It was through his son, Craig, that I first met Nick Badami. Craig was a hell-roaring entrepreneur with boundless ideas and an excess of energy. His father, Nick, was a focused, bright individual whose business acumen was a perfect match for his son’s expansiveness.
    He used the same steady advice with both the ski team and later, USSA. Sharp is the word that comes to mind. Badami was a very good listener according to his friend and business associate, Hank Tauber. He heard what you had to say. But what made Nick out of the ordinary was the fact his listening ability allowed him to focus on the key points of the conversation, offering thoroughgoing words of advice. It was a characteristic that made his service to USSA and to ski sport extraordinarily valuable.
IT WAS THROUGH his son, Craig, that I first met Nick Badami. Craig was a hell-roaring entrepreneur with boundless ideas and an excess of energy. His father, Nick, was a focused, bright individual whose business acumen was a perfect match for his son’s expansiveness.
    He used the same steady advice with both the ski team and later, USSA. Sharp is the word that comes to mind. Badami was a very good listener according to his friend and business associate, Hank Tauber. He heard what you had to say. But what made Nick out of the ordinary was the fact his listening ability allowed him to focus on the key points of the conversation, offering well-thought words of advice. It was a characteristic that made his service to USSA and to ski sport extraordinarily valuable.
    When the Badami family purchased Park City, it was a sleepy ski resort, scarcely having changed from the day when the silver ran out. One of the first moves was to add snowmaking. At the time it seemed strange as Park City was seldom lacking for snow and resorts in the West for the most part sort of scoffed at the need for artificial snow. But Nick Badami knew the potential of snowmaking. He also knew what early season World Cup ski racing could do for Park City, namely attract notice and put the resort on the map.
    World Cup racing in the early 1980’s was not on today’s more regular schedule. Alpine racing came to the U.S. in the spring. Nick Badami set out to change that, convincing Serge Lang, the father of the White Circus, and the FIS the season should begin in November and, naturally, in Park City. It was Craig who persuaded his father and the FIS that the event should be bigger than just racing. It was to be a show with entertainment, bands, art shows, etc.
    And so “America’s Opening” began. Yes, there were ski races, but the Opening was much bigger than racing. Stars like Barbara Mandrell and Fleetwood Mac performed between the first and second runs in front of 12,000 to 15,000 people. Racers were paid in “Badami Bullion” — real gold. Nick Badami once told me that heating the outdoor stage for Fleetwood Mac was “the most expensive thing I ever did,” explaining that the band’s contract required the outdoor stage be 72 to 75 degrees. “It wasn’t the band which was expensive, it was the heating bill," he recalled, laughing.
    After a tragic helicopter accident took the life of Craig Badami, the energy behind America’s Opening began to wane, missing the Ringling Brothers impetus that Craig brought to the event. Despite his personal loss, Nick Badami remained in the forefront of USSA leadership and was instrumental in guiding the organization out of its fiscal morass of the early ’90’s. He asked tough, often gruff questions, expected rock-solid answers and when he did not get them, made changes. His leadership was insightful and exacting but not without its humor.
    This author felt fortunate to have been involved with the Badami family over the past two decades. From time to time, both father and son had a different opinion of what was expressed in Ski Racing and let me know it. Craig was the more vocal, in your face with his thoughts, but like his father, he too could listen. Nick was firm and penetratingly unmistakable with his opinions.  Both helped shape my thinking about alpine racing and its relationship with resorts.  
    The sport has missed its ringmaster for too long a time. Now it has lost the firm-handed advisor. It was a pleasure to have known, worked and laughed with them both.