Dreams. They come and go and sometimes even knock on the door. That knock came this past week in the form of a Facebook post from an otherwise under the radar ski area in Idaho. Soldier Mountain, a local ski hill located near Fairfield, Idaho whose former owner was Die Hard star Bruce Willis, went on sale for $149,000 and there is only one word to describe the reaction on social media.
Viral
In the first 24 hours,the non-profit who operates the local ski area, Soldier Mountain Ski Area Inc., received over 800 inquires about the sale of the ski area and after 72 hours passed, they had received over 2,000 emails!
In the wake of the announcement, rumors swirled about a possible bidding war and what exactly the price included. After some clarification on their Facebook page, ski area officials assured potential buyers that the price is simply the debt owed to the bank for the past three years of operation.
Also, being a non-profit, creating a highest bidder scenario would be illegal.
That said, the magic carpet and snow cats are not included. Basically, $149,000 is the final answer and such a low price allows the non-profit to pick the best possible candidate for ownership.
However, that hasn’t kept residents and former owners and operators from expressing their skepticism about how the sale was marketed to the public. In an interview with Idaho news source KTVB, Annie Frostenson expressed how the sale could have been published in a more controlled format compared to the social media release executed by the non-profit. “Yeah being a little more open about it and publishing it in the correct ways, ski magazines and other methods that make it look like they’re putting a lot of effort into making this work,” she said.
However, the social media method appears to have been very effective in attracting attention to the ski area, whose scarce ticket sales and low snow have created unprofitable conditions as of late.
So much so that any further inquiries are on hold as the non-profit sifts through the mountain of emails and comments to begin a search for a future owner.
“We are surprised and flattered by the degree of interest in our mountain as expressed by the 2000+ emails we have received in the past 72 hours. For those of you that have emailed us prior to 4:00 pm Mountain time on Saturday, October 17, 2015 we will get back to you with your packet of information as described in our previous message. If you have not emailed us as of this time and date we will no longer be accepting email inquires (at least temporarily…and quite possibly, permanently) about this issue. We would be happy to answer any other questions unrelated to this matter. See you on the hill this winter.”- Soldier Mountain Facebook Page
