Why not add more Ironman events?

ex-buzz - 2010-09-01 3:53 AM Also IM Regensberg is new in europe, and from papers over here, I hear they're adding a 70.3 in galway, ireland, which will be awesome.

The fact that they now have some M-dot races that do NOT sell out quickly indicates they are on the hairy edge of saturating the market and/or over playing their M-dot hand.

AndrewMT - 2010-08-31 8:26 PM

All that being said, we need more non-IM brand 140.6 events.  Forget Kona and the M-dot.  Let's see more local 140.6 events!

dgunthert - 2010-09-01 9:20 AM In just the last few years, they've added Louisville, St. George, and The Woodlands and that's just in the U.S. I think they are on the edge of saturation as well. St. George took a long time to sell out and Louisville has taken a while each year (and will probably take even longer this year given the brutal weather). The other major issue with expansion is location. There just aren't that many suitable locations for hosting an IM, even in a country as big as the U.S. You have to have a body of water to support at least a 1.2 mile swim, assuming two laps. Nearby to that, you have to a sufficient area to allow for transitions. Then, you have to the roads that can accommodate a 112-mile bike ride without completely destroying traffic patterns for local residents. Don't forget you also have to have 26.2 miles of roads/sidewalks/trails that can handle the run. If you've got the infrastructure for the course, you need to have the hotel accommodations to handle 3000 athletes and their families, most of whom are going to want to be able to easily walk to the race site. If you manage all that, you still have to have a local government that's willing to work with you to put the event on. That's a pretty tall order. Austin is a good example. This is a HUGE triathlon town. But there's no way there could ever be an IM here, because the location just doesn't exist.

dgunthert - 2010-09-01 10:20 AM In just the last few years, they've added Louisville, St. George, and The Woodlands and that's just in the U.S. I think they are on the edge of saturation as well. St. George took a long time to sell out and Louisville has taken a while each year (and will probably take even longer this year given the brutal weather). 

Austin is a good example. This is a HUGE triathlon town. But there's no way there could ever be an IM here, because the location just doesn't exist.

I think there's quite a few places that can host IM's;  the problem is the cost / benefit for the city of shutting down the roads.

AndrewMT - 2010-08-31 8:26 PM

All that being said, we need more non-IM brand 140.6 events.  Forget Kona and the M-dot.  Let's see more local 140.6 events!

furiousferret - 2010-09-01 4:30 PM The only thing (and it is a big thing) that bothers me about the expansion of the IM brand is the side effect of its pricing.  They can charge what the market bears, however its choking out the other races.  If a triathletes spends $700 on an IM and thats more than they can afford, they will more than likely just do less races, i.e. not signing up for the local ones.

I see it more and more in endurance sports, people who used to do 10-15 races a year are now just doing 2-5.

Rogillio - 2010-09-27 5:17 PM

I think a factor that limits IM venues is the rate of return (and risk) of an IM vs an Oly or sprint.  While the entry fee is much higher for IM, so are the costs to host the event, permits etc.  Maybe this is not a consideration but seems an order of magnitude harder to host an IM than say an oly or sprint tri.  I guess like all things, the bigger the risk the bigger the reward. 

~Mike

BigDH - 2010-09-28 10:10 AM
Off topic but, how much does it cost to run one of these. It would seem to me that the fixed cost for 100 athletes are about the same as the fixed cost for 1500 athletes. I mean you have to rent the cops to patrol the intersections and pay the city to shut down the road and rent a lake for the day, but these are the big costs right and they are the same no matter how many people are out there.

spudone - 2010-09-28 11:51 AM


There are a lot of small costs that add up when you have more athletes and longer distances.  For one, the pre-race organization and setup usually spans multiple days.  Then you have to add overnight security for transition.  Additional water safety personnel for 2000-person mass starts.  More volunteers.  More porta-potties, trucked out to remote areas of the bike course.  Medical staff.  And so on.

spudone - 2010-09-01 9:21 AM
I'll tell you one place they could expand: eastern Canada.  Lake Placid is less travel for those folks than IM Canada, but LP already sells out lightning fast every year.