into a “World Cup Village,” with live music and events not unlike the early X Games days, when the ski company and the city hosted nightly concerts before X Games owner ESPN launched its wildly successful concert strategy next to the Buttermilk venue.
“We understand the pieces that go into making a successful event, and our X Games experience of 16 years has definitely helped that,” said Perry, who remembers ESPN balking at his 2002 suggestion that the network host live music at the X Games. “The festival is required now. It’s the glue that holds this all together.”