Park City, Utah — There’s this billionaire who really doesn’t like Vail Resorts.
Matthew Prince is the co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare and an active member of the Park City community. He’s Utah’s richest man, as Matthew currently has a net worth of around $6.8 billion.
Over the past few years, he’s argued that the experience at Park City Mountain Resort sucks. In 2025, he purchased the Town Lift Plaza, which is land surrounding the fixed-grip chairlift. Since then, he’s made his intentions clear: he wants to buy the ski resort. However, Vail Resorts has said they’re not interested in selling one of its most valuable properties.
The beef reignited last week after Vail’s second-quarter earnings report, prompting Mr. Prince to call on Vail Resorts to downsize.
The tension picked up again this week. Earlier this week, Prince claimed that Vail was hosting an investor/analyst dinner in a building he co-owned.
Matthew’s plans to crash the investor dinner were for naught, as he was denied entry because it was a private event. He then criticized the Vail spokesperson for using three spaces after a period. He does have a point there. However, some people saw the posts as a bit of an Elon-esque self-own.
Prince’s criticism continued today, as he used the newspaper he owns as a bully pulpit to argue that Vail Resorts should downsize.
Matthew has stated that his intentions are not to take over Vail Resorts, but rather to acquire Park City Mountain Resort. He has shared on social media that he wants to upgrade the infrastructure and improve the employee culture. Admittedly, this ownership structure reminds me of what has been done at Killington, which bears some similarities to PCMR.
While Prince’s criticism of the mountain’s infrastructure is valid, Park City will see some love in the years ahead. That will include a new Carbriolet gondola lift and parking garage for next winter, and likely two lift replacements in 2027-28. Despite that, I imagine this won’t be the last we hear about Prince’s desire to buy Park City Mountain Resort.
Image Credits: Benjamin R., Matthew Prince, Park City Mountain Resort
