Problem With World Championships: 'Nobody Will Be Able To Outdo It'
BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (CBS4) - The 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships in the Vail Valley wrapped up Sunday evening. It's been one of the most successful events for the American team with five overall medals, and the biggest ski races of the year have been prime-time television in Europe.
Colorado has been the talk of the world. It was the third time the World Championships have been hosted at Beaver Creek and Vail, and as the closing ceremonies ended Sunday, the question on everyone's mind was, when will the fourth World Championships be brought back to Colorado?
"This event has been absolutely over the top. I think the biggest problem with this event is that nobody will be able to outdo it, and if someone was going to try and replicate it, I don't know if another country could do it; this was amazing," Tiger Shaw with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association said.
With some of the largest crowds to ever gather for a ski race in the United States, the reactions were overwhelming.
"We've actually had a really successful World Championships, and it's hard sometimes when the organizer says that, so we've actually just listened to everyone who has been here and we've actually heard that from them, so we'll stake our claim on it," Ceil Folz with the Vail Valley Foundation said.
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Events were free, the weather was ideal, and the ski racing was nail-biting.
"We had zero concerns about racing and it allowed us to put all of our efforts into everything else around it," Folz said. "So we built it up and did concerts and festivals and a lot of other stuff we've never done before."
And that has gotten the attention of millions around the world.
"I've heard nothing but tremendous positive comments and a lot of people are stunned by many of the things that have been done at a level that's never been done before," Shaw said.
Locally, there's massive business impacts.
"We think the economic impact is going to be close to $150 million for the state, which is a great piece as well," Folz said. "So not only are we getting all this free advertising, but we're getting this great kick."
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The Vail Valley and Colorado should also prosper for years to come from tourists who watched the events and decided Colorado will be their next destination.
"We wanted to put a lot of money into the production of television so the quality of what we're showing the world is the best it could be," Folz said. "And that's what we're hearing from Europe, they've never seen ski racing look so great and so exciting."
But nobody was willing to say when the massive event would be back.
"What I think we'd all say is that the experience we've all had has been so exceptional that we couldn't have imagined not doing this World Championships," Folz said. "So we don't know what the future holds, but we're hopeful.
"The memory of what we've done the past two weeks, that will carry us a long way."
While it's uncertain when the World Championships will be back, the next major skiing event that will be held in the U.S. is the World Cup finals in 2017 in Aspen.
