From the 22nd Floor, Atlanta Appears to Be Stooping Low

A few years ago, Coca-Cola ran a feel-good commercial depicting citizens of the world holding hands, dancing in a circle and singing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing a song of harmony.” Cynics no doubt figured it out at the time, but by now even the most generous observers must realize that what Coca-Cola really wanted to teach was how to put dollar bills into its vending machines. Remember, it’s George Washington’s face up.

This thought comes to mind as I peer down from the balcony of a 22nd-floor apartment in downtown Atlanta that my employers have rented for 25 days. The price was roughly the same as my father paid for the house where I was raised.

My view is dominated by a theme park that covers an entire block, Coca-Cola Olympic City. Resting beneath a red caldron that has the Atlanta-based (but omniprescent) company’s familiar bottle as its base, the park is the core of a $250 million marketing effort to guarantee that the world knows the official soft drink of the Centennial Games.

Yet, while Coca-Cola might be the only company with its own city, it is not the only one capitalizing on the fast-approaching Games. From my balcony, I can see the logos of Nike, BMW, Hanes, Bell South, Panasonic and Samsung. I, fortunately, cannot see the giant Swatch watch that clings to the side of another downtown building.

Across Baker Street from Coca-Cola Olympic City is Centennial Olympic Park, which, as initially described by its creator, Olympic organizing committee chairman Billy Payne, would equal Barcelona’s inviting plazas as gathering points for people of different races, religions and country codes.

It might still achieve that lofty purpose, but, from where I stand, it looks like nothing more than a trade show. Among the exhibits there are BudWorld and Clydesdale Park, AT&T;’s Global Olympic Village and General Motors’ Century of Motion, which is underneath a tent so imposing that it is known here as “The Blue Blob.”

The scene can be overwhelming to the senses, particularly for traditionalists who remember the Olympics as an advertisement for the human spirit instead of underwear and ice beer. Dr. LeRoy Walker, the U.S. Olympic Committee president and a contemporary on the track of Jesse Owens, said that he has been appalled since arriving in Atlanta by the commercial “overkill.”

“If I’m watching and looking for art, I want to be able to back off, look at it and appreciate it,” he said of his search for symbols associated with the Olympics of the past. “But all these other things, maybe it doesn’t bother everybody else . . . the tents, the number of vendors. I don’t know if I should hope some of that stuff is going to come down after the opening ceremonies or not.”

His confusion is understandable. It is a common affliction among International Olympic Committee officials, one of whom lamented recently, “The only thing that anyone connected with the Games in this city seems to care about is money, money, money.”

IOC officials, however, can hardly scream about merchants in the temple because they are the ones who invited them through the door.

Required to at least break even because our city’s taxpayers voted to contribute not one cent, L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee chief Peter Ueberroth created a formula relying heavily on corporate sponsors and television networks that resulted in a considerable financial surplus.

The IOC complained about the selling of the Games, then adopted the formula. One difference is that official sponsors now pay $40 million, 10 times more than they paid in 1984. Another difference is that most of the profits now go to the IOC, not the local organizing committee.

If IOC officials are embarrassed here, it is not because they sold their souls. It is because the official sponsors are so aggressively, and tackily, advertising that they bought them.

The IOC at least can argue that it needs the sponsors in order to finance a greater, grander Games. If that is the goal, and if money is to become the movement’s motor, the IOC could not have found a more willing vehicle to begin the Modern Olympics’ second century than Atlanta.

Founded, like the IOC, upon the noblest of principles, the city quickly turned into a center for profiteering. Educator W.E.B. Du Bois saw it coming 100 years ago, when, as a professor at Atlanta University, he warned the citizens to seek “broad, pure and inspiring ends of living” over “sordid money-getting” and “apples of gold.” Apples are among the few items on which prices have not been significantly raised here.

A typical out-of-town businessman returning to Atlanta today would be surprised at the airport to find that a taxi ride to the city that usually costs $18 has been raised to $22. That is a 22% increase. Cabbies initially were voted a 60% increase by the Atlanta City Council, but that was vetoed by Mayor Bill Campbell out of fear that tourists would accuse the city of price gouging.

The businessman then would check into one of the downtown hotels and be informed that the room he usually reserves for $129 a night is now going for $248, before taxes. If he walked across Peachtree Street for dinner, he would not be handed the same menu he received on his last trip to the city but an abbreviated one with no entree selling for less than $30. That is without an appetizer, a beverage or dessert. A 16% tip has been automatically added to the bill.

One might think that the organizing committee, the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, would object out of concern for the city’s image, but it is hardly in a position to do that. As Anita DeFrantz, an IOC member from Los Angeles, points out, it is no coincidence that the colors on ACOG’s official poster are green and gold.

There are too many examples of ACOG’s greed to list here. The most glaring is that officials are charging $20 for each additional key they make for news organizations renting offices in the main press center. Most editors checking in from the United States realize that the nearest hardware store will provide the same service for $1.29, but foreigners assume ACOG is giving them the going rate and pay it. They will save energy if they keep their wallets out.