Haines has a strong calling card for hosting extreme ski events like the Freeride World Tour, but gaining the level of sponsorship sought by the event may be a steep climb, even at the statewide level, marketing and other officials said this week.
Freeride officials plan to come to Alaska in the coming months, in part to develop “partners,” sponsors they’re hoping could contribute as much as $250,000 cash annually for putting on the event. Event manager Nicholas Hale-Woods has said other locations on the tour provide up to to $750,000, including cash and in-kind donations.
“Our model usually counts on 50 percent financing from the host city, resort, region and local/regional/national sponsors,” Hale-Woods said via email this week, responding to a question of how important the cash is to keeping the event in Haines. “With $250,000, we are speaking of 25 percent of the overall event budget.”
In a recent communication shared with the Haines Borough, Hale-Woods said the event spends $240,000 locally and has an additional $265,000 in travel costs.
Freeride spending here includes accommodations ($70,000), food and beverage ($38,000), helicopters ($91,650), local guides ($19,000), and other expenses, including car rentals ($18,000), according to Hale-Woods.
Bill Thomas, lobbyist for the Haines Borough, reported to the assembly last week that the state likely wouldn’t be a source for cash grants to the event.
“I was asked to help Freeride to meet with the governor to try to get some money. I met with the (legislative) director twice, and we came to the conclusion that the governor said nobody has any money. We were trying to get the oil industry or somebody else to help raise some money for Freeride to come back and it was determined they didn’t have any. Nobody has any money to give anybody,” Thomas said.
Tyson Fick, who works in marketing and communications for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, said the oil and cruise industries would be “a good place to start” for major sponsorships.
ASMI donates Alaska seafood to Freeride.
“That’s a pretty substantial sponsorship to try to cobble together,” said Fick.
It’s in Haines’ favor that Alaska skiing is the rage right now, he said. “There’s a certain amount of cachet you get in coming to Alaska. You see any ski videos and the buildup is the Alaska part. You want to get to Haines or Valdez and get in a helicopter. Breckenridge (ski resort) doesn’t carry the same weight as skiing from a helicopter in Alaska.”
ASMI sponsors Olympic skiers and marathoners Ryan and Sarah Hall, which Fick says “increases our message” by connecting Alaska seafood to “well-known, very fit folks,” under the theme “feed your fitness.”
Companies like cruise lines are interested in sponsorships, which mean exposure for their brands, but there has to be a payoff for the sponsors in terms of demonstrable attention, Fick said.
In extreme skiing, sponsorship for an event like Freeride would have many advantages for a participating resort, but getting a statewide or regional entity to underwrite a Haines-based event might be harder, even though some benefit would come to Alaska tours in general, Fick said.
Hale-Woods recently sent the borough a long, detailed report of the event’s media numbers, including numbers of hits the program received on various online platforms.
Haines tourism director Leslie Ross said she’s encouraged by those numbers, which show, among other things, that the Haines competition drew considerably more web attention than competitions in Freeride’s other four locations overseas.
Ross is hoping to arrange a meeting between Hale-Woods and marketing officials with the Alaska Tourism Industry Association.
Ross and Hale-Woods are also pursuing Alaska Airlines as a potential sponsor. The company this year offered discounted fares, but as event competitors travel separately, it didn’t work out. But efforts are continuing. Hale-Woods said donated airfares “would cover a part of (the) $250,000 in cash. Ideally, Alaska Airlines would cover some airfares from farther than Seattle.”
In lieu of cash, Haines could help hold Freeride here by introducing them to state tourism and economic development officials or to potential state or national partners, Hale-Woods said. At the event’s other locations overseas, tourism and economic development departments “help us considerably,” he said.
Hale-Woods said it’s also feasible that the event could find national sponsorship for a Haines-based event as “Alaska is a dream destination within the USA.”
For a major cash sponsor, Freeride can offer “very solid international brand awareness, image association with a cool brand, video and photo content, hospitality opportunities.”
Alaska Brewing Co. has provided beer for Freeride events here, but the benefit of a cash sponsorship would take a long time for the company to gain back, said co-owner Marcy Larson. “It’s a great event that brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm into the community, but we typically don’t donate money. We donate in-kind.”
Locally, Delta Western provided helicopter fuel at a discounted price to support the event, but even that was a stretch, said local manager Fred Gray.
“I ran the numbers and it makes no sense to us. Even to our bottom line, it makes no sense to us. It helps other businesses in town,” Gray said.
Most of the company’s cash giving is for scholarships, Gray said. It also donates to Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Tourism director Ross said she understands that businesses in Haines in mid-winter can’t afford to give much away, and appreciates the ones that pitch in, noting Alaska Power and Telephone made an in-kind donation valued at about $6,000.
Ross said the borough spends about $5,000 on Freeride, the same amount it would for a small conference, including providing a reception and two, big meals. The event provides a “huge boost for hotels and restaurants” as well as an “incredible amount of free advertising,” she said. “I don’t think there are many events that bring in the publicity that this one does. That’s why I put so much energy into it,” she said.
But Haines faces some tough competition from resorts in the Lower 48 that would like to have the Freeride, she said. Hale-Woods left the Haines Freeride event early to visit resorts in Colorado that are interested in hosting the event, she said.
A decision on the North American location for the 2017 Freeride World Tour is expected by August.