Athletes will be swimming, biking and running in Huntsville for the next three years or longer. The town is talking about signing a three-year deal with Trisport Events to host Ironman 70.3 Muskoka, with an option to extend for another three years. The plan came up at last month’s committee meeting, and would have the town pay Trisport $25,000 annually to go towards licensing fees.
A staff report outlines a number of benefits to hosting the event. That includes a positive economic impact, attracting athletes from around the world as the 2017 winner was from France, and being one in only five Canadian communities to host the event. The others are Whistler, Calgary, Mont-Tremblant, and Victoria. The report also outlines athletes stay in town for an average of 3.34 days during the event. However, some concerns with the dates have been cited as committee agreed July and August were not ideal months to host it.
Trisport was concerned about moving out of July and August because of its global schedule, a boost in registration since the event date was moved to early July, and balancing the Ontario schedule for all events hosted by the company.
In the end, Huntsville’s general committee agreed to the three-year deal with the event running on the second Sunday of July. Council will now vote on the deal before it’s officially done. Athletes swim 1.2 miles in Fairy Lake, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles in the half-Ironman event.