COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene City Council on Tuesday approved a new three-year contract with the World Triathlon Corporation to keep Ironman here, but only after the company agreed to cover the city’s overtime expenses for public safety on race weekend.

Councilman Dan Gookin argued WTC was privately owned and should reimburse the city for its costs to provide safety during Ironman.

“They are a for-profit company and they make a lot of money off this,” he said.

Councilwoman Christie Wood agreed.

She said she loves Ironman and supports the event, but could not understand why WTC would expect the city to pay overtime for public safety, which is estimated at $28,000 for each of the next three years.

“That doesn’t make any sense to me,” she said.

Gookin said the proposed contract was brought forward without input from the City Council, which had been requested last year so it could be involved in negotiations.

“It’s come to us now, with no discussion, ‘Here you go, sign off, because Ironman is this weekend,'” Wood said. “We heard this before. We heard this the last time we were looking at the contract."

City Administrator Troy Tymesen presented the contract to the council.

"Reimbursement is not the way in which they run their Ironman programs,” he said, adding that the city worked to lower the event sponsorship fee.

But Tim Brosious, Ironman regional director, told the council WTC would cover those expenses.

“We can pick that up for sure,” he said.

“We can have an agreement,” Wood responded.

The council voted 5-0 to approve the host venue agreement, amended to state that Ironman would cover overtime costs for public safety.

The deal keeps an Ironman 70.3 in Coeur d’Alene through 2026.

Under the new contract, the race will be held in late June and the course remains the same. But the North Idaho Sports Commission will only have to raise $15,000 for the event sponsorship fee instead of the $65,000 it raised this year.

Brosious said according to a study, a full Ironman has an economic impact of $16.4 million, while a half Ironman’s is $12 million.

But the half ties up downtown and blocks streets for only part of a day, while the full is closer to an all-day event.

Brosious later said Ironman works well with the city and was happy to pay the requested overtime costs to maintain that relationship.

This is the 20th year of the race in Coeur d’Alene. About 1,800 athletes are registered for Sunday’s full Ironman.