Verona business looks forward to Ironman Triathlon’s economic impact

VERONA, Wis. (WMTV) - The Wisconsin Ironman triathlon returns for its 20th year and brings an economic boost to area businesses.

According to Madison Area Sports Commission vice president Jamie Patrick, the race brings in $3 million for Madison area youth sports, hotels and other businesses that benefit from the swim, bike and running race.

The bicycle portion of the Ironman is right next to Jessica Laufenberg’s Rocket Bicycle shop and N+1 Café.

Laufenberg said without the triathlon, her business would not be as successful.

”It’s definitely generated the ability for us to grow, relocate and add a café to it,” she said. ”It’s just amazing to see what else has grown from that too.”

She completed her first Ironman in 2002 and turned her passion into profit through the strong community surrounding the athletic event.

”A lot of people are doing Ironman now for a purpose and for a goal and getting that community support along that has been huge,” Laufenberg said. ”It was just a group of 40 of us and we just did triathlon back in the early 2000s and you go to Ironman and there were five people that did it locally and now there are like 100.”

“With that we’ve been able to build a marketing plan and sales plan to bring other events here for our residents to have a higher quality of life,” Patrick said. ”It’s lead us to win things like the CrossFit games, USA Cross County National Championships and all kinds of other events that we wouldn’t have had here if Ironman didn’t show us that our community is ripe and ready to host sporting events.”

The Wisconsin Ironman starts at 6:45 a.m. with the swim portion on Lake Monona.

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