Useful Lessons for Atlanta ’96 and Nagano ’98

The Olympic organizing committees for Atlanta and Nagano, Japan, had offices in the basement of the main press center here, but both projects are off the ground.

Executives for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games and the 1998 Nagano Winter Games said they are on schedule and budget.

They also said they have profited from the trip to Norway, having learned more than the 101 ways to prepare salmon.

The standout impression in both cases seemed to be the enthusiasm and fairness of Norwegian fans and the efficiency and cordiality of the volunteers. Call it Southern hospitality in the frozen North.

Billy Payne, president and CEO of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, said it underscores the direction he hopes to take in ‘96, the impression he hopes to leave with athletes, officials and fans.

“I feel good about what I’ve seen here because it tells me we’re on the right course,” he said. “I mean, we spent years trying to determine what should be the distinguishing aspect of our Games before realizing it’s the natural friendliness of people in the South.

“The Norwegians have set a high standard in that area. No reservoir of details can replace a smile. We’ve seen how powerful the message is when people are as passionately behind a project as these people are.

“Of course, there’s going to be a considerable difference in size, scope and scale. We’re talking about managing an event that will be six or seven times larger than these Games and doing that in a metropolitan area that has as many people as this entire country. They have 12,000 volunteers here and we’ll have more than 60,000. It’s impossible to duplicate precisely.”

The Lillehammer budget was a government-subsidized $1 billion. The Atlanta budget is $1.4 billion. An estimated $100-million surplus is now being called a $60-million contingency fund.

“It’s not because we missed the numbers,” Payne said. “It’s because we’ve learned more as we’ve gone along and the program has expanded to include beach volleyball, women’s softball and four satellite soccer locations (Miami, Birmingham, Washington and Orlando, Fla.). We’re a little ahead of schedule, construction-wise, but we intentionally chose to build later than sooner at some of the venues because we don’t want to pay for two years of staffing at $17 million or so. Everything will be done by the fall of ’95. We’re scheduled for 31 test events. There may be more.”

Although it will be difficult for any future Olympic host to duplicate the compact nature of the six principal Lillehammer venues, the Atlanta Games will have 17 or 18 sports, plus the Olympic village, within a 1 3/4-mile radius known as the Olympic ring in the traffic-diverted downtown area.

“It will be more compact than any recent Summer Games other than Munich,” Payne said.

The $762-million Nagano Games will also strive for compactness, according to press liaison Akio Yoshida, but he is candid about some problems.

“Norway is very ideal,” he said. “There are 22,000 people in Lillehammer and 350,000 in Nagano City. The entire concept will be quite different for us in terms of traffic and (the disruption of) ordinary life for our residents. We can’t be sure how that will work out.

“We also are prevented from using spiked tires in the city. We have to put chains on outside the city (where most of the venues are). That takes time and is a real headache for us. We are still hoping to resolve that.”

The Nagano Games will emphasize peace and children, and Yoshida said he, too, has been impressed by the competency of the volunteers and the fairness of the Norwegian people “who support athletes by name and understand the value of effort.”

“The most impressive thing has been the joy of the people,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Summer Games are very popular in Japan, but my concern is how to create more enthusiasm for the Winter Games.”

Japan had the Winter Games once before, in Sapporo in 1972.

Yoshida said he was confident that by 1998, through promotions with the Japanese athletes who have done well here, there will be renewed interest and a spirit to match Norway’s.

Payne said that putting the Winter Games on a different four-year cycle, benefits Atlanta.

“The Winter Games always deflected some attention from the Summer Games,” he said. “The level of interest in our games should escalate quicker than it did between Albertville and Barcelona (in ‘94), and that’s wonderful. The more interest the better.”