Boulder hosted its first full IRONMAN race on August 3, 2014. Numerous partners were involved in the planning and promoting the event including the City of Boulder, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Downtown Boulder Partnership. These organizations wanted to understand and document IRONMAN’s impacts on the city so they hired RRC Associates to conduct research.

RRC collected data on geographic origin of racers, travel parties, length of stay, type of lodging used, spending, visits to Boulder prior to the race for training, and other important topics. This information was merged with data provided by IRONMAN and used to document the economic impact of the event on local businesses and City sales tax revenues.

The research showed that relative to most athletic events, IRONMAN participants travel with larger groups, stay longer and spend more money. They also likely to make multiple trips to the destination hosting the race. Household demographics are also extremely attractive. The positive economic impact justified both the funding and in-kind investments made by the sponsoring partners to host this event.