Alaska News

Record Ice Classic jackpot announced, but no winners yet

According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the organizers of the Nenana Ice Classic have counted all the dough in the 96th annual pool to guess the moment the ice breaks up and flows away from the Tanana River at the town of Nenana.

The winner or winners of this year's contest will split a record total prize: $350,000. That payout is $12,000 more than the previous record, set last year, when 22 winners split $338,062, before taxes, more than $15,000 each.

Ice Classic organizers now have the numerator in this year's annual division of breakup loot, but the announcement of the denominator will have to wait until the middle of next week when they plan to announce the winning ticket or tickets.

Read more, here.

Alaska Beat guesses the odds are good for a small number of winning tickets this year. The tripod fell and stopped the official clock at the fourth earliest time in the contest's history, last week on April 23, and less than average snowfall plus deep cold may have caused folks to bet on long-lived ice.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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