After two years of highly entertaining and adrenaline-fueled winter events, 48 Straight is canceling the series after losing Jeep as its title sponsor.
Ketchum resident Kipp Nelson, who with Steve Brown co-founded 48 Straight in 2006, said that despite weeks of negotiations, a deal could not be worked out with Jeep, a division of embattled auto manufacturer Chrysler.
"We all know what's going on in the auto industry," Nelson said. "It's just a cut in expenses."
Nelson said the final decision was made Thursday and that he immediately began contacting the participating resorts.
The company canceled events in Telluride, Colo., Squaw Valley, Calif., and Sun Valley. The events were to be largely funded through sponsorship from Jeep.
The series was set to conclude in Sun Valley from March 27-29.
Originally known as the Honda Ski Tour, the series began in Sun Valley in January 2007 and featured ski- and snowboard-cross races, halfpipe competitions, concerts and environmental symposiums.
In summer 2007, the company changed its name and title sponsor when it merged with Jeep King of the Mountain, another nationally televised series that featured both ski and mountain bike races.
Though Nelson said the details of Jeep's sponsorship agreement are confidential, he said it would be impossible to pull off the events without a main sponsor.
"If this happened six months ago, we would have had time to get new sponsorship in place," Nelson said. "We thought we could perhaps just scale down the events in order to keep them going and tried to work with Jeep, but it wasn't the direction they wanted to go."
Nelson said he had hoped that South Korean electronics manufacturer LG would take over as main sponsor, but that possibility "fell by the wayside."
The result is the loss of the so-called "loudest show on snow," which quickly became a major wintertime tourist attraction for the Wood River Valley.
After the event last March, the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau reported that hotel occupancy in Ketchum and Sun Valley was at 83 percent, up from 69 percent from the same time the previous year. In Hailey, the difference was even greater, with hotel occupancy increasing from 32 percent to 68 percent.
Thousands of spectators flocked to Dollar and Bald mountains to watch the competitions and to attend sold-out concerts in downtown Ketchum. The event not only brought visitor dollars, but also promoted the area with its attendant national television coverage.
"It's a big loss for our community, especially with the music and the youth that it brought to town" said Carrie Westergard, chamber marketing director.
Ketchum native and professional skier Zach Crist was the only 48 Straight employee to work for the company—which he said employed more than 50 people at some times—from inception to end.
"The Ski Tour was all about trying to do something that showcased mountain culture and brought the progressive aspects of skiing to a broader audience," said Crist, who was sports director for the company. "It was also a way of bringing youth and vitality to this area, which is necessary if we are to keep moving forward."
Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall tried to remain positive during a City Council meeting on Monday.
"I know Kipp felt badly for us, as we had come to rely on the economic stimulus that the event has brought us, but I told him I'm looking at it the other way around," he said. "We know that there's going to be all of this fallout and I'm just going to be grateful for the two years that we had it. It's disappointing, but at the end of the day, we still have a major winter event with the Special Olympics in February."
The 2009 Special Olympics Winter Games will bring snowboarding and cross-country skiing events to Sun Valley from Feb. 8-13.
However, Nelson said the cancellation leaves a void in the schedules of the competitors, especially since the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, the national governing body for Olympic skiing and snowboarding, had sanctioned the series.
"The biggest bummer from my point of view is that the series was really necessary for the athletes, particularly for the ski and boardercross racers," Nelson said. "From a straight economic standpoint, it's smarter to shut it down, but we really wanted to keep it going up until the 2010 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately it just costs too much money to put on these events."
Nelson didn't rule out the possibility of resurrecting the series in the future. The production company still exists and owns the large tent that became a fixture in downtown Ketchum during last winter's spectacle.
"When the market recovers it won't be too hard to dust off the sales book and look for another sponsor," Nelson said.
Large crowds gather at the base of Dollar Mountain during the inaugural 48 Straight event, then known as the Honda Ski Tour, in January 2007. 48 Straight is canceling its winter series because of a lack of a title sponsor. Photo by Willy Cook
