Front Page  »  

Economic reality of Ironman Morro Bay

May 28, 2023

An empty Dockside on Saturday at 2 p.m. during Ironman

OPINION by MARK TOGNAZZINI

Open letter to Morro Bay Mayor Wixom and City Council members,

The sting of the financial impacts of this past weekend 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 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. In matter-of-fact Morro Bay at 10,000 residents 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 63,00, and all other host cities exceed 100,000 residents all the way to 1.9 million residents for Panama City, Florida.

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

We know that Morro Bay waived all city permit fees and parking lot fees as well as our staff predicting a cost to the city of $55,000. 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? I encourage you to ask the hard questions and get the real answers. Not the spin, not the smoke and mirrors, and definitely not the hype!

There were at least 10 different law enforcement agencies present, including bomb squads, K-9 units, SWAT vehicles teams, California Highway Patrol, and scores of water rescue staff and their watercraft including the United States Coast Guard. The staging of Highway 1, and the staging of our city’s waterways and streets, state and city staffing costs along with overtime pay must be staggering.

These costs were not just for race day or days leading up to race day. One must remember staff’s time started last June when we were told how grand this event would be and how everyone would benefit.

We were told that when 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 that whose entire message was unreadable unless one drove by them three or four times.

We were also 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 from 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 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.

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 starting 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. Thank God!

The city has agreed to have the Ironman back for two more years. 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. They do not have 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 the 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. More expensive does not mean the best. 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 learn how to accommodate those that 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 accumulative 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!

Captain Mark M. Tognazzini is a life-long resident of the Morro Bay community, has fished commercially from the Mexican border to Alaska, and owns and operatives Dockside Restaurants and Dockside Seafood.


Loading...
Subjects:
Related:


18 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Yes it is possible that the embarcadero took a bit of a hit during the race. Please compare your sales to a normal May saturday, not a July or August weekend.


As a business person you must understand what an investment means? You make the sacrifice immediately for some later return. Many people lat Ironman were from California area but had not been to morro bay before. My guess is that you will see many of them return at other times of the year.


I would also venture to say that most of the morro bay business community benefitted d financially during that weekend. Not all activities or events in morro bay have positive impacts to the whole town.


-30

But… how do you really feel?


-33

In the past we have visited Morro Bay from SLO on Memorial weekend, but this year we passed due to the Ironman crowds.


16

Ironman wasn’t here Memorial weekend they were here last week.


21

Ha Ha we thought is Memorial day so we skipped, ripple effect


-1

So many business’s do very well and a few not so much, is that a good enough reason to scrap the event?

Yes the closures and traffic control were a nightmare, thing’s that will improve with the learning curve!

Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water:)


-33

We go to Morro Bay two or three times a month from Paso for fresh fish or to eat lunch. We avoided Morro Bay that weekend and know several other locals that did also. When I heard about all the road closures, I decided I wasn’t going over there. To close Highway 1 limits travel on our local coast line too much to even make the drive. There was a post on next-door warning of all the road closures cautioning people about going to the coast that weekend. They lost at least one local person’s business for a weekend. Bad idea Morro Bay!


45

Mr. Tognazzini thanks for the perspective and I would like to provide some counterpoints as the event will be something you continue to deal with the next few years and I’m of the opinion it’s a great thing for the city and you’re missing some key ways to adapt, embrace change, and market to this new consumer group of athletes visiting your city.


I think understanding the consumer profile of athletes and their families a bit more would help. The race started at 6am and the fastest athletes were done around 10am and the majority of the field probably finished in 6 hours plus or minus at noon. So it’s no shock to me that your restaurant was quite empty at 2pm but breakfast did well. Furthermore, families of athletes don’t sit down to eat as much at 70.3 races as they do at full Ironmans. Also if they have families and kids with them they’ll choose cheaper options at the seafood walk up counters around the area and then they can take that food and go watch their athlete. It’s harder to go sit down and be waited on while your athlete is racing except for that 2.5-2hr window in the early morning when most athletes are on the bike (once again, your breakfast window).


Athletes are also super sensitive about what they eat the night before races and some of their stomachs can’t tolerate much right after, so that’s why a nice seafood place may have seen a drop in the hours right around the race which is understandable and you can’t change, nor should you, the entire nature of your business.


Your best time windows to market to athletes are lunches leading up to race day and for celebratory dinners the Saturday night post race. We stayed within walking distance of the main race area and every time I walked by in the days leading up to the race, Dockside was super crowded during the primary meal hours. But I also did notice less people on race day so possibly even do a “show us your athlete wristband to get free dessert” or some other special that would benefit your business to get them and their families in the door. We personally were patrons of a competing seafood walk up counter to get quick food before the awards ceremony (which is at 2:30, another reason your restaurant struggled in the afternoon. Ironman posts the race weekend schedule well in advance of the races so you could utilize that next year to predict restaurant traffic and schedule your staffing), and we also went to a competing fish market to get stuff to cook a celebratory dinner at where we were staying. You’re likely not gonna get more athletes in the afternoon also because the race offers an athlete tent with food for the finishers. So once again, are there creative ways you can get athletes to come back Saturday night? How can you get the spectators families to choose you for lunch (advertise to go options? You know your business better than me so just throwing some stuff out there). Could you put an advert for your restaurant in the athlete race packets? Also a lot of athletes had to stay in SLO due to Morro Bay being tiny so could you figure out ways to advertise too to convince athletes to drive back into town to go to your restaurant? (Also I do understand what in suggesting with ads would also incur expenses but maybe they’ll spark another more realistic and affordable idea for you to implement.)


In relation to the intimidating parking signs, did you reach out via your restaurants website, Facebook page, email newsletter, etc to let regular local patrons know signs would be out but they can still come on over and park up until those hours on actual race day?


And as far as seeing some low numbers that weekend for your restaurant, there’s another perspective that this could be a long term investment for the city that may have upfront costs but payoff over years. I had never heard of Morro Bay before coming to the race for an athlete. I texted all my family while there that it’s worth stopping through for the day if they’re driving through California. We’re friends with some of the professional ironman athletes and all of them loved the photos and footage they saw and said they hope there’s a pro field there someday (and pro fields bring even more people and I think would be a benefit to your business). So what you’re missing is the possibility that a portion of those thousands of people that came for race weekend come back and take their families there for vacation and bring dollars into the city on a normal week.


I agree with your point that ironman is very profit motivated and could do a little better at incorporating view points of local business owners, but I also encourage you to open your mind and not be afraid to adapt and maybe even embrace this new possible target audience of customers that will come into your town once a year for the foreseeable future.


I loved your city and it made me sad to see how negative you were toward what could ge a great event. I know as a fiduciary business owner the bottom line and your employees are most important to you, but I hope you can open your mind to triathletes because they truly are a hardworking, fun, loyal, and !hungry! group of people!! Being frustrated is totally understandable but hopefully you can channel that into some creativity and adapt, adjust, and overcome.


-20

Nice condensing reply.


5

I’d prefer to keep rich athletes who ride bikes for fun vs necessity out of our community who make sports out of what should be survival. What psychopath regimens what they eat outside of being healthy and living? This is an absolute disgrace to civilization. And is hurting the local economy. No one wants to cater to some steroid junky just because they’re here and payed off some slime bag city council members.


-5

Yes, there are more important things to focus on. The “look at me” culture is somewhat like the exploits at the coliseum, before the fall of the Roman Empire. Many of us can look back at our youth, when we could run like the wind, jump like a gazelle and took great pride in that gift. As we get older and the wiser, for some body thrashing has become consequential and irrelevant for most who don’t gamble. I agree that all costs should be on the promotion and not the local taxpayers. If they don’t come, we don’t need them anyway.


1

Leave it to local government, (any government), to royally f**k things up. And then do it again, over and over and over and over.

Great opinion piece Mr. Tognazzini.


12

Eye opening, very informative, well written, making the average local think. Thank you for this Captain!


75

What a nightmare and embarcadero business was hit hard! I heard it was going for the next 3, possibly 8 years! Please no…


33

Tourism is the demise to every economy. Many many journals prove this. Tourism is a molestation of fragile areas that have finite resources and sadly, people are greedy.


5
1 2