He Truly Believes Goodwill Games Can Save the World--and Turn a Profit, Too

Ted Turner is concerned about the shortage of water in Southern California. He is concerned about acid rain and toxic waste and our diminishing natural resources and the poisons that escape from our cars, chimneys and factories and destroy the ozone.

He is concerned about tension in the Middle East, hunger in Africa and the persecution of oppressed peoples everywhere.

He is concerned--no, more than concerned--he is frightened by the volatile relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and the potential for a nuclear holocaust.

His solution: Ban the bomb, call off the risky and expensive arms race and begin pulling together to save the planet.

“It’s all a misunderstanding, this friction between us and them,” said Turner one day recently during a rambling interview in the Atlanta headquarters of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. “All we need is for somebody to make the first move.”

Anyone who has followed R.E. (Ted) Turner III’s adventures--from his humble beginnings as an independent television station owner who, dressed as Count Dracula, was the host of midnight horror movies, to his establishment of a cable network and a superstation, his purchase of the Braves and Hawks and his merger with MGM/UA, his failed attempt to take over CBS and his triumph in the America’s Cup--recognizes him, first and foremost, as a mover.

Some people also call him eccentric. Others call him a genius. Some people call him an opportunist. Others call him a visionary. Everyone calls him wealthy.

Out of all of the above were born the Goodwill Games.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, a reporter contacted the marketing company that has been commissioned by Turner to spread the word about the Goodwill Games.

“You want to see Turner?” the president of the company said. “How long are you going to be in town?”

“A week,” the reporter said.

“I don’t know if it can be arranged in such a short period of time,” the man said, explaining that Turner has been avoiding interviews in recent months because of the CBS and MGM/UA deals and that he seldom is in his Atlanta office because of extensive business travels.

“I’ll get back to you,” the man said, leaving the reporter to fend with the several thousand words that the marketing company already has spread about the Goodwill Games.

From reading the voluminous press releases, the reporter learned that the addition of the Goodwill Games to this summer’s international sports calendar is Turner’s attempt to do something that the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics could not do, which is to bring American and Soviet athletes together.

In his zeal, however, Turner, 47, has been promoting the event as the first competition between American and Soviet athletes since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, which, of course, is not within a Sergei Bubka pole vault of the truth. But what do you expect from a man who advertises his Atlanta Braves as “America’s Team?”

Americans and Soviets not only have competed against each other at the 1980 and 1984 Winter Olympics and in the World University Games every other year since 1976, they also have faced each other virtually every year in various world championships and other competitions.

But while not all of Turner’s boasts are legitimate, it appears that the competition will be. From July 5-20 in the Soviet Union, more than 3,500 athletes from 50 countries are expected to participate in 18 sports, including most of the popular Summer Olympic events, such as track and field, gymnastics, swimming and diving and volleyball, and one Winter Olympic event, figure skating.

Most of the U.S. sports federations plan to send their best athletes. It very will could be the best summer multi-nation, multisport competition since 1976.

Television rights, of course, belong to Turner, who will bring 120 hours of the games into our homes this summer on his superstation, WTBS, and independent stations that have bought the rights, including KTLA (Channel 5) in Los Angeles.

Turner is committed enough to the concept that he already has begun planning for the 1990 Goodwill Games, which, according to the press releases, will be held in the United States. The host city will be announced in May. Los Angeles is a candidate.

The phone rang.

The man from the marketing company said that an interview had been arranged for that afternoon with Robert Wussler, executive vice-president of Turner Broadcasting and the man most responsible for the implementation of Turner’s plan.

Five minutes later, the phone rang again. The man said that, much to his surprise, Turner also would be available for an interview later that afternoon.

“Things don’t usually fall into place like this,” the man said. “This is your lucky day.”

A cynic would have suspected that luck did not have much to do with it. A cynic would have suspected that Turner has something to sell.

Is it world peace?

Or is it advertising?

Wussler, 49, may not enjoy the status he once did, but, nevertheless, his fall from grace was a short one.

He joined TBS in 1980, two years after resigning under pressure as the head of CBS Sports amid the scandal over tennis matches arranged by the network that compensated the losers even though the competitions were advertised as “winner take all.” He said he was the scapegoat but has since been vindicated, in part because of the success of TBS.

His office on the third floor of TBS headquarters on Techwood Drive is next to Turner’s. There are seven television sets on the wall, enabling Wussler to monitor Turner’s WTBS and Cable Network News (CNN) and the competition.

He said he was watching ABC’s telecast of the Olympics one afternoon in the summer of 1984, when Turner burst into his office and asked: “Why can’t we do that, and do it better, with the Soviets participating?”

Wussler, who has become accomplished at fouling off wild pitches from his unpredictable employer, said, “Sure, Ted.”

But while watching the Olympic volleyball competition at home that evening, Wussler said he began to give Turner’s question more serious consideration.

“Why not, indeed?” was his reply to Turner the next day.

Explaining the thought process that led him to change his mind, Wussler said: “The Olympics initially were planned for every four years because of deficiencies in transportation. But in today’s world, there’s no reason for there not to be a multi-nation, multi-sport event every other year.

“We want to see the Olympics go on for the next 1,000 years. But there’s also room for the Goodwill Games every four years.

“If we do it right this time, there will be a demand for it. If we don’t do a good job of executing it, there will be only two Goodwill Games. It will disappear, and we’ll laugh about it five years from now.”

In April of 1985, Wussler began negotiating with the Soviets, an experience that is hardly new to him. As a producer for CBS News, Wussler first visited Moscow in 1963. He recently completed his 71st trip to the Soviet Union.

After leaving CBS in 1978, he formed his own production company, which televised the Soviet sports festival, Spartakiade, to the United States in 1979.

One of his commentators was former U.S. Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee, perhaps better known as television’s Suzy Chapstick. The irrepressible Miss Chapstick made the front page of the Moscow News, an English-language newspaper, by roller skating on Red Square and then offered to present Leonid Brezhnev a pair of roller skates. Brezhnev snubbed the offer. Remarkably, neither the United States’ nor Wussler’s relations with the Soviets was irreparably damaged.

Essential to the negotiations for the Goodwill Games was Wussler’s friendship with Henrikas Yushkiavitshus, vice chairman of Gosteleradio, the Soviet Union’s State Committee for Television and Radio. They have done business together for the last 14 years.

“He knew that at least I wasn’t a guy off the street selling him an empty barrel,” Wussler said.

By the end of July, Wussler had an agreement.

“We got lucky on the timing,” he said. “I’m not sure this would have been possible if not for the more open atmosphere that Mikhail Gorbachev has encouraged.

“We signed a 37-page document. They are extremely tough negotiators. But so are we. On several occasions, when things broke down on small points, we had our bags packed and were ready to get out of there and go to Paris for dinner.

“We wouldn’t sign unless they also agreed to participate in 1990. They wanted to go forward with 1986, but they wanted to hold 1990 in abeyance. We insisted on a solid commitment.”

Wussler said he estimates the cost of the 1986 Goodwill Games at $86 million.

Turner’s budget is $32 million, and Gosteleradio, the Soviet Union’s television and radio agency, and Soyuzsport, the Soviet Union’s ministry of sports and physical culture, each are expected to pay at least $27 million.

Also shared will be the profits, if there are any. As of now, the only two major sponsors are Pepsi-Cola, which reportedly paid $10 million to be the official soft drink of the 1986 and 1990 Goodwill Games and the sole sponsor of the gymnastics competition, and Stroh’s brewery, which signed a reported multimillion dollar agreement last week with Turner.

Wussler said he is optimistic that the Goodwill Games eventually could generate $100 million in revenue.

“The Soviets are interested in hard currency, and Turner doesn’t want to go broke,” Wussler said. “But we’re not doing it for the money. That’s our fifth or sixth goal. We’re doing it because we think it’s an interesting event that will do the athletes some good and will do the world some good.

“Turner really believes that this can improve relations between the two countries. He wants to bring about positive changes. He thinks he can make a difference.”

Better Ted than dead.

Instructed that he will have only 15 minutes to ask his questions, a reporter was ushered into Turner’s office.

Dressed in a long-sleeved blue dress shirt with the collar open and no tie, Turner appeared casual as he sat at his desk. Appearances deceive.

The tone of the office was set by a small distinctive sign at the edge of his desk that warned: “Either Lead, Follow Or Get Out Of The Way.”

One needs only to see a list of Turner’s achievements to know which path he has chosen.

First question: What was your motivation in conceiving the Goodwill Games?

After taking a deep breath, Turner began.

“When I first went to Moscow, it was in March of 1984,” he said, choosing his words carefully, reflectively.

“I walked around the streets and saw the grandmothers, the babushkas, shoveling the snow and pushing the little children in their baby carriages. I thought, ‘They’re just like us.’ I said, ‘What’s all of this about anyway?’ ”

Pausing before providing the answer, Turner, becoming more animated, said: “I’ll tell you what it’s all about. It’s about fear of communism. My father--I came from a right-wing family--thought FDR was a Communist. He thought there was a Communist under every bed and that communism was going to take over the world. But communism never really materialized in this country.”

Standing up, looking straight into the eyes of the reporter, Turner said: “I’m not afraid of communism. Are you?”

Not waiting for a response, Turner walked around to the front of the desk and continued.

“It’s a tragedy,” he said. “When I was in Moscow, their leaders and our leaders were calling each other names. Reagan was calling them an evil empire. There was little dialogue between the two countries.

“So when the Olympics came that year, and the Soviets didn’t come to Los Angeles, I thought, ‘What can I do?’ That is when I had the idea of the Goodwill Games. I thought it was a great way to build relationships between the two countries. It was a citizen’s diplomacy to bring them together in 1986, like Nixon’s Ping-Pong diplomacy in China.

“Since we boycotted first, we should go over there first. Then, four years later, they can right the other wrong by coming over here.

“I think we can get everybody together. That’s one thing we’re going to do. We’re going to get East and West together for the first time in 10 years.”

Overlooking Spartakiade in 1979, he said, “This will be the first time an entire U.S. team in a multi-sport competition has gone over there. This is history, right?”

Pacing now, becoming increasingly more excited as he contemplated his creation, Turner said: “The last two Olympics were a farce. How can you call the Olympics a great success if half the world wasn’t there? It’s like having a World Series with the National League boycotting. You can’t call it the Olympics. You have to call it the half-Olympics.”

Waving his arms and gesturing as he walked around the room, Turner began speaking with the zeal of a tent revivalist.

“All we’ve been doing since 1976 is competing to see whose missiles are best and who can build the most,” he said. “That’s an expensive and wasteful game. It’s time to call that a draw and call it off.”

Turning it off as quickly as he had turned it on, Turner stopped pacing and smiled, talking in a calmer, more restrained tone.

“We’re going to be showing a lot of neat scenes from the Soviet Union, like we do of campuses during halftimes of college football games on WTBS,” he said. “We want to show people at their best, not at their worst. When you show a picture of President Reagan, you don’t show him in the john. You want to show him in his most dignified pose.”

He laughed. Reminded of something he had planned to show the reporter, Turner returned to the bookcase behind his desk and pulled out a photo album. He handed it to the reporter. The pictures were of a hunting trip Turner took in Cuba with Fidel Castro.

“We had a ball,” said Turner, who stood over the reporter’s shoulder and excitedly flipped the pages. “Look at this one. The CIA tried to kill him 22 times, and here I am sitting next to him with a loaded gun. That Castro is one hot mama.”

Turner resumed pacing, the storm again raging, creating a stream of consciousness.

“It’s all a big misunderstanding,” Turner said. “I was flying on Aeroflot out of Moscow while on my way to London. Sitting next to me was a a guy from the Syrian embassy. I asked the guy, ‘Will you leave the Jews alone in Israel?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ You see, it’s all a big misunderstanding.

“There’s only two sides left, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. When we call it off, it will be all over. Then we would stop shipping nuclear weapons to the Third World. That’s like giving guns to children. That’s weird, man. It’s macabre. Civilized populations don’t do that. Everybody is sick of it.”

Pleading now, Turner stopped in front of the reporter and said: “There’s no reason why we don’t do the right thing. We’re running out of time. We’ve got to take care of our planet. Acid rain. Chimneys. Top soil. Ozone. Arms race. Water supplies.

“What if we took the money we use for nuclear weapons and applied it to developing new water projects. There’s going to be serious water shortages in California in a few years. There are going to be even worse problems in the Soviet Union. Look at all the good things we could do if we would pal around together. It’s a no-lose situation.”

His point made, Turner returned to the desk and slumped into his chair.

“We need new rules,” he said emphatically. “We need a new Ten Commandments. At the time of Moses, we didn’t have all the things we have today. The first commandment would be to get rid of nuclear weapons.”

The reporter waited for Turner to continue, but the storm had passed. So had the 15 minutes.

Turner smiled.

“Does that answer your question?” he asked.

‘The Soviets are interested in hard currency, and Turner doesn’t want to go broke. . . . Turner really believes that this can improve relations between the two countries. He wants to bring about positive changes. He thinks he can make a difference.’

--ROBERT WUSSLER,

WTBS Executive Vice President

‘When I first went to Moscow, it was in March of 1984. I walked around the streets and saw the grandmothers, the babushkas, shoveling the snow and pushing the little children in their baby carriages. I thought, “They’re just like us.” I said, “What’s all of this about anyway?” ’

--TED TURNER

‘All we’ve been doing since 1976 is competing to see whose missiles are best and who can build the most. That’s an expensive and wasteful game. It’s time to call that a draw. . . . There’s only two sides left, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. When we call it off, it will be all over.’ --TED TURNER