Atlanta Olympics Summer 1996 - Memories y'all (Rome, Lawrenceville: neighborhood, luxury, tax)

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Yeah, Billy Payne was doing everything he could to make the games pay for themselves. Not sure if Samaranch liked it as he closed the games without saying "best ever" but rather saying "exceptional".

But to Payne's credit, I believe the games broke even and Georgia Tech made out like a bandit with all its new dorms and a swimming facility, which was open air at the time but is now enclosed.

Not putting this on you (since this meme has been going on for 20 years), but I think it's quite odd that Samaranch's "most exceptional" is always taken to mean that the Atlanta Games sucked or were blah. It's as if people don't think to consider "Hmm, there was a terrorist attack a few days before the games were over. Maybe Samaranch didn't want to look like a dick and call an Olympic games marred by a terrorist attack as the best ever?"


Mostly though, a lot the criticism came from butthurt Europeans that we dare get the games in first place and used the free market to not put us in a hole financially. In the modern era, only Los Angeles and Atlanta haven't had financial difficult and turned a profit from the Olympics thanks to commercialization. Oh, and Beijing, but they used slave labor to keep costs down.

At the end of the day, all of the criticisms in the world can't change the fact we got exactly what we wanted out of it and more than we expected.

Plus, it doesn't hear Vancouver has done us the Olympic glitch department 10 fold.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

I didn't actually go to the Olympic games, but I went to the track and field Olympic Trials here in Atlanta and saw Michael Johnson set the world record, which still hasn't been broken. I also got his autograph and Carl Lewis' autograph and took pics with a lot of my favorite track stars. I was visiting at the time, and that year I was only 17 and was trying to decide if I wanted to come to Atlanta for college. It was a great visit with my aunt and it solidified my decision to move here for school.

Michael Johnson RULED Athletics that year.


Michael Johnson 400m 1996 Olympics - YouTube


Michael Johnson - 200m - 19.32 - High Quality - YouTube

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

I didn't actually go to the Olympic games, but I went to the track and field Olympic Trials here in Atlanta and saw Michael Johnson set the world record, which still hasn't been broken. I also got his autograph and Carl Lewis' autograph and took pics with a lot of my favorite track stars. I was visiting at the time, and that year I was only 17 and was trying to decide if I wanted to come to Atlanta for college. It was a great visit with my aunt and it solidified my decision to move here for school.

Not many American athletes hung around the Olympic Village. There were ceremonies over a few days welcoming each country's team. I saw a few, the Australians were the most fun with their "Aussie Aussie" chants But very few of the American athletes turned up for their welcoming ceremony.

[berkeleylake]

Nice, some great responses here and links to great vids!

Some flops, but worth mentioning.

Oh yea, I remember another thing that totally flopped in Atlanta in anticipation of the Olympics: house rentals: people wanting to rent their houses out during the Olympics and thinking they would rake in the big bucks by charging high rent for those 2 weeks. I bet only a few owners did make some good $$$. Though some details I don't recall now, I would guess that houses or condos near events mostly intown got rented out.

Forgot about the mascot, haha. In my opinion, another flop Izzy the mascot, had been called earlier WhatIzIt? which was even dumber.


Even with all these little things to mention here and there, I do think Atlanta definitely benefited more positively by hosting the Olympics than if it had not. Now, it is all in the history books and memories of those of us who were here or had some part of it.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Not putting this on you (since this meme has been going on for 20 years), but I think it's quite odd that Samaranch's "most exceptional" is always taken to mean that the Atlanta Games sucked or were blah. It's as if people don't think to consider "Hmm, there was a terrorist attack a few days before the games were over. Maybe Samaranch didn't want to look like a dick and call an Olympic games marred by a terrorist attack as the best ever?"

Good point, but a lot of people took exception to Smaranch's choice of words.

Mostly though, a lot the criticism came from butthurt Europeans that we dare get the games in first place and used the free market to not put us in a hole financially. In the modern era, only Los Angeles and Atlanta haven't had financial difficult and turned a profit from the Olympics thanks to commercialization. Oh, and Beijing, but they used slave labor to keep costs down.

At the end of the day, all of the criticisms in the world can't change the fact we got exactly what we wanted out of it and more than we expected.

The LA games made a lot of money. They ended up with a $100 million profit. Samaranch and the IOC were outraged and insisted that Ueberroth and the USOC hand over the money. Ueberroth basically told the IOC that they could kiss our ...

The IOC didn't get a dime.

Which was the right thing for Ueberroth to do. Had LA incurred a debt, you can bet the IOC wouldn't claim a part of it.

Plus, it doesn't hear Vancouver has done us the Olympic glitch department 10 fold.

I think Vancouver had a $1 billion debt and the 1976 Montreal games took Canada decades to pay off. I believe Salt Lake made a small profit but some federal money was involved. The Olympic Games put Greece in the hole to fuel its present debt crisis.

It seems that the US is the only country that can make a commercial go of the Olympics. That's one reason why I think the Olympics will return now and then to the US. The Olympic movement almost died until LA. No one wanted them and LA was the only serious bidder for the 1984 games. LA turned it around and was highly financially successful despite a Soviet led boycott. The Soviets wanted to ruin our games however it was anything but. No one commercializes as well as we do. The rest of the world and the IOC might hate it, but we keep the Olympic Games alive.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by berkeleylake

Nice, some great responses here and links to great vids!

Some flops, but worth mentioning.

Oh yea, I remember another thing that totally flopped in Atlanta in anticipation of the Olympics: house rentals: people wanting to rent their houses out during the Olympics and thinking they would rake in the big bucks by charging high rent for those 2 weeks. I bet only a few owners did make some good $$$. Though some details I don't recall now, I would guess that houses or condos near events mostly intown got rented out.

I got kicked out of my room in Home Park near Georgia Tech because the owner wanted to rent out the house for the Olympics. I talked to the house manager after the games were over and he said that it wasn't worth it as they only got a few renters. Most owners however were loyal to their tenants.

[Newsboy]

Thanks to whoever posted that YouTube clip of the announcement from Tokyo. I haven't seen that in years, and I'm typing this now through tears. To everybody who hates on Atlanta, I can only say this: If you could only have been here then, and lived through those remarkable years, you would understand why the rest of us love Atlanta so much. It truly was -- and still is -- a magical city where dreams really can come true.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Thanks to whoever posted that YouTube clip of the announcement from Tokyo. I haven't seen that in years, and I'm typing this now through tears. To everybody who hates on Atlanta, I can only say this: If you could only have been here then, and lived through those remarkable years, you would understand why the rest of us love Atlanta so much. It truly was -- and still is -- a magical city where dreams really can come true.

Yea that is one thing worth mentioning...

only about half the people here now were here back then. Many people don't even realize how much the area has changed.

[Newsboy]

Actually Kimbro, if you factor in the number of people who've died / been born and / or moved away in the past 22 years, I'm sure that fewer than HALF the people in Metro Atlanta today were here then, maybe closer to one-third! Yet think about what those couple million people accomplished; today we can't even agree on a dang transportation tax. Imagine trying to get this fragmented metropolis behind something as silly as the Olympics!

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Actually Kimbro, if you factor in the number of people who've died / been born and / or moved away in the past 22 years, I'm sure that fewer than HALF the people in Metro Atlanta today were here then, maybe closer to one-third! Yet think about what those couple million people accomplished; today we can't even agree on a dang transportation tax. Imagine trying to get this fragmented metropolis behind something as silly as the Olympics!

Objective information about the transportation tax appears to be quite hard to come by unless you go out of your way to hunt it down online.

I know what is involved based on my own research and interest in the subject, but most voters will be voting on little more than general gut reactions.