As snow finally fell heavily on Mammoth Lakes, so did the axe at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. The serious drop in skier numbers and in revenue this season led to a reported layoff of as many as 75 permanent employees.
Word began circulating this morning that the lay-offs were underway. Employees who heard the bitter news made phone calls to media and friends. Others entered posts on Facebook. Sierra Wave has calls in to Mammoth Mountain CEO Rusty Gregory for more detail.
Last week, Gregory told us that the low snow year and the perception that winter had never really arrived seriously hurt ski resorts across the country. At Mammoth, Gregory said revenues had dropped by 30% and skier visits by 36% from projections. Gregory responded with 10% reductions in salaries and cuts for year-round hourly employees. Gregory cut his own pay by 15%.
Last week, Gregory said he and department heads were managing things day by day. The Mountain employee grapevine predicted layoffs eventually. They have apparently come sooner than later. Confirmation that layoffs had arrived appeared in phone calls and Facebook posts. Some reports said there were long-time employees among those who no longer have jobs.
In terms of dollars and people, the 30% revenue drop amounts to $22 million of the usual $140 million annual Ski Area revenue. The 36% drop in skier visits amounts to around 240,000 fewer visits.
The layoffs followed much earlier cuts in expenses, salary and hour cuts. This news added to the gloomy picture in Mammoth Lakes – Serious pressures on businesses that rely on tourists, loss of private sector jobs, loss of revenue to Town government and now a loss of Ski Area jobs.
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Also, what did upthecreek mean about Balboa? Does someone up there own a home on Balboa Island?
You got it.
And a nice big home on top of it.
Enjoy the nice weather Rusty
I think we need upthecreek to apply for Mammoth town manager or run for city council. He has all the answers to the difficult questions and isn’t afraid to voice his opinion….
as long as he can do it under the cloak of anonymity.
As far as I know, he never has any answers for anything, just his meaningless quips about much to do about nothing….
Oh yeah, I think I know where its at.
Whats the deal with the ski area paying for the memorial for the Guy that was was accused of inappropriate behavior with the girl from Santa Barbara?
@Trouble – You are plain ignorant. Look at the facts. Don’t just spout off at the mouth. Have fun skiing Big Bear. We won’t even miss your type up here.
Justalocal- if you want to support a company that just let go 70 of your neighbors, go right ahead. But don’t rag on me for not supporting that company.
Justalocal – Any local that tells a SoCal skier they won’t be missed in Mammoth is a complete fool.
Right on, Rob. It would seem that a lack of people from mainly SoCal is why MM is in this current situation. I’ve heard that sort of talk from quite a few locals, and it’s why I don’t visit anymore.
I for one will not go back to Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort or buy any of their stuff. Their just like the Dodgers owner, all bull. They’ll make their money ,while the working class get criticized for having to go on unemployment.
Right on Trouble, you got that right, and i understand your thoughts, you’re so right about the working class taking it as usual. But we all take it in a situation like this. I like that you didn’t include the BS there, hehe.
justlocal showed the ignorance that time, lol your type anyways lol c’mon justlocal.
Remember back when Barry Sternlicht and Starwood Capitol purchased MMSA? There was this big buzz when he first came to town, wearing his quaint Norwegian knitted sweater. Upon first entering town, he reportedly was very underwhelmed by the lack of pizzazz, sophistication, and awe-inspiring architecture of our funky little 70’s town.
He was quoted as saying, “Mammoth needs to decide what it wants to be when it grows up”.
For days I couldn’t decide whether it was:
a) Condescending or b) Intended to inspire us…
Unfortunately, after the dark day on MMSA, the MLLA mess, and now LADWP challenging our water rights – our little town may go into a state of “arrested development”.
But to finally answer your question, Barry, I hope that my friends and neighbors who make up the REAL town of Mammoth Lakes – will someday “grow up” to become the proverbial young brother who finally kicks his older bully of a brother to the curb.
I understand when a company bleeds massive losses and money drastic things may need to be done. But the majority owners and top-level management of MMSA should understand damn well the implications of their greed.
Breaking the backs and sucker punching your loyal, hardworking employees – who made MMSA millions over the years – is inexcusable.
Rusty posted a copy of the walking letter he gave out to the unlucky 75 employees on the mammoth forums if anyone is interested. “I’m crying as I write this” he says. Whatever Rusty, keep your tears, you let us all down. You ruined a really good company and you will never be forgiven. You lied, and had the audacity to tell the media everything would be ok so you would come off as some sort of god. May your own reflection make you nauseous for years to come.
RECIPE FOR HEARTACHE
Combine:
1 cup of lies – “There will never be another Black Monday…” “…the best Christmas ever…”
with 1 cup of secrecy –
Exactly what is MJSA’s ongoing budget and its guiding principles & goals?
Why are the profits mismanaged to a point that the seemingly almighty Mountain Managers have totally forgotten to save for non-snowy days, as any valuable business manager in a ski tourist town knows to do, thus not protecting their “valued” employees?
Are there mini-lobbyists in control?
Or is it just a small bunch of people who care only about their own personal fortunes (a 15% cut of a huge amount of money is difficult to impress anyone with, especially considering these bonuses we keep hearing about), and not a crumb about the power of their words or actions?
Stir in a fantastic amount of disloyalty…(forget about the spirit of Dave McCoy when he built this mountain…even though that very spirit protected the people now in control….)
And forget the sweetener. Nothing could sweeten this recipe –
For how am I to tell my kids that, for I’m not sure how long, we won’t have enough money for food, house safety repairs, heating, and other basics, much less with any extra to help with college expenses – even, say, for the fees required to apply?
What am I to tell them about the loyalty their dad showed for years to a company that now shows none in return? What values are they actually learning from this? What values are the kids of the Managers learning from this?
I am certain there are those in this town who don’t have to worry about such things, or actually care about those who do, and perhaps that is why this recipe was created.
I am so saddened. I feel that this town I love, and this mountain I joyfully taught skiing on for many years, is losing its colors and turning a dusty black-and-white.
longtime local
Amen longtime local. It is just one more glimpse of how our society is falling apart, what made us great as a nation and a people is progressively evaporating.
Care
Companies and individuals do not care about employees so much any more. It is all about making money at all expense.
Care is still to be found, and as much as it seems, it is not amongst us, it is .. it is like seeds under the snow waiting to spring forth with the end of winter.
How do you teach your kids care, you show them how to care in times such as this, to show others care, and always have bright hope for tomorrow
for there is always hope that change will bring it back around through perseverance, and the seeds will grow, and transform black and white into colors.
Thanks, Big Al, for this response. My 17 year old son says much the same as you just did about our country, and that is sad. Yet, as you remind us, there is always hope for change, and there must be people who will stand up and cry out when injustices occur – as in these responses to the layoffs.
I loved this one article that I read awhile ago about a man who owned a company, and when he died, he left a percentage of the company to each of his employees, much to their surprise. There are still good caring people in America –
I would like to challenge Rusty to present MJSA’s budget to employees/sierrawave to scrutinize, including details about bank loans and bonuses, instead of showing us a letter which tells us only generalized information and justification.
Yes amen
As a former mmsa employee who was laid off two years ago (remember 2009) this event does not surprise me one bit. Mammoth wanted to transform itself into a destination resort like Aspen and Whistler. They brought in top executives and top managers with six figure jobs to transform the resort. The fact was average income skiers from SoCal made them big and a good season is more correlate to snow fall then high paid experts. MMSA would have had better results paying people to dance for snow. My big question is how many of those legacy employees and high paid SMGs were shown the door this time around? Can Somebody please respond to this?
Not enough, sad to say…
Sad that that it’s come to layoffs. I’ve been coming to Mammoth all my life but I won’t ski there again; prices are too high! Lift tickets are the highest anywhere.
I can fly to Salt Lake, get a whole package with better condos/hotels for far less than it costs to come to Mammoth. At Park City, they make sure that I won’t get run over by hotdogging snowboarders (I’m blind in one eye and snowboarders who bank off the side of run and then charge in front of me are a danger)
We still come up in the Summer and Fall, spread a few bucks around.
Sorry but not only are Mammoth’s full price tickets not close to the “highest anywhere” bur Mammoth has sold virtually all lift tickets this season at $89 or less. Today they are $69 for a mountain that, unlike many of the higher priced ones, is 100% open.
Clausen, is that you?
Well if you all want to know the real reason for all of this, it’s the fact that Rusty and Mark Clausen took out a bunch in loans (or refinanced their debt) with promises to the bank that they would better last season (a record breaking season) with thier EBITA. Having promised the farm to the banks and now with a record “poor” winter season, they are in the hole so much that they are trying to do anything they can to dig out. They will be so off their forecast that they will be hit with a ton of penalties, costing the company much more than just the loss of a down season.
Tell me who is in their right mind thinks that you will be able to have a record year right after a record year? How often are records broken, in sports, life, etc? Not day after day, hour after hour. So for some reason he thought that they would, promised the employees blood on the deal, and lost. Great bet Rusty, might as well put the company on the betting line of a horse that has a 1 in 1,000,000 chance to win.
Someone should be terminated for this poor decision, and we know that Rusty will not be the one. But if they did get rid of some of those overpaid Senior Management positions that would save $300,000+ with each one. That sounds much better than getting rid of a man like poor “Chop” who worked forever hard on the front lines only to be let go like a piece of lint on one’s shirt.
I didn’t know banks still have “liar loans”
Chop ended up coming out ok, thank goodness! He’s already working another job. At least he had the opportunity to find a new job. Seventy five others likely won’t.
The bet was not on another record season, snow or guests. When trying to predict the future one looks at the past and the past has not been bad, steady growth.
Sad day in Mammoth for sure. Greed is destroying this country and this town. When is enough $$ just simply enough $$.
Corporate greed and abuse of power always breaks the backs of the working and middle class of this country as soon as profits diminish in the short term. In small community like ours, it has a huge impact.
It’s weird that ever since Dave McCoy sold his share of Mammoth Mnt (each time) very bad things have fallen on this town and MMSA… think about it.
Not trying to get mystical, but maybe the mountains are trying to tell us something???
I truly hope the 99% in this community will rise from the ashes – and work to improve our situation. Time more than ever to shop locally – and if you own a business in town – TREAT your employees as well as you can!!!!!
I fear that soon, there will be a mass exodus of a lot of good folks (families etc) who just can’t, won’t, or are just plain unable to make it any longer.
There is nothing mystical about it. Much of the money the mountain takes in from all sources leaves town to finance other projects of Starwood Capital and Fortress Investments. And their agents manipulate and lie to our town leaders and get them to do stupid things like fund the airport and the ice rink and the monument park and the Downtown Neighborhood Redevelopment Plan and on and on.
It’s simply that our local government are amateurs and the smart people work for Starwood and Fortress and ChadMar.
Let them have it,
Who wants to work anyway,
Time to play,
Cheers,
Da Ski Bum
=
MJA……Exactally how a LOT of people think when they can draw unemployment benefits for close to 2 years now….The name that you use says it all……..
Thats what i would do, take a couple of years off!
Now get back to work.
=
MJA………Problem with that is unemployment benefits are a lot less than you were making at the job you no longer”have” to go to.Which means your “time to play” isn’t nearly as much fun.And if your a bread winner with a family it also could mean some type of public assistance needed…which is fine if it’s needed to survive…but not so fine if it’s someone choosing to not look for work and take a couple years off….and play.
Oh yeah, the life of luxury on California with a maximum benefit of $450 a week.
Let’s see — rent and utilities $800 a month — that leaves a wopping $400-$500 a month to live like a king on — as long as you don’t get sick or have car trouble.
Of course that $450 depends on having had a pretty good salary to begin with.
Yessir — the life of a king — where’s the keys to my Cadillac? I’m on my way to Vegas….
Well, since tha govt. steals part of our hard earned money, every pay-check, WE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED… to get everything and more BACK that WE CAN, Yes We Can… That’s What CHUNKY Thinks 🙂
while livng in mammoth, many yeas ago, there were droughts as well, the town some how managed to thrive!. yet in recent years, all i read is……”money, give me your money, how can we take tourist and home owners money….” you all get my point. I have no personal ties to mammoth as all my friends and family has moved, mainly due to higher taxes, and cost of living. so when i visit mammoth from time to time, i feel like turist have felt for years….best pf luck to all of you up there!
oh by the way, i am also a former mountain employee…….:(
Yep. looks like Mammoth Mountain Ski Area… ” IS DONE SON “… any questions….!
My heart felt sympathy to all of the families that have worked as many as 20+ years for Mammoth Mountain. This is another great example of multi-national corporate greed that has torn this country apart including the small communities of the Eastern Sierra…the mountain has made record breaking profit for the past few years in this troubled economy and made plenty of unfulfilled promises to sincerely hard working individuals…yet one sub par year they need to cut all of the people who actually do something on the hill…I’m sorry Rusty but you do run the day to day operations of this machine…I and several long standing members of this beautiful mountain town can’t help but notice that your poorly raised uneducated son Michael has been promoted and given power to fire anybody who doesn’t kiss his butt…you should be ashamed but instead act like “this was the best Christmas ever”…maybe you should peel off one of those finely knitted tight back t-shirt’s that’s on your back and let the blood flow freely to your brain once again or let Pam Murphy along with the rest of the fourth floor continue to reap the profits of our little village?
How to run a business – Mammoth 101
Phase 1
1) Have record breaking monetary season
2) Spend money on unnecessary improvements
3) Designate portion of profits for bonuses
4) Pay employees bonuses in funny money; passcash for pennies on the dollar
5) Keep lions share
6) Brag about donating $200,000 to an athletic center for the children of the wealthy during all hands meeting
Phase 2
7) Have a slow year
8) Cuts backs need to be made
9) Round 1 – cut all hourly employees hours
9) Round 2 – 10% pay cut for all employees
10) 15% for you; negligible when compared to bonus received months earlier
11) Still not enough?
12) Round 3 – Lay off long term employees; no severance
13) Pay out legally required PTO balanced at reduced salary rates
14) Remaining employees; work double hours to cover now gone friends at reduced pay
15) The stool is broken
Add to this list-
Great Ideas/Mammoth Style
1-Village
1a-Gondola to a lodge that is closed most the year.
2.Patina Group/Etc…..Really? The food is horrible and overpriced.
3. Yoddler makeover(S)-The one place that was packed is now a boring cavern.
4. Chair 9 upgrade?
5. Chair 5 upgrade?
6. RFID? WTF-good one
7. The new Courthouse location? Nothing says “world class” “play big” like a court house AND a Mc.Donalds as you pull into town.
Anybody who had anything to do with the design,planning or pushed for these projects should be jettisoned back to what ever housing tract mini mall mentality they came from.
Winnerwinnerchickendinner and boywhite,
If Dave didn’t have financing backing his dream never would have come true. If the risks had not been taken and continuous improvements, addition/replacement of old lifts, building new lodges and other improvements there wouldn’t be the Mammoth Mountain we know and love today. All surface tows have been replaced with chair lifts. The new chair 5 and the RDIF are all a part of growth and improvement.
Wow…shades of 1991….I was laid off on President’s Day from June Mtn. and they shut the whole place down. I remember asthere were lots of long time year round employees laid off as well, one I remember had worked for Dave for 20+ years. I was rehired a week and a half later or so…The March Miracle. I stayed working up there until 2004, 17 winters and 3 departments when I was hired full time by my summer employer. I felt I was a loyal employee, worked hard and believed in what MMSA’s mission was as far as furthering the guest experience. I will always have fond memories of my days up there.
Yes I now am a “tax eater” as many of you refer to us Town Employees…Last summer was my 20th working in Parks and Rec. I have seen other posts on other stories and people asking what the Town is doing and all that junk….well we have been taking cuts for the last couple of years…..furloughs….no raises, lay offs, stuff like that. Yeah, I live “comfortably”, I have a decent apartment that is affordable, although I will be taking on a new roommate soon, I have a little money in the bank and yes I am very grateful for having medical benefits…something I never had until I went full time, and I have a few indulgences (Kenny Chesney concerts), but in no way am I living high off the hog.
Yeah things suck right now…but this Town has been kicked in the gut before, but I am hopeful that the powers that be will rally, take care of business and let us all move on.
There is a reason we all moved here and love this area so dearly, right?
Peace out.
Steph
Thanks Steph for your story and insight and work w/ Park n Rec. There are people in this community who do appreciate your work and value to the town.
Our town really needs some positive mojo right now. Can all the pessimists please go and toil in their own misery alone.
So Tell me Dave
Just How many Town Managers does the TOML really need?
The FAT starts at the top.. Not the bottom
ggw
How about you offer your services in the next town council election. You seem to have pretty strong conviction in your opinions on how gov should be run.
Good for you Steph, Parks and Rec is actually one of the things that government does that is really for the people.
Sorry for everyone from the mountain that lost their jobs i hope things get better for you. Good luck
Good post Steph.
Pretty much stinks…but the real question is “how is that hope and change” working out for you? 01/12/13
I hope TOML and MMSA does declear bankruptcy, wipe the slate clean from all the excess that once ruled over the Mountain community. Bring this community back down to earth and cater to the masses instead of the classes. This wanna be Aspen business model is a huge failure so far, ie Intrawest and Starwood Capital. The only one that made Mammoth sucessful was Dave McCoy and he did cater to the common man.
funny thing is you bash/use aspen as your argument for??? There are tons of jobs tons of tourists in Aspen. Actually there is also great food and service. The service industry there is always hiring? So WTF is the bias? Are you mad because they always make money? Are you mad because Mammoth is owned by a total hack? You really need to wake up along with the rest of Mammoth and realize your elected and bought and paid for leaders are total HACKS and until you WAKE the F up it will never change. Trying to put Mammoth in Aspen’s league is not fair, you need to aim lower like big bear or maybe Keystone in the 90’s-Hack is as Hack does-
Repeat after me: The mountain is not for skiing — it’s to attract buyers for Starwood’s and Fortress’s property development. One should not expect to have a lifetime job working for a loss leader promotional device used to sell condos. It’s only a ski hill in the brochures.
Rusty, you told us “There will never be another Black Monday as long as I’m running the show” Well Rusty, we laughed then and we knew what you meant – there were still 6 days left in the week for you to work with. You picked a good day to do it ….again – Leap Day!
Nice going Rusty. Maybe you should have taken a 25% pay cut and saved a few more jobs. It would have looked better if you had dropped the hammer on a couple of your SMGs. (Its not personal, its just business) You know, your wanna-be 1%ers. It would have looked better to the 99%ers. . You are still top heavy with plenty of worthless personel. Keep cleaning! Your legacy is sealed.
Is Bankruptcy next ???
Yes Yes BANKRUPTCY BANKRUPTCY Is Next, Yes Lord let it be BANKRUPTCY praise jesus… That’s What CHUNKY Thinks 🙂
pretty F’ing Pathetic. The whole pedophile thing is just a weird side show. The weirder thing is that Rusty went out of his way to post his response to the upset resident that sent him that letter @ his work ? Why does everybody tell me that Rusty is really just a tool of his Fathers? Also didn’t he claim this was the best Christmas ever? ………..Why spend the money on RFID/Ch 5 and RAISE prices????? Really dude…you suck…….and yet ANOTHER makeover to the yoddler?????
Chair 5 was something guests have asked to be changed to a high speed detachable for years.
The RFID is the way of the future and makes sense, if parents separated from a child the last chair used by both can quickly be determined greatly reducing the child search area and the child’s ticket can be turned off preventing the child from using another chair and identifying where the child is and it also reduces ticket fraud.
Take one for the team..Rusty
You know the sad part is most of the people laid off are NOT the upper management or the “highly regarded” SMG group. The ones on top who make the bad decisions of raising lift ticket prices beyond the average skier can afford or not storing the surplus profits from previous years. Ever wonder if the SMG can make the same sacrifice like being paid only half of normal amount until business returns to normal, tough things out together like Alexander the Great. Instead its always the ones that like paycheck to paycheck that suffer.
I know everyone will say” its due to the drought,” but have you ever considered that droughts have happened in the past? I only wish that Senior management can be laid off just like the people they give pink slips to. That is shared sacrifice.
A sad day for mammoth..
GGW
A sad day….but something they should have seen coming years and years ago,when the town first started caring about only one thing…and nothing else….MONEY….namely tourist money.
They have been laying people off since before the season even started. Lots of year round employees gone and with todays cuts, employees who have 25-30 years of service now gone. Thanks for the loyalty.
Guess Rusty has totally gone back on his word about no layoffs. Good thing they can throw a $10,000 wake for a alleged pedophile.
The ironic part is that no other ski resort in the nation has laid off people like this, just shows how bad they have mismanaged things (forever) up there. Now that you have no marketing and sales staff how are you going to sell the mountain and its products with no viable employees or get someone to ever take a job there knowing how they treat employees?
From a two time former MM employee.
In a way you really don’t need such a huge staff to sell a product, have you been to MMSA’s website to see how many director/ head of / coordinator / manager positions there are. Talk about top heavy. Also look at the number of products they offer on their website, can anyone here tell me how many packages/products they offer? Way too many in my opinion and a waste of time/resources to change/implament.
Here is a noval idea; trim the top of a least 50% of the SMG’s, combine their functions and take a pay cut until business improves. Cut out all the people trying to get a commision, simplify the product mix. Money saved from these cuts should be applied to discounts on tickets.
I have also heard insurance cost is high due to lawsuits, well here is another idea. Don’t settle, instead counter sue to recover attorney costs after all you can sue for anything. Does anyone on this board think skiing is a safe sport??? I’ll bet you there will be a 75% drop in the number of cases.
Keep It Simple Stupid people.
The one thing we need to KNOW.
Rusty… How is the weather in Balboa?
Do you mean Balboa Island?
LOL good post Steve right on.
Appropriate name, good choice, you know what you are.