Let the Games Begin: Goodwill May Come Later

Even without Michael Jackson, who sent his regrets following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the opening ceremonies tonight at Lenin Stadium for the first Goodwill Games are expected to attract a capacity crowd of 103,000, including more than 3,500 athletes from 53 countries.

By the time the torch is lit, competition already will have begun in four of the 18 sports that will be held between Friday, when the swimming started, and July 20 in three Soviet cities. Besides the competition here, tennis will be held in Yurmala on the Baltic Sea and yachting in the Estonian seaport of Tallinn.

Outside of the Olympics, never have more U.S. elite athletes gathered for an international competition. Of the 550 Americans here, most either competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games or are expected to compete in the 1988 Olympics at Seoul, South Korea.

Only in swimming and diving, in which this competition interferes with training for the World Championships next month, and in boxing, in which the Defense Department prohibited nine competitors from attending, is the United States sending less than its best. Particularly strong are the track and field entries, including Olympic champions Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses and Valerie Brisco-Hooks.

There is no competition here in men’s basketball, which is holding its World Championships this month in Spain. But that tournament will be televised in the United States as part of the 129 hours of Goodwill Games coverage by Ted Turner’s superstation, WTBS, and other independent stations, including KTLA-TV (Channel 5) in Los Angeles.

This is a made-for-television competition, inspired by Turner. Calling the 1984 L.A. Olympics a “farce” and a “sham” because of the Soviet-led boycott, which followed the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics at Moscow, Turner began negotiations with the Soviets in August 1985 to bring the two athletic superpowers together in a multisport, multination competition. By October, Turner had a deal, although the relationship since has been strained from time to time.

Not only did the United States bomb Libya, an action that was condemned by the Soviet sports committee, but Turner insisted on inviting Michael Jackson to appear at the opening ceremonies. There is only so much the Soviets can take.

The Soviets initially resisted. The pop singer often is used in the Soviet press as an example of Western decadence. Soviet customs agents routinely confiscate tapes of his music when tourists attempt to bring them into the country.

Turner won over the Soviets when he explained that Jackson is a spokesman for one of his major sponsors, Pepsi, and that the Goodwill Games would be worth more to Pepsi if Jackson were involved. The Soviets may not be capitalists, but never let it be said they do not understand the value of a dollar.

Turner then announced that Jackson would not attend because of previous commitments and financial considerations.

After expressing indignation because Jackson was invited by Turner, the Soviets suddenly were insulted because he was not coming.

Tass, the Soviet news agency, blamed the U.S. government, claiming also that the State Department advised athletes to bring their own food to Moscow because of contamination from Chernobyl.

“It definitely looks like another U.S. attempt to blacken the games,” Tass said. “The State Department says yes to the sportsmen to come to the games and then advises them to take food with them because of possible contamination. In a word, somebody in the White House wants to blacken celebration of the Goodwill Games--just to rub salt in old wounds.

“Also very surprising is their ban on American singer Michael Jackson from coming to Moscow to sing in the opening ceremony. He was told there is a chance (that radiation) will influence his vocal chords.”

But while the Soviets were willing to compromise for Pepsi, they were not willing to do so for two other potential sponsors, Wendy’s and Miller Lite. Those companies were rejected, apparently because they have aired commercials that the Soviets consider offensive.

The Wendy’s commercial ridicules Soviet fashion, showing a portly woman engaged in a “fashion show”--in fact, she minces around in the same style of drab, unflattering dress. The commercial makes a point that Soviets have no freedom of choice in either consumer goods or hamburgers. In the Miller Lite commercial, Soviet emigre Yakov Smirnov, a comedian, explains the difference in the United States and the Soviet Union by saying, “Here you can always find a party; there, the party always finds you.”

Turner could have used the sponsors. He initially said he needed 20 sponsors to make a profit, but only nine have been signed. Robert Wussler, executive vice president of the Turner Broadcasting System, said in an interview this week that Turner expects to lose $5 million on his $50-million investment, but advertising industry sources estimate the loss could be more than $15 million.

“We never thought the games would make money this year,” Wussler said. “While money is always of paramount importance, it’s more important to get the Goodwill Games going.”

Wussler said the loss will be written off as “research and development” for the 1990 Goodwill Games, which already are being planned for Seattle.

Turner announced last month that athletes from Israel and South Korea will be invited to compete in Seattle, saying that he lost a bid to have them invited to Moscow. The Soviet Union doesn’t haves diplomatic relations with either country.

In a letter to Turner this week, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles expressed outrage over the exclusion of Israeli athletes.

“It is one thing for the Soviets to put up their money and host games in their country to make whatever rules they choose but entirely another matter when the head of America’s fourth-largest commercial network invests his money and prestige in a project which will in effect endorse the goals of Soviet foreign policy to make Israel a pariah state,” he said.

“To place Israel alongside South Africa is a moral outrage that you, CNN (Turner’s Cable Network News), the sponsors and Americans should have nothing to do with.”

Israel, however, is among the majority of countries included in the Olympic movement that are not included in the Goodwill Games. United States and Soviet officials from each sport decided which other countries would be invited to participate. Only the United States and the Soviet Union have entries in all 18 sports.

In an interview with United Press International, Turner executive Rex Lardner said: “Israel was not really barred. Our philosophy is the best vs. the best--the best individual or team. The philosophy of the Olympics is all nations competing in all sports. The Goodwill Games is a complement to the Olympics. There are only 18 sports, not 30 as in the Summer Olympics.”

In the past, Turner has said the Goodwill Games eventually will be “bigger than the Olympics,” a statement that, understandably, has not endeared him to Olympic officials.

U.S. Olympic Committee officials say they favor the Goodwill Games because they give athletes an opportunity to compete internationally that they would not otherwise have. But they are wary of Turner, suspecting that he is attempting to establish an event that eventually will compete with the Olympics. The Goodwill Games already are considered a threat to the USOC’s Olympic Festival, which is held each summer. The 1986 Olympic Festival at Houston begins five days after the conclusion of the Goodwill Games.

Turner, however, has maintained that his only goal is world peace.

“The concept of the Goodwill Games is based on the belief that we can best achieve global peace by letting the people of the world get to know each other better,” the Atlanta broadcasting magnate said recently. “One of the best ways of doing this is through athletic competition.”

If Turner some day also achieves profits, so be it.

Times Moscow correspondent William J. Eaton contributed to this story.

Salnikov swims to world record. Story, Page 12.