It was announced last week that the full individual and team ironman races had been dropped due to a lack of entries in next year’s event.
The loss would shorten the duration of the event, Mr Roxburgh said, and be "a lot better for townspeople".
"We’ll be able to start our half professionals at around 6.45am and that will mean we will have the majority of the people off the road, off their bikes by midday ... I think it’ll work in a lot better with the Wanaka community."
Some in the community believed multiple road closures enforced around the town centre during the event "caused enormous chaos".
During the public forum at Thursday’s Wanaka Community Board meeting, Pamela McGeorge suggested to board members that the race be moved to elsewhere in the town, as she believed "we are too small a town to sustain a race of this size".
Board member Ruth Harrison said that after seeing the "chaos" in town during the event in February, "we can’t continue to close the roads".
She asked that the council work with race organisers to find a better traffic management plan.
But Mr Roxburgh believed that without a full ironman, and with the half starting earlier, those issues would be alleviated.
"It is a slight disruption but we bring a lot to the town. You’ve really got to look at the positive effect that the event does have. There are one or two people who are negative about it but we try to please everybody we can. Having the majority of our cyclists off the roads by midday will make a really big change to the community."
In regard to dropping the full ironman races, Mr Roxburgh said it was a "worldwide trend" and athletes were drawn to the half distance because it did not take as much training.
"We’re an event that adapts to change. We spend a lot of time going through feedback and giving competitors what they want."
