The owner of the New Orleans events management company that has produced the Hy-Vee Triathlon for the past eight years said he’s committed to seeing the annual event continue in Des Moines.

However, the event’s future beyond 2015 will hinge on finding new corporate sponsors who can collectively pony up between $100,000 to $150,000 annually, he said.   

“We’re excited about keeping the event going,” said Bill Burke, president of Premier Event Management LLC, said in a phone call from his office in New Orleans.

Burke has already established a new website, www.tridesmoines.com, for the event, which he has renamed The Des Moines Triathlon.

“You may ask why a guy from New Orleans cares about an event in Des Moines, but I care about the sport, and I care about the city,” Burke said.  “The race will take place. If i have to produce it (this year) with no sponsorships, I will do that. If there is a one-year gap, it would be nearly impossible to get it started again in 2016.”

Now, he’s hoping that at least one, if not several, Greater Des Moines companies will feel as passionate about keeping the event alive as he does.The Olympic distance and Sprint distance events will be held during the same time frame as the Hy-Vee Triathlon has been in the past. Burke’s company produced the event since it began in 2007.

Burke expects that many of the core components will remain similar and will be familiar to incoming athletes.Burke, who has 36 years of experience in the events management industry, also produces other world-class triathlon events that include Escape from Alcatraz in San Francisco and the New York City Triathlon, which he has produced for the past 11 years.

“If I can put on a first-class race in midtown Manhattan, I can do it in Des Moines,” he said.Burke declined to say how much notice he had been given by Hy-Vee that the grocer was ending its sponsorship of the race. Hy-Vee Inc. announced Tuesday it would no longer sponsor the event.

“I was surprised, like a lot of people were surprised,” he said.

He has already received numerous posts and emails from triathletes from throughout the world expressing their disbelief, he said.

Burke said that regardless of what company may step up to sponsor the event, he wants to keep Des Moines as part of the event’s name going forward.

With the name as the Hy-Vee Triathlon, the event could have been anywhere and you wouldn’t know it was being held in Des Moines, he said.

Other major triathlons have winnings that are $25,000, $40,000 or at most $90,000, so it’s possible to have a successful event without a six-figure purse, Burke said.

“If you do it the way Hy-Vee did it, it cost a lot of money,” he said. “There will be no half-million-dollar purse.”