Morro Bay City Council votes to adjust day of Ironman 70.3, taking local input for next iteration 

As droves of athletes, supporters, and local on-lookers began to pack up their belongings and celebrate the completion of Morro Bay's first Ironman event on Saturday, May 20, some residents wondered if it had been worthwhile.

"Please ... as our elected officials ... do not do this to us again!" Mark Tognazzini wrote in a letter to the Morro Bay City Council. "The accumulative effects of this and most other events that shut down our town are destroying who we are and who we serve."

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• Photo By Jayson Mellom
• IRONMAN IRE While many residents consider the Morro Bay Ironman 70.3 event held in May to be a huge success, some are concerned about the perceived negative economic and environmental impacts it had on the city.

The Dockside Restaurants owner was one of multiple Morro Bay residents who voiced displeasure with the economic impact of the race on local commerce due to road closures, a lack of communication, and general uneasiness over hosting an event of its magnitude.

"The city has agreed to have the Ironman back for two more years," Tognazzini wrote. "Now that we know what to expect for the inevitable future, it is imperative that we plan now and learn from the lessons learned this year!"

The City Council voted at a June 21 meeting to adjust Morro Bay's contract with the group that coordinates the Ironman, moving the event from its respective future Saturday dates to Sunday, following resident input and the city's internal studies.

"How can we make this a great event for the community and minimize the impact on the individual community members?" Mayor Carla Wixom told New Times. "The first step we took is changing the day we hold the event."

While the city is still waiting on the official data analysis of the economic impact, more than 1,800 athletes and their estimated two to three guests each descended on the town from May 19 through 21. Hotels sold out, the city closed some of its streets during the event, and visitors were asked to travel via shuttle from Cuesta College to avoid overcrowding.

Wixom said that part of the city's plan going forward is to go on active listening tours put on by the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce to hear business owners' concerns. She added that the city is also going to analyze the event's impact and have a public meeting about those results later this year.

"We have yet to review [the numerical impact] it had but we will do a wholesale overview of it in August once we have that information," she said. "Until we hear all of that information from the hotels and businesses, it is very hard to determine what the next steps are."

In his letter, Tognazzini, who didn't respond to New Times request for comment, said Dockside and its staff took a beating, adding that customers didn't know where and when streets would be closed off.

"The confusion and displacement of our regular visitors was costly," he said in the letter. "Our revenues for the weekend were down at least 50 percent starting Friday and ... on race day, our main restaurant had the worst lunch in its 19-year history."

That alleged lack of communication puzzled Wixom. She said that the City Council, staff, Police Department, and Ironman organizers made efforts to ensure that the information was out there for everyone involved.

"There were some communication challenges despite the Police Department being very active in getting information out there," she said. "The chamber will continue to do listening tours as they were before the event for businesses and hopefully through avenues like our city website, those who have insight they would like to share on their experience will realize they can weigh in."

But Tognazzini doesn't necessarily consider the event to be a wholesale failure or net loss even if his business didn't benefit from the increased number of people in town who provided revenue to other places.

"I am sure that some businesses did well, really well. ... I assume that the hotel industry had a strong week as lodging rates were doubled and tripled, ... likewise, local groceries stores appeared to be busier than usual," he said in the letter. "Our labor costs were up at least 25 percent as we prepared for the influx of patrons as race planners and officials had promised but we never saw."

Wixom, who owns Carla's Country Kitchen and Gift Shop in Morro Bay, said she is sympathetic to the negative impact the event had on several groups.

"I think there were pros and cons on both ends and overall the event was very well put on by our city staff and partners," she said. "But like with any event, there are challenges that come with running it, and in the case of the Ironman, one of the big negatives was the road closures that caused a lack of access to some businesses."

She noted that she also received concerns about the event's ecological impact—including the swimming portion of the race, which one resident felt may have negative effects on the bay's otters.

"We did have someone bring up marine life, but I don't know that there was any direct disruption," Wixom said. "Ironman does these events all over the place. We are not the first, so I don't they would have OK'd the swimming in the bay if they weren't certain of its impact."

Morro Bay Harbor Director Ted Shiafone said that there were no immediate impacts on the bay—with the only human impact being a rescue that harbor patrol performed during the swimming event.

"There were no reported environmental impacts during the Ironman event," Shiafone said. "Operationally, the event started and stopped as planned."

Morro Bay residents like Susan Stewart supported changing the day of the week the event is held, and—seeing that it offered business opportunities and tourism for the city—said she was open to participating in the event more directly next year.

"This kind of positive, healthy outdoor event provided global exposure for Morro Bay ... .

I have a business in the downtown area and had decent sales days on the preceding weekdays and Saturday of Ironman event," Stewart said via public comment. "I also talked to customers mid-week who had arrived early with the purpose of shopping."

Stewart said that she understood that the city couldn't just break its contract with the event organizers.

"I do sympathize with those who lost business on that Saturday. I appreciated the willingness of our city leaders to look for solutions to make this work," she said. "Rather than trying to break a contract which could engender bad will, a damaged reputation, and potential economic losses."

Wixom said she's hopeful that Morro Bay and its residents will be able to grow alongside the event.

"There will always be learning curves with events like these and part of growing from it comes down to what we are doing right now, which is listening to businesses and residents," she said. "Bringing events like this that serve at ecotourism is huge for our city, but the impacts are there, so we have to acknowledge them." Δ

Reach Staff Writer Adrian Vincent Rosas at [email protected].