Los Angeles Games Still Pay Dividends : Olympics ‘84: These revitalized the movement, established a fresh approach to the globe’s biggest sports festival, and for two festive weeks that August, gave this city some of its finest moments.

After a sea of red ink in Montreal and a boycott that made the Games in Moscow virtually an East bloc affair, Los Angeles got the Olympics nobody else wanted--and turned them into a rousing success.

The 1984 Summer Games revitalized the Olympic movement, established a fresh approach to the globe’s biggest sports festival and, for two festive weeks that August, gave this city some of its finest moments.

With Tehran the only other city to lodge a bid, then backing out because of civil turmoil, Los Angeles staged the Games practically without a hitch, even though the Soviets led their own boycott.

The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, headed by marketing wiz Peter Ueberroth, changed the financial foundation of the Games, for 1984 and beyond, by selling corporate sponsorships.

In addition to the $225 million paid by ABC-TV for the broadcast rights, another $140 million came from corporate sponsors. Ticket sales exceeded expectations, nearly selling out, and topped $100 million.

The first free-enterprise Olympics, with no government funding, also turned out to be the first profitable Olympics, finishing $225 million in the black.

“The uniqueness of the ’84 Games had to do with the fact that we worked cooperatively with government,” said Anita DeFrantz, who was in charge of the Olympic athletes’ housing at Southern Cal 11 years ago and now is a member of the International Olympic Committee executive board. “We paid for extra services from government, such as security, but ours was a contractual relationship with government.”

The profit also was possible because of the existing sports facilities in the sprawling Los Angeles area.

The Coliseum, which was built in 1923 for $600,000 and served as the centerpiece of L.A.’s other Olympics, in 1932, was used for track and field and opening and closing ceremonies in 1984. Soccer was held at the Rose Bowl, basketball at the Forum, gymnastics at Pauley Pavilion, volleyball at the Long Beach Arena and wrestling at the Anaheim Convention Center. Athletes were housed mostly at UCLA and USC.

A few new facilities were built, such as a swim stadium at USC and a velodrome in Dominguez Hills, but the cost was minimal because of corporate sponsorship.

The profit after the Games was divided among the U.S. Olympic Committee and various national sports federations, which received 60%, and the Amateur Athletic Foundation in Los Angeles, which received the other 40%.

Youth in Southern California particularly benefited from the money: The AAF uses interest earned on its share of the surplus to grant funds to established youth programs, initiate its own programs, and for a wide variety of other programs to benefit amateur and youth sports.

The Montreal Olympics in 1976 left a billion-dollar public debt and there were dire predictions that L.A. would be left with huge bills, too. That fear proved unfounded, just as other pre-Games worries did. There was no terrorism, no smog, no gridlocked traffic.

Instead, the internationally televised Games polished the city’s image to a luster never seen before--a sheen than lasted years until drought, fires, floods, earthquakes, recession and riots tarnished the glow.