By: Tony Sandleben—
MUNCIE, Ind. – The Horizon Convention Center released its economic impact report from October which includes financial data from the Ironman weekend. The total economic impact for Muncie for just the IronMan Weekend was $4.092 million. Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour said he is very proud of how Muncie came together as a community to host a global event that attracted guests from across the country and the world.
“There were a lot of cities involved to pull this off,” Mayor Ridenour said. “It just goes to show that with effort and continued action, anything is possible.”
Mayor Ridenour expressed his thanks to all of the volunteers and organizations who met in multiple committees weekly or biweekly for months to put together a plan and executed it to the tune of more than four million dollars coming to Muncie businesses. This does not include the positive economic impact to the rest of East Central Indiana since visitors stayed in hotels all across the area.
The overall economic impact for all events (including IronMan) held in Muncie in the month of October 2021 showed an increase of more than $4.2 million dollars from 2020’s COVID month of October. It was also up more than $3.7 million-dollar from October of 2019.
Both Mayor Ridenour and Prairie Creek Reservoir Director Dustin Clark said they hope Ironman will allow the City of Muncie to host a full and 70.3 event again next year.
