The Ironman Triathlon was bad for business. Do better next year, Morro Bay | Opinion

The sting of the financial impacts of the Ironman 70.3 Triathlon, held May 20 in Morro Bay, have eased. ‘

However, my fiduciary duty to Dockside and my personal responsibility to my 60 staff members have caused me to question how the city of Morro Bay allowed this event to happen.

Some very interesting information is available when one looks beyond the hype and spin that is created to promote an event such as the Ironman in such a small community as ours.

At 10,000 residents, Morro Bay is the smallest city in the USA to host such a disruptive event. The next closest to us is Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, at 55,000, then Santa Cruz, California, at 63,000. All the other host cities exceed 100,000 residents, all the way to 1.9 million residents for Panama City, Florida.

The World Triathlon Corp., which Ironman is a part of, is a multimillion-dollar company that uses public resources all over the world to drive their brand and generate large profits.

We know Morro Bay waived all city permit fees and parking lot fees. Also, city staff predicted a cost to the city of $55,000, according to Estero Bay News. This was to include staff costs for police, fire, and maintenance, etc., and logistics to include parking, shuttling, waste management. Visit Morro Bay was to pay the $30,000 for the sponsor fee as well as provide Ironman support staff with lodging.

But what will be the actual cost to Morro Bay? What will be the actual cost to Visit Morro Bay? What will be the actual cost to the taxpayers of our city as well as the state? And what will be the cost to businesses whose regular visitors and locals were displaced?

We were told that when this was approved there was not much public input, but how does one give public input when all the impacts were downplayed and many of the specifics about the race were unknown?

The parking plan was not even in place until a few weeks ago, which resulted in intimidating “No Parking” signs placed days in advance of their actual required posting. We also dealt with flashing billboards with long, unreadable messages.

We were told that Ironman participants are more socially and economically successful than the usual visitor to Morro Bay. Whether valid or not, I find that kind of rhetoric disgusting as well as disappointing. Many of our businesses were built with the support of people who have already found Morro Bay and enjoy who we are, not what we are trying to be.

I am sure some businesses did well — really well. I assume the hotel industry had a strong week as lodging rates were doubled and tripled.

However, Dockside and its staff took a beating. Our revenues for the weekend were down at least 50% starting Friday and continuing through race day.

On race day, our main restaurant had the worst lunch in its 19-year history. Our fish market saw virtually zero fresh fish sales on race day. Both of our locations started feeling the punch well in advance of the weekend. The confusion and displacement for our regular visitors was costly. Our labor costs were up at least 25% as we prepared for the influx of patrons as race planners and officials had promised, but we never saw. The one bump in business that we did experience lasted for about two hours on race day as we did have a brief but good breakfast.

The city has agreed to have the Ironman back for two more years.

Now that we know what to expect, it is imperative that we plan now and learn from the lessons learned this year.

There is no need to shut down the Embarcadero or other portions of our town, as seen this year. There are many locations this event can be staged without displacing regular visitors to Morro Bay. It is vital that we explore other options prior to giving away our city next year.

In general, events as a whole discourage Morro Bay’s regular visitors wherever they are from. When our regular visitors and locals alike are displaced, events like the Harbor Festival and Avocado Margarita festival begin to die. They get too big and elaborate as well as expensive. The organizers forget their roots.

Bigger is not better. That is why simple things like the Kite Festival and the new Maritime Museum Family Fun Day are having such great grass-roots success.

The city of Morro Bay needs to accommodate those who already visit us. Keep our bathrooms open and clean. Keep the trash picked up. And keep our traffic and parking managed. Businesses should not be allowed to price gouge and should offer our visitors a fair and good value for their services.

Please, as our elected officials do not do this to us again. The cumulative effects of this and most other events that shut down our town are destroying who we are and who we serve. I, for one, do not need your help but please do not harm me.

Mark Tognazzini is a lifelong resident of the Morro Bay area, owns the Dockside Restaurants, and has fished commercially for 53 years.