First and foremost, thank you to everyone who joined us at the Community Forum on Tuesday night. We appreciate that the skate community showed up, shared thoughts, and engaged in honest dialogue with us. Thank you!
As we said at the forum, the decision to close the park was not made lightly. The reality is that Bolton Valley is a small business with limited resources. We compete with some world-class resorts nearby and we have to find every opportunity to maintain a sustainable business.
For the last five years the skatepark has proven that it is not a viable source of revenue. In fact, the facility loses around $100,000 a year. With the skatepark in place, even if we were to reduce the number of features as several people suggested, the fieldhouse has very little utility to be used for anything else and for around 3/4ths of the year it sits unused. It’s not a sustainable use of that space. We simply cannot continue to support a loss like this.
Our decision centers around the fact that having multi-use courts will provide more approachable activities for our community and guests, with a particular emphasis on our hotel guests. Our hotel is a pivotal component of our business and the Sports Center is a primary amenity for those guests. Additionally, the open space will give us the flexibility to use that space for groups, conferences, and events.
Our leadership team is united in the belief that this is the best decision for Bolton Valley’s sustainability and future. Bolton Valley’s core purpose since we opened in 1966 with night lights and school programs is to provide affordable skiing and riding for Vermont’s families. We have to stay laser focused on that core mission and make sure we are making the best decisions we can as a business to stay viable and to continue to be the best place around for Vermont families to ski and ride.
We have made the difficult choice to stay the course and start the work of deconstructing the skatepark in the coming weeks. One of the things we focused on during the forum was the future of the features and we are committed to doing everything we can to make sure that as much as possible will remain in the community for you to continue to skate.
One of the most beloved features is the Fuse inspired mini. We are excited to announce it will be brought to Talent so people can skate it this winter. As Hannah said on Tuesday, “Tell me what you love about Bolton Valley and come to Talent and work with me to bring that feel to our park.”
We are still in conversations to figure out where the bowl will end up, but it is our collective mission to see that it gets placed in a loving home sooner than later. We will continue to work with the community to find the best homes for the rest of the features as well.
Looking ahead, we hope that the tight-knit skate community will take the energy and spirit that we’ve seen in the last few weeks and rally around our friend Hannah at Talent Skatepark – she is totally committed to keeping indoor skating open and available for our community this winter and for years to come.
At the forum, we also talked about putting together a final send off for the BV Skatepark and we are excited to host one more Skate Jam on October 21st! All proceeds from this event and over the next two weeks will be donated to Talent Skatepark’s non-profit with a vision of implementing the desires you come up with together.
Sunday, October 22 will be the final day of the skatepark at BV, so come on up – get your last lines in and show your support for our communities’ Talent Skatepark!
~ Bolton Valley Resort