Back at the end of November rumors were a brewing that Providence Equity was going to buy North America Sports the race organizer of 5 Ironman races across North America and 2 Ironman 70.3 races. North America Sports setup and ran the races under a license agreement with the World Triathlon Corporation.
It looks like it was an excellent holiday season for Graham Fraser and Paula Newby-Fraser. No formal announcement has been made as of yet but it appears that something has occurred when you look at the details.
Documentation of Changes:
- The North America Sports website (www.nasports.com) now only has information regarding Ironman Canada which is sponsored by Subaru.
- A new website has appeared on the web called Ironman Center (www.ironmancenter.com) which appears to be the central page for the following events: Ironman 70.3 California, Ironman 70.3 Florida, Ironman Coeur d’Alene, Ironman USA Lake Placid, Ironman Wisconsin, Ironman Florida and Ironman Arizona. All of these events are sponsored by Ford. (Funny, several years ago North America Sports was known as Ironman North America but changed its name.) Ironman North America changes corporate name
- When you look at the past and present copyright notices on the event websites you see that the use to say © North America Sports and now they say © World Triathlon Corporation.
So what do you think, did Providence Equity or World Triathlon Corporation buy most of North America Sports? It seems that way.
Event management by North America Sports at the events I have participated in has been excellent, so it makes some sense to bring everything in-house. We'll have to see if it works out...
*** UPDATE via xtri.com
TAMPA, FL 1/06/09 - The World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) has officially purchased the assets of all US-based Ironman and Ironman 70.3 events previously owned by North America Sports (NAS). Events purchased include Ironmans Arizona, Coeur D'Alene, Florida, Lake Placid, and Wisconsin as well as Oceanside Ironman 70.3 and Ironman 70.3 Florida. Ironman Canada was not included in the purchase and will remain an NAS event.
WTC's purchase of NAS should not affect current NAS employees. WTC is adding an office in Boulder, where NAS has been based, and NAS employees will now become WTC employees. The Boulder staff will continue their roles with logistics and on-site management of US-based events. WTC headquarters will remain in the Tampa, FL area.
