Ironman Lake Placid appears on track for three year extension and we get interesting insights into the contract details
Local newspaper publishes details from Ironman Lake Placid renewal contract
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Patrick McDermott/Getty Images for Ironman
This year will be the 25th anniversary of Ironman Lake Placid. It was the first race that really started the Ironman expansion in North America – believe it or not, before the first race in the Adirondacks, the only full-distance Ironman World Championship qualifying event in North America was Ironman Canada in Penticton.
For years Ironman racing in North America included just two races – Ironman Canada in Penticton and the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. The race in Lake Placid was part of the huge expansion of Ironman events around the world that began in 1998. Later that year Graham Fraser’s company, Ironman North America, would add Ironman Florida to the list, with Ironman California (which has since become Ironman 70.3 Oceanside) coming a year later. The list just picked up from there – Wisconsin, Coeur d’Alene, the short-lived original Utah, Arizona and Texas, etc.
Lake Placid was the perfect venue to expand in the United States, offering a perfect mix of scenery, facilities, accommodation and resources. A town that had hosted two Olympics and had a lake pretty much smack in the centre of town, all within running distance of the Olympic speed skating oval that served as an excellent transition and finish line.
As popular as the race has been for athletes, it’s been a struggle for Ironman officials to keep the race going in the area as the local community appeared to be pushing back on the event. (See the story below.)
In 2021 the North Elba Town Council created an “Ironman Task Force” to “assess the community impacts of Ironman.” That task force recommended that the Ironman contract be extended through to the end of next year as long as Ironman made some changes to “address residents’ concerns with the race and improve athlete safety,” according to a story posted on lakeplacidnews.com.
Ironman was able to work with the Town Council to get an extension of the contract through 2024 in order to implement the recommendations of the task force.
Ironman must have done a good job, because according to a story in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, the town is ready to sign a three year contract extension for the event. According to the lone councillor who voted against the contract extension two years ago, Jason Leon, “there have been ‘tangible improvements’ in the competition and lines of communication between organizers and locals, which he said were likely due to smaller participation numbers resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.”
Contract details
The Daily Enterprise story offers some interesting details on the Ironman contract (which the newspaper was able to get a copy of) for the event. While the contract does have a confidentiality clause, the paper reports that it was told in 2022 by Kristin O’Neill, deputy director and counsel for the New York State Committee on Open Government that ““no vendor that does business in the state of New York — or really any government agency — can have the expectation that its entire contract is going to remain in secret.”
Number of participants: The town and village governments will meet with Ironman after the race to determine “a maximum number of participants for the next year’s race.” The 2025 race will be capped at 2,500
Dates: July 20, 2025, July 19, 2026 and July 25, 2027
“Marketing Fees”: The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) is on deck to pay Ironman $110,000 (up from $90,000 in the last contract) for “marketing fees.”
Ironman Foundation obligations: Ironman’s charity group will be required to pay “a minimum of $40,000 to be used for the volunteers of the event and $10,000 to be used solely for community grants to local area non-profit organizations.” Ironman will also need to pay a minimum of $35,000 towards the Ironman “dine around” voucher program.
Other: The new contract reduces the number of hotel room nights ROOST is required to provide Ironman, reduces the amount of the Main St. parking lot it must provide, and does require ROOST to provide Ironman the use of the conference centre and provide $18,000 towards rental charges for other facilities.