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Steamboat Springs — In 1980, the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl with offensive linemen whose average weight was 252 pounds. The 2007 Super Bowl winners, the Indianapolis Colts, had offensive linemen weighing in at 306 pounds, on average.

In the 1968 presidential election, the average sound byte was 43 seconds. In 2000, it was nine seconds.

Twenty years ago you could run a 30-second television commercial on any of the three major networks and be guaranteed to reach a huge portion of the American population. Today, you need to advertise on 92 channels to reach that same audience.

As a market gets more competitive, winning by the traditional rules gets more and more difficult. Some choose to try harder, some invent new markets and some leave. But it's the freedom of our markets that decides what works and what doesn't. Walling off a portion of Steamboat or creating an artificial funnel only certain businesses can pass through (i.e. the formula store ordinance) is not the answer to dealing with new retail opportunities as they come online in Steamboat. Competition makes for a better marketplace, a better consumer experience and a better economy. Could you imagine how American Skiing Co. would have run the Steamboat Ski Area if there were no competition from Vail, Aspen, Copper, Whistler, etc.? The proposal of a "formula store ordinance" is a step in the wrong direction in that it seeks to regulate business and competition in a very subjective manner rather than letting the markets do what they do.

The organizations that created the additional 90,000 square feet of retail space (that's the size of 45 Moose Mountain Trading Co. stores) should be applauded for taking the risk to add such opportunities to the Steamboat marketplace. The market should be an open playing field so those who take the risks to improve Steamboat have an economic incentive to do so, and businesses that have something to offer Steamboat can compete alongside existing businesses.

Development risks such as these are what will keep Steamboat growing in the right direction. Let the free market decide who stays and who goes, what the leases should be and what gets built. I believe this can be done within the context of preserving the Steamboat experience.

Personally, I would welcome additional opportunities to spend my money in Steamboat. Let the market decide what the right formula should be.

Jay O'Hare

Steamboat Springs