The Ironman triathlon’s first appearance in the New York area may be its last after the company raised the entry fee to $1,200. "This race may be one and done," John Korff, the event’s local organizer, said in a telephone interview today. "The price is too high." Ironman, which is owned by Providence Equity Partners Inc., suspended registration for the 2013 race on Aug. 13, citing feedback from customers and the logistics of staging the race in the New York metropolitan area. The inaugural race was held Aug. 11, with a fee of $825. "Producing an event in a large urban market is complex and challenging," according to a statement on the race’s website. "Addressing the logistical complexity requires us to reconfigure a number of elements in our race. We need to do more work to assess whether it is viable at a price point that our athletes find reasonable." Refunds will be given to early registrants who paid $1,200, a 37 percent increase over this year’s fee, Ironman said. While Korff, 60, said there were minor logistics issues that need to be addressed, the decision to suspend the registration was based mostly on economic reasons. Registration for the 2012 race sold out in 11 minutes. Korff, who said he wasn’t consulted about the price increase before registration opened, declined to disclose how many people had signed up for next year.He also said the decision was unrelated to the death of a competitor in the swimming portion or the Hudson River sewage discharge that briefly threatened to cancel the swim.
