iank wrote:
Funny thing about the "economic impact" of an IM though: do you really think Middleofnowhere, TN-GA border that sits between miles 35 and 56 of the bike course and only has 2 roads gets any benefit? Nobody is staying in a hotel there, nobody is eating dinner there, but the roads are closed/congested because of the race nevertheless.
That is a really good point, but there is something I am not sure about.
Bear with me, as I don't know about tax law and specific funding, specifically in this case of M. TN-GA, or less specifically, USA in General (the wonders of being an Australian)
In our state (and the rest of Australia) Road funding for non-national roads (specifically, road that have been classed as 'roads of national importance' I believe was the term) comes our of local coffers. In this regard, the money that is being spent comes from the fund that is gathered by the local council, with the largest source being land rates. Rates are levied based on the Unimproved Land Value of the property in question. Due to how things are done in my specific area, the rates that pay for the roads we race on next to the new village (note - residential only, there is no local store, they need to drive 15-20miles to find a supermarket etc.) are funded out of the same bucket as I pay my rates into. In fact, as my ULV is higher, I pay more for their roads than they do - but I digress.
In reality - if funding for public works are funded the same way as they are funded here, then there would be no direct financial return for the locals (that live in them middle of the bike leg, who are the one most affected) by this race.
But - where do these people work? is there some other follow-on that may be of benefit to these residents? (sorry, I don't know the area at all, and looking at google maps doesn't really help me either) where do they work, are most of them 'proper' locals, ie. they don't leave town, do they shop/work/eat/live/die, rarely travelling away from the same 15mile area? or do they (like some of the people from the town I grew up in) drive ~60miles to work, because that is where their skills will be utilized and they will be well compensated for their time and effort? - If the first, then in reality, they get nothing back from the race , and they do have a right to make some noise about this. But if they have ties back into the Choo business district, then they would have some indirect benefits from the race, it might not be much, and indeed it might not be anywhere near the same value as what they lose from having their local roads blocked for the majority of the day, one day a year, but there would be some feedback.
I know one Australian race that is well established that has got some significantly better quality roads than what were usually being put in in the area (hotmix compared with the chipseal they had been respraying previously) that when asked about, the local council said was put in 'because of the ironman' - The council realized that better quality roads for the race would mean more people signing up, more people coming and training in the area, and more money flowing back into the local economy.
Reality - There are still a large number of locals in that area who are anti-Ironman, some of them being local business owners who directly benefit from an increase of tourists specifically during race week, and indirectly because of the extra tourists year round who come to see the course, to run or ride bits of it, or just come to relax and see if they might want to race the course in the future.
TLDR;
As always, things are never simple.