Snowsports Industries America, the group whose annual Snow Show trade show is booked in Denver through 2030, has reached an agreement to sell to Emerald Expositions, eliminating a final obstacle to Denver securing Emerald’s lucrative and influential summer and winter Outdoor Retailer shows.
SIA on Thursday sent its more than 1,000 members a 16-page letter detailing the $16.7 million deal that the trade group’s board unanimously approved last week. If members vote to approve the deal, the “Outdoor Retailer Snow Show” will debut in January in Denver, but future Outdoor Retailer shows in the Colorado Convention Center are still under negotiation.
SIA said the sale “ensures the best path for a vibrant, successful show.” SIA has hosted the Snow Show for more than 50 years.
“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,” reads the letter. “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.”
Both SIA and Emerald declined to comment, citing due diligence as the deal unfolds. Same for members, who were asked to keep the sale confidential until the group’s “premium members” officially voted on the deal. If approved, a contract is set to be signed on May 24.
The Snow Show arrived in Denver’s Colorado Convention Center in 2011, shifting from its long-time home in Las Vegas. The 11-year deal marked the largest convention booking in the history of Visit Denver, the city’s convention bureau.
The city has fit well with the show’s more than 18,000 winter sports manufacturers, reps and retailers who energize downtown during the city’s quieter moments in late January, delivering an estimated $30 million economic impact.
Denver in January announced a commitment to keep the show through 2030. Part of the agreement included a non-compete clause that prevented Denver from hosting an outdoor-type convention in the weeks around the Snow Show.
That was a problem for Denver as it courted Emerald’s Outdoor Retailer trade shows.
Outdoor Retailer recently announced it was leaving its 20-year home in Salt Lake City, citing Utah leaders lobbying the federal government to rescind national monument designations for the state’s Bear Ears and Grand Staircase – Escalante regions.
In order for Denver to land the pair of four-day shows — which draw more than 40,000 attendees a year to Salt Lake, stirring at least $45 million a year in economic spending — SIA had to reach a deal with Outdoor Retailer owner Emerald.
SIA is not going away. The sale to Emerald, which last month raised $264 million in an initial public offering, comes when the Snow Show’s value “is at a premium,” the letter reads.
The deal, according to the letter, allows SIA more room to focus on research, education, participation, consumer outreach and retail support. SIA will continue to manage the Snow Show’s two-day On Snow Demo, which sees dozens of winter-sports gearmakers offering test runs of their latest innovations at Copper Mountain ski area.
SIA now will look more like the Outdoor Industry Association, the Boulder-based trade group with 1,200 members that partners with Emerald to throw the Outdoor Retailer trade shows while focusing on growing participation in outdoor activities. OIA also provides research and lobbying for industry interests involving trade and public lands policies.
“SIA will have to share the spotlight with OIA in some shape or form,” reads the letter, under a list of the deal’s “cons.”
The new show is set to be called the “Outdoor Retailer Snow Show presented by SIA and OIA” and will debut in the late January 2018 time slot secured by SIA. The deal will grow the Snow Show from 236,000 square feet in the Colorado Convention Center to more than 500,000 square feet.
As trade shows have evolved from pure business to include a vibrant educational and marketing components, the calls to merge SIA and Outdoor Retailer have grown. Many retailers and manufacturers attend both shows, stressing budgets while revenue gleaned from the show — through gearmakers actually selling to shop owners — has declined.
Denver is one of three finalists to host the summer and winter Outdoor Retailer trade shows. The city also bid to land Emerald’s annual Interbike rally of the cycling industry, which is leaving Las Vegas.
“It is Emerald’s intent to stay in Denver,” the letter reads, “however Denver is not guaranteed.”
