After reading the article, I mentally reeled off a short list of the factors that I would consider, if I were a well-heeled ski-industry executive, looking for a new place to locate my corporate headquarters:
- A few minutes drive to the slopes,
- Nearby freeway transport access,
- Ready, willing and able young local work-force always looking for new ways to connive a ski-pass,
- Plush local homes for well-paid executives to reside,
- Stunning mountain setting,
- Great restaurants, night-spots and other extravagant community amenities,
- Annual opportunity to mix and hob-nob with leading lights in the film industry, (who knows, maybe a ski exec could even pick up on some young "starlets" now and then)
- Reasonably good Utah skiing at my doorstep,
- Close proximity to other 4-season recreation,
- International panache and prestige.
"Yes, Park City would be an excellent locale for a ski company re-location," I thought. "Hey wait a minute; why did I not become a ski industry executive myself?". (I actually worked for a time in the ski industry in my youth. Talk about missed career opportunities!)
The news of Rossignol's corporate relocation has not set well with some in our local Ogden city community, however, as this morning's Scott Schwebke article attests. Both the Mayor and the Descente Geigers are hopping mad about the way this deal was brokered. They're crying foul, and blaming Governor Huntsman's economic development bureaucrats for pulling the rug out from under Ogden City. They seem to be charging that state bureaucrats steered Rossignol, a powerhouse ski-business "big fish," to another competing "resort community" -- just when they may have thought they had it on the hook.
One of the Geigers was so upset that he even wrote an angry letter to Std-Ex editor Don Porter about this, (although he appears to miss the point when he attributes the problem to community "negativity.")
There's been rumor floating here and other places about a tense recent meeting between Mayor Godfrey and Governor Huntsman's state economic development people, wherein Mayor Godfrey "showed" at least one of them "the door" -- something about Huntsman's people demanding an accounting of Mayor Godfrey's ski industry "prospects." It's all been pretty vague though, and Scott Schwebke doesn't shed much light on it, even though he mentions it in his article. I'm sure many of us would like to get a deeper grasp of the facts on this.
And I think Mayor Godfrey may have a pretty good point, when he complains about the Governor's apparent policy conflict, whereby Governor Huntsman promotes the concept of developing "industry clusters" on the one hand, while giving at least lip-service to the concept of treating all Utah communities "non-preferentially," on the other.
What about our gentle readers? Do you have any thoughts about this? Did meddling State economic development people literally pull the rug out from under our Mayor, and local ski industry people, by luring the Rossignol headquarters away from "the Hub?" Did officials from the Governor's office actually "hustle away" one of Mayor Godfrey's legitimate re-location" projects?" Are we in Ogden City merely getting the usual "red-headed-stepchild" treatment that the politicos in Salt Lake City have always given Ogden city, going back to the days of Brigham Young? Did the Governor's economic development bureaucrats play unfairly in the Rossignol re-location, or does Rossignol's choice for their new HQ site merely reflect the fact that ski industry executives like to live the "life of Reilly" at fancy ski resorts?
And help us out, gondola fanatics. Some of you claim to be well-connected with the locally-situated ski industry. Is there anybody who reads Weber County Forum who can give is the straight and unadorned story on this purported "meeting" that was ostensibly held in Mayor Godfrey's office a short time ago? Opie? UTmorman? Do either of the Geiger boys ever silently "lurk" here? This thread's open for full discussion of this topic. How about we get going on this?
