Sold, but (hopefully) not selling out…

Aside from the Red Sox/Yankees, there is another rivalry that is near and dear to my heart, that is between the two Ski Mountains of Maine, Sugarloaf/USA and Sunday River.

Like the Sox to baseball, Sugarloaf represents everything good about skiing, only the die hard dare to make the brutal pilgrimage to face the double black of double blacks in the northeast, The Snowfields. Sunday River on the other hand, is about as big as The Boss’ (not Springsteen) payroll, and is about as easy to get to as the World Series for the Yankees of the 90s. Even the clientele is divided by NY/Boston ties. You would be hard-pressed to find a NY plate at Sugarloaf, but, Sunday River is full of New Yorkahs.

If you haven’t noticed my bias by now, let me tell you that I have skied at Sugarloaf since the first day I got on skis, and my family has owned a home in the shadow of the mountain for over 25 years. Given this, it was no surprise that I took notice to the Boston Globe’s story on the sale of both “The Loaf” and Sunday River resorts to CNL Income Properties Inc. for a mere $ $76.5 million.

My hope here is that CNL does a better job of keeping the brands separate. I have seen the Sugarloaf “image” slipping the past few years, looking a lot more like Sunday River’s “softer, gentler” family-oriented campaigns, and would really like to see CNL take the mountain back to its roots of a true skier’s mountain.

Let the Range Rovers and Benzes stop at Sunday River, and bring the Subbies and Audi’s to Sugarloaf!

Missing the Link?

I came across an interesting blurb today on Digital Media Wire about Linked-In’s site traffic, which has spiked 323% in the past year, according to this Hitwise blog post.

I have often said that I think Linked-In is a poorly-executed, great idea. The basis is fantastic, connect with colleagues, prospects and friends via professional information, however, I just don’t think it does it as well. I do, they charge for a “premium” social networking section of the site (disclaimer: I am very much a part of the Facebook generation, which is 100% free) and honestly, there seems to be no real benefit to connecting with one and other.

So what am I missing here? Am I under-utilizing the site? Are the premium, paid features that much better? With Facebook’s swelling popularity, are they poised to become the end-all-be-all of social networking for business?

Comment, take the poll, shoot me the email, or even join my Linked-In network, I’d like to know what you all think.