IM at Lake Lure

I would sign up for this event in a heart beat...as it stands, and as mentioned in the article, IMKY is the closest IM. From Moore County, it's over 550 miles/8 hours if you're driving.

I'm planning on racing IMTX in 2014, and that's even further...1150 miles.

Once Lake Lure studies the feasibility of doing this, and if they bid, and if they win, I'll be ready to pull the trigger as if I were signing up for IMFL.

Agree, this would be a great venue.  However, one caveat - wouldn't this also be a "Lake Placid of the South" in terms of lodging as well?  As in, there's not enough of it?

I looked for lodging for that 3 day thing they do up there and there were few options then.  I can't imagine trying to get 2000 rooms anywhere near there (or what I would consider "near" there).  Poor choice IMHO.  They need to get this much closer to Asheville for it to work/be successful.  I would assume Lake Placid would have far more lodging than Lake Lure.  

I looked at lodging and there's not close to the amount of hotels necessary for an event of this caliber.

Methinks Asheville will be a top 3 contender...In fact, I'm hoping Asheville wins the bid.

The article seems to acknowledge the fact that there's not enough lodging. 

It would be cool to do the run portion around the biltmore. Maybe a swim in biltmore lake but I don't think its big enough.

I think it would really be cool to have a full IM in NC, maybe even in the Charlotte area, as long as they don't hold the race in July ;-)

A perfect location would be Lake Junaluska/Waynesville/Maggie Valley.  Tons of lodging options and it would be a relatively flat course. The run could be almost pancake flat.

You are going to have to give us more details on this.........

Fayetteville? Ugh, no thanks.

X2 on this. Talk about going from a beautiful mountain setting to drabville (no offense Fayetteville, but not many people make the trip to Fayetteville for the scenic beauty). Is logding better in Fayetteville? Remember the Ironman triathlon crowd is not a poor lot and a place with a mix of hotels (low to high end) and some destination options sound much more like something that WTC would consider (well, that I would consider if I were them).

I have been in this sport for a long time and have seen WTC blanket a whole areas with RFP's for cities to put on their events etc, citing millions in economic input etc, but on the other hand demanding large amounts of money from the city for the privilege and then still making them pay for all the ancillary costs such as volunteers, police and ems etc. So the actual upfront cost to the city is larger than the original proposed amount. Dont get me wrong on this. A business is a business, but I work the whole western portion of NC in sales and I know Asheville is hurting financially. Cutting community programs etc just to save $10k. How are they are going to get the $200k that WTC usually demands and justify the upfront cost for a return that will take over 18 months to come back if they are off their citizens. Just saying.

I think this is what happened at Penticon for IM Canada and then Challenge came in and proposed a more friendly approach. I would love to see a Challenge event come into the US. Having done both Challenge and WTC events, I love the whole approach Challenge brings. Its very similar to Setup events approach. Look after your participants and charge less.

I have always felt WTC treats everyone like a number as they strive for the privilege to go to Kona, and in the meantime charge over inflated prices for registrations. Maybe one day the guard will change and people will realize that tatooing a companies brand to their body might not be such a great idea in 10 years time.

IMHO of course.

Of course if the only choice was WTC and Ironman I am in, so I wouldn't have to travel so far. You can only do B2B once every two years at most.

Having a choice is the key.

I don't understand the bold portion.

OK, cool, that makes sense.