ST. GEORGE — Though the Ironman triathlon was canceled twice in the last year due to the continuing pandemic, it won’t impact the agreement made between the county and race organizers in 2019 to host the Ironman over the next five years.
2020 was to see Washington County host the Ironman North American Championship St. George triathlon in May. When that fell through due to the rise of COVID-19 in March, the race was rescheduled for September. However, that date was canceled in August due to continuing worry over the virus.
While this could have knocked a year off the five-year agreement to host the Ironman triathlons, the contract between the county and Ironman organizers was revised and amended for the agreement to start in 2021.
“This is an amendment to our five-year agreement that we signed in May last year with Ironman to host the race every year,” Kevin Lewis, director of the Greater Zion Convention and Tourism Office, told the Washington County Commission Tuesday.
“We just rolled everything forward one year and changed the dates,” he said. “The financial arrangement stays the same. It’s a really good situation. We just added another year onto our contract and took 2020 off.”
The amended agreement was unanimously approved by the County Commission.
“I know that you’ve been preparing … for this event, and then it seemed like you had the groups shift under your feet right at the very last moment,” Commissioner Dean Cox said. “I think this is an awesome way to keep our position and push that back one year.”
The next Ironman event in Washington County is tentatively set for May 2021 with all of those involved keeping their fingers crossed, Lewis told St. George News following the commission meeting.
“We’re always concerned with what the pandemic is going to do,” he said.
COVID-19 has forced the Ironman Group to cancel well over 100 events worldwide, Lewis added. Due to how it has lingered into the last quarter of the year, Ironman officials decided it was time to hang it up for the year and move on, he said.
There is still great hope for the future, Lewis said, adding the adjusted contract is a positive move for all involved.
“We’re moving forward with all the hopes that everything will be successful,” he said. “We have good plans, we have exciting plans, for the North American Championship in May and the World Championship in September.”
In 2019, the Ironman 70.3 St. George triathlon brought more than 8,000 visitors to Southern Utah and is estimated to have infused $6-7 million into the local economy. Restaurants, hotels and local merchants benefited from the thousands of visitors that flocked to the area to support the athletes in a highly competitive race, according to the Ironman Group.
In addition to the loss of the money the Ironman would have brought into the economy this year as a part of the event and tourism, Washington County has lost an estimated $1.5 million in tourism tax revenue alone, Lewis said. Much more has been lost when the overall economic impact on tourism is considered, he said.
Despite this, there are signs the situation is gradually improving.
“The loss certainly was significant for those first two months (the pandemic hit),” Lewis said. “The good news is we’re been able to get back on track through the summer. We haven’t been able to make up that $1.5 million that was lost, but June’s numbers were just 3% down from June of 2019, and July was 1% below July in 2019. August’s numbers aren’t out yet, but other numbers I’m seeing suggest the month may possibly be flat or even show some growth over 2019.”
Despite the loss of international tourism and the business it brings, Washington County has been able to make up for it to a degree with increasing regional tourism as people from Northern Utah and other states come to recreate in Washington County, Lewis said.
“It’s really phenomenal we’re getting that in the middle of a pandemic,” he said.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.