tags:
Denver, CO, United States |
sia snow show |sia |outdoor retailers conference |outdoor retailer |or sia merger |or |denver |colorado
Better start booking your hotel rooms now. Robert Kash photo.
Update: Emerald Expositions, the force behind the Outdoor Retailer Trade Shows, has formalized an agreement to buy Snowsports Industries America (SIA). The agreement all-but assures Denver will be the new home of the Outdoor Retailer Summer exposition and the rebranded Winter show.
In a press release issued by the newly acquired company, SIA president Nick Sargent expressed his enthusiasm for the deal.
“This is an incredible opportunity for our [SIA] members and the industry as a whole,” said Sargent. “For quite some time, the industry has asked to merge the shows. A consolidated trade show not only helps reduce the stress on our industry, but also provides a platform that offers more impact for our members to do business, while delivering a greater ROI. SIA is excited by the opportunities ahead and looks forward to reinvesting into the creation of new and expanded programs and tools to help our members, and the industry as a whole, thrive.”
The first of the Outdoor Retailer Winter shows is expected to take place in January, 2018, in Denver, Colorado.
Downtown Denver may soon be the home of "The Outdoor Retailer Snow Show." Paul Sableman photo.
DENVER — If preliminary agreements are any indication, it looks as if Denver, Colorado, has all-but secured the Outdoor Retailer (OR) shows into the foreseeable future.
According to a report published Friday in The Denver Post, Snowsports Industries America (SIA), is in buyout talks with Emerald Expositions, the main stakeholder in the infamous (and currently semi-homeless) Outdoor Retailer trade shows.
Up until recently, the lucrative summer and winter Outdoor Retailer shows were held in Salt Lake City, but parent company Emerald Expositions decided to leave the municipality earlier this year over Utah’s continued lobbying to rescind land protections for the Bears Ears and Escalante National Monuments.
Still not a done deal, SIA sent a letter to its members Thursday explaining the premise of the $16.7M acquisition, and how it will eventually help them merge with Emerald to form the “Outdoor Retailer Snow Show” that will take the place of SIA’s existing show in late January.
“Emerald has the ability to bring together the outdoor and snow sports industries under one roof. As many have pointed out, this is a natural evolution,” the letter states. “The two industries have much in common and the overlap is becoming increasingly more and more evident: sharing retailers, reps, manufacturing resources, supply chain management, sustainability endeavors and the end consumer.”
The potential deal came about as Denver eyed the Outdoor Retailer shows and sought a way to bring them to the Front Range. But SIA was already contracted through 2030 under a non-compete clause, thereby preventing OR from having the ability to set up a mid-winter show in direct competition with SIA. Entering into a collaborative buyout arrangement, it appears, may be the best path forward for both organizations.
The new show will potentially debut in January 2018. The deal would expand the show’s current footprint of 236,000 sq. feet to over 500,000 sq. feet.
That much room, according to one anonymous source, can hold “a shit-ton of skis.”
About The Author
stash member Sam Morse
TGR Editor-at-Large. author of The Ski Town Fairytale and creative behind The Bumion. Lover of steep-and-deep lines, long trails—and hot springs waiting in the distance.