OUT OF THE GATE FORERUNNER
9 // WAXROOM 12 // GALLERY 14
Vail UNVEIL
Colorado resorts on the verge of big bid BY GARY BLACK JR.
When is a bid not a bid?
When it is officially unofficial.
And so it is with the Beaver Creek/Vail try for the
2015 Alpine World Championships. But when mem-
bers of senior management from the resort and from
the official organizer, the Vail Valley Foundation, show
up with logoed hats, sweaters and jackets touting their
candidacy for the 2015 event, it is, well, pretty official,
but not quite.
The reason for the holdup has to do with today’s
sports marketplace. The International Ski Federation
(FIS) owns the rights to world championships in all
the disciplines it governs. In the past (or in more nor-
mal years), the FIS would have received and selected
a bid from potential host broadcasters and sponsors
and subsequently issued a request for proposal setting
out the rules, guidelines and responsibilities of bid-
ding candidates.
But because the marketplace is extremely cautious,
the FIS has not received a bid it is willing to accept, at
least not yet — or not publically.
“For now, Vail/Beaver Creek is an ‘applicant’ candi-
date,” said Ceil Folz, the president of the Vail Valley
Foundation, which will run both the bid attempt and,
if successful, the event itself. “Our bid, like the other
candidates, depends on what the FIS establishes as
the rights fees.”
Competing with Beaver Creek/Vail for the 2015
Alpine Championships are the resorts of Cortina
d’Ampezzo, Italy, and St. Moritz, Switzerland. Beaver
Creek (above)/Vail hosted the alpine Worlds in 1989
and again a decade later, in 1999. St. Moritz held the
2003 World Championships. Cortina, which has been
on the World Cup women’s circuit for years, has not
run a major event since they hosted the 1956 Olympic
Winter Games though they bid for the 1988 winter
Olympics, losing to Calgary.
“The FIS council is meeting in November,” Folz said.
“They should have the details for the candidates after
the meeting. If the guidelines are within our param-
eters we will make the bid official during the Birds of
Prey World Cup in December.”
