Atlanta Has a Better Start Than L.A. : Comparison: Fewer initial problems in Georgia, but 1984 Games warmed up with the torch.

Los Angeles, 1984. Atlanta, 1996. The Olympic comparisons were already beginning Tuesday, and they were quite favorable to Atlanta. At least, the Georgians are off to an easier start.

“The only thing certain about the Olympic movement is that there’s always change,” Peter Ueberroth, leader of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said Tuesday after hearing that Atlanta was selected as site of the 1996 Games.

“There will be some comparisons to Los Angeles, but for every comparison there will be a difference,” he said. “In Atlanta, they don’t have a referendum in prospect or the naysayers that Los Angeles had for the entire five-year period leading up to the Games. There aren’t politicians building careers on anti-Olympic positions, so I think it will be an entirely different environment.”

In Los Angeles, some felt, it was not until the torch began its journey through the city’s streets that Angelenos truly became enthusiastic about the Games. Then, the Olympic spirit took over and everything during the events, which became the best attended in history, went well.

But in Atlanta, there is much more early enthusiasm.

The Los Angeles bid for the 1984 Games began in 1977, a year after the Montreal Olympics lost $1 billion, and five years after terrorists disrupted the Munich Games. Three years later, Moscow’s 1980 Olympics was almost wrecked by an American-led boycott. Then, the Soviets led a boycott against Los Angeles.

Many felt during this period that the future of the Games was in jeopardy. Harry Usher, general manager of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, recalled Tuesday that when he got his job in 1980, “Many people said they didn’t think the Olympics would be held in the United States ever again, even in 1984.”

Atlanta’s preparations begin at a time of much greater optimism in the Olympic movement. The Los Angeles Games were profitable, there are no more threats of Olympic boycotts, the Cold War era is winding down and Olympic terrorism is almost 20 years behind us.

It is clear from its bid that Atlanta is seeking to build on Los Angeles’ experience of producing what turned out to be the most profitable sporting event in history. It is projecting a profit of $200 million, a little less than Los Angeles realized.

But this may be a challenge. Atlanta has greater requirements than Los Angeles had for capital investments in facilities, including a new main stadium for the opening ceremonies and track and field. Already, investment costs are projected as high as $500 million.

But television revenues for the Games should exceed Los Angeles’ by a substantial margin, primarily because Atlanta is home to one of the most ambitious and fast-expanding cable companies, CNN.

Atlanta’s history is that of a vital, enthusiastic community. Long a leader of its region, even when it was burned down during the Civil War, its citizens rebuilt better than before, and Atlanta to this day remains possibly the most dynamic city in the Southeast.

As such, it will be surprising if Atlanta has fewer volunteers than Los Angeles had in 1984, when thousands came out to help make the Games such a success.

Atlanta, unlike Los Angeles, can also be expected to do its best to maximize the number of visitors coming to its Games. Los Angeles organizers, bothered by dire (and false) predictions of gridlock, actually sought to discourage, by restrictive ticket sales policies and other means, waves of visitors. Atlanta will have no such inhibitions, and its Olympic venues, like its hotels, will be in a much more compact area, facilitating easy handling of visitors.

There are sure to be problems in Atlanta. Power struggles. Delays. Battles over venue sites. Environmental reports. Predictions of price gouging, traffic tie-ups and worse. These always occur, and sometimes are magnified by a press that has little to cover in the long years before the Games.

But Atlanta should do fine. The only real worry at this point may be the dates of the Atlanta Games, July 20 to Aug. 4, a hot, humid period in Georgia, even though at 1,000 feet Atlanta is the highest big city east of the Mississippi.

Official weather statistics show the average high temperature in Atlanta in July is 87.9 degrees, the average minimum 69.2, and even in the evening, when many events may begin in prime television viewing time, the average relative humidity is 68%.

Seoul, which also suffers summer humidity, held its Games two years ago in late September.

The 1904 Games were held in St. Louis, also known for heat and humidity, but those Games stretched from May to November.