“The Panthers group has to cut spending as it joins clubs all over NSW in their fight to keep their doors open,” Panthers group chief executive Glenn Matthews said.

“Financial pressures have seen the clubs with no option but to pull back on spending, as they battle the current economic climate.”

While it would remain one of the Ironman sponsors, withdrawing from the major sponsor role would save the group $100,000, he said.

The event, which is believed to contribute between $10 million and $12 million to the local economy, is now looking for a new sponsor to take up naming rights.

Port Macquarie event organisers expect the triathlon to go ahead basically unchanged next year.

Local organising committee head Mike Reid praised the good relationship with Port Macquarie Panthers, while worrying about some of the organisational nuts and bolts of future triathlons.

The local Panthers club had staged the volunteers’ party for free on the Tuesday night following the triathlon, he said, and he was unsure what the future of that celebration would be.

Organisers also faced the cost of replacing signs, logos and other equipment identifying it as the Panthers Ironman event.

Panthers’ Glenn Matthews, an athlete who has completed the Ironman Australian Triathlon 10 times, said he was bitterly disappointed at the decision.

“I have been a triathlete for 16 years and I understand the importance of this event to the sport, so it pains me to have to make this decision, but we have no alternative if we are to continue trading in this bleak period clubs all over the state are finding themselves in.”

Mr Matthews said the state government’s 2007 poker machine tax increase, the ban on smoking in clubs, plus the economic climate of higher interest rates and climbing fuel costs had combined to cause “suffering” in the club industry.

“The long and short of it is we simply don't have the money to spend on large-scale sponsorship at the moment,” he said.