Freeride World Tour coming to Haines in March
- Chilkat Valley News
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Borough searching for sponsors to share additional costs of global big-terrain backcountry ski competition
By Will Steinfeld
Chilkat Valley News
As snow builds and the heli-ski season nears, the Chilkat Valley is beginning to prepare for the arrival of the Freeride World Tour in March — a global big-terrain backcountry ski competition operated by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS).
The event is marketing Haines as “the dream stop” on the world tour, and stands to bring an influx of visitors and activity to the valley.
“Those guys spend a lot,” said Fogcutter bartender Terry Davis. “That’s a slow time of year so it’ll be good for us.”
The infusion of economic activity, however, will not be coming solely from FIS. Part of the spending will come from the borough itself, which is subsidizing the event. Last spring, the borough assembly voted to allocate $75,000 in the annual budget toward sponsoring the event. According to borough officials, the contribution was necessary to make the event financially viable for FIS.
Now, according to the borough’s finalized contract with FIS for this year’s event, taxpayers could be on the hook for more than initially described. In addition to a $75,000 cash contribution, the borough is responsible for a portion of the operations costs valued at $25,000.
That includes putting on a free welcome dinner and “welcome drink” for 105 Freeride World Tour competitors, media members, “organizer partners,” and staff.
The borough is also responsible for providing office space for world tour staff and media, bussing from town to the helicopter landing zone, 110 bagged lunches, and entertainment for riders on non-competition days.
Even with borough support, the Freeride World Tour still projects to lose money on the event. Total budgeted costs come in at $1,414,205 — around $500 more than the event is projected to take in.
Manager Alekka Fullerton last month said the borough hopes to source the $25,000 of services from other sponsors. For instance, a business in town could hypothetically donate transportation, which would save the borough from spending money renting buses.
Right now, with roughly four months until the competition, no such sponsorships have been secured, borough tourism director Reba Hylton said in an email to the Chilkat Valley News this week, though she noted she had reached out to “several potential sponsors.”
Hylton also wrote that she is “confident (the borough) will receive some support,” but doesn’t “know how much or from whom yet.”
Because only $75,000 is budgeted for the world tour, any portion of the additional $25,000 not covered by in-kind donations would have to be authorized by a budget amendment, borough finance officer Jila Stuart said.
In return for its contribution, the borough will be featured on event branding and benefit from the exposure brought by the world tour, which Hylton this spring described as a valuable investment, not just this year, but to bolster tourism in the Chilkat Valley for years to come.
Local businesses also stand to benefit, describing the coming event as an anticipated boost for business during what is ordinarily a slow time of the year.
“Even with the normal heli-ski season, those people come in and we’re slammed — whole van-fulls of people,” said Kimberly Rosado, grocery manager at Mountain Market.
While expected to be significant, it’s not clear just how significant that business-boost could be. In the spring, Hylton told the assembly the world tour had projected $416,000 in local spending from the event.
The Freeride World Tour did not respond to the Chilkat Valley News either this week or earlier this year, including to questions about how they calculated their local spending projections.
In the event budget on its own, it’s hard to find $416,000 of local spending. Totalling all the categories that could plausibly include some spending in the Haines Borough results in a sum of roughly $480,000 — $25,000 of which comes from the Haines Borough or local donations. It also includes plenty of categories likely to contain significant non-local spending. For instance, $86,000 spent on staff transport related to the event, including airplane rides, which could not be purchased locally, given that there are no Haines-based airlines; $27,500 spent on start gates, tents, generators, and backdrops; $146,000 spent on helicopter services for the event, and $39,732 spent on guides and emergency doctors, only some of whom are specified in the budget as being local.
Those ambiguous categories, plus the borough’s share of the operating costs, total almost 70% of the $480,000 — the plausibly locally-spent portions of the budget.
The local spending projection likely includes purchases from participants and staff outside of the room and board covered in the event budget. Spending could also come from spectators that come to watch the event, though it’s not clear how many, if any, will attend. The world tour did not respond to a question about spectator projections.
In total, the competition will play out across a nine-day window. There will only be one day of competition, with the full nine available days acting as a safeguard against bad weather. In the event the competition is moved elsewhere due to weather, the contract states Haines will retain its branding for the event, and will still pay half of the $75,000 cash payment. If the event is cancelled due to weather and is not relocated, the borough will still pay its full contribution.
That worst-case scenario, however, seems quite unlikely. About 50% of Haines’ heliskiing season is clear enough to fly helicopters and ski, said Sean Brownell, owner of Haines-based Alaska Heliskiing. That means across nine days, there should be at least one good enough for athletes to return to the slopes of the Chilkat Valley.
• This article was originally published by the Chilkat Valley News.
