ATLANTA — I was very happy to see Atlanta’s many successes as a FIFA World Cup Host City, capped by that semi-final match between England and Argentina at “Atlanta Stadium” (Mercedes-Benz Stadium).
Big winners include Atlanta’s downtown, as well as the City of Decatur, and Centennial Olympic Park as the center for national team fan action and gathering place for the thousands who came to the city to watch the match and party, even those without tickets inside the stadium.
My hometown of Decatur hosted an incredible series of events and Watch Parties, featuring live match action, live music and a wide array of other amenities and attractions.
As a lifelong soccer fan and Atlanta United founding season ticket holder, it was also great to see football elevated to such a level of interest and visibility here in the U.S.
Though my wallet wasn’t quite willing to spring for the near fortune of match tickets, I did greatly enjoy an exhibition match between Team USA and Belgium, which was replicated in the actual tournament (again with a loss, but the USMNT team outplayed its World Cup standing from many prior years).
And if you aren’t already aware, metro Atlanta is now the home of U.S. Soccer and the U.S. Olympic soccer training facilities near the town of Trilith in Fayette County, made possible largely by the philanthropy of Arthur Blank.
It remains hard for me to believe 30 summers have passed since Atlanta welcomed the world for the Centennial Olympic Games in the Summer of 1996.
I was blessed to be working at that time for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, as V.P. of Communications and Director of Marketing for Forward Atlanta, placing me at Ground Zero for things Olympic and with an office on what is now the Marietta Street side of Centennial Olympic Park.
The city of Atlanta, Fulton County, the state of Georgia, and most of the metro Atlanta region, as well as our business and hospitality communities put aside their long differences and rowed together in one big boat to help the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) deliver the almost entirely privately funded Centennial Olympic Games.
I won’t spend this column reciting the long list of lasting legacies our region received from hosting those games, but there is an excellent and newly expanded exhibit I highly recommend at the Atlanta History Center that covers that all incredibly well.
A Personal Stroll Down Centennial Summer Memories -
This will be a more personal stroll down my Centennial memory lane. I loved my job and had rented my home for the entire month of July.
The rental rate was HIGH, though not an inestimable pile of cash. But I was newly divorced at the time, and that side income certainly helped pay quite a few bills. Audi, though not an Olympic sponsor, was making quite am ambush marketing splash with the introduction of their Audi A8 in Atlanta that same summer, complete with its Olympic looking rings logo.
Audi paid me and several other local dignitaries and athletes handsomely to drive their hot cars, and just ‘be highly visible’ for not quite 6-months before, during and after the games.
Yes, that isn’t a typo...Audi paid me, and they reimbursed fuel, parking and SUGGESTED valet parking, as well as a modest mileage reimbursement to ensure that you got out and around town, driving that incredible car.
I will likely never to be able to afford to own one, but it was an incredible ride and experience.
With my home occupied for the entire Olympiad, I stayed primarily in my grandmother’s former home in Smokerise on the east side of DeKalb County.
We had lost Mary L. Crane in 1992, but her estate was still being liquidated, and her home still needed care, so I had the run of a large 4-bedroom, also where I had lived for awhile earlier, pre-divorce, in a rather cushy downstairs apartment.
It made for a longer commute, but local and state leaders had largely convinced metro workers to telecommute for the first time, unless they had event tickets or business directly with the games, to use mass transit into and out of downtown.
Among the Highlights -
The Metro Chamber turned its headquarters into The Oasis Club, O Club for short, providing very high-end, high-dollar hospitality for economic development prospects, corporate entertainment and being at the hub of all Olympic activity.
MSNBC was launched from that chamber rooftop, across the street from then arch-rival CNN, during those same games. I got to meet Larry Hagman, of recent “Dallas” fame, then serving as a spokesman for a Texas-tri-cities bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Larry, in his Stetson handed out J.R. Ewing $1,000,000 bills and did his interview in accent and character. He was a hoot.
The Chamber held daily press briefings on that rooftop, to assist and feed positive content to the approximately 15,000 non-credentialed and non-rights-holding media attending the games.
In addition to local heroes like Hank Aaron, Ambassador Andrew Young and Billy Payne, we hosted Coach Bela Karoli and the Magnificent Seven U.S. Gymnastics team, the morning after their Gold Medal win, as well as prior Olympiad giants including Olga Korbut and NBC’s Bob Costas.
Lifelong Bonds and Friendships Formed -
I formed lifelong personal and professional bonds with a quartet of incredible communications professionals during a weekly morning pre-games planning meeting. This group included my current business partner and former boss, Bill Marks (ACOG Deputy Communications Director), Nick Gold (Press Secretary to Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell) and Kim Arcuelo (Communications Director for the ACVB). I have hundreds of stories and memories of that summer, but one of my favorites involves securing daily access to the IOC sponsor hospitality village, and the IOC Hospitality Tent. This was in the days before facial recognition software of any of the many technologies available today, which would have kept me outside that tent…looking in.
Many new products were launched that summer, including Powerade, a Coca-Cola product to challenge Gatorade. Then and now, I preferred the ice blue colored, Mountain Berry flavor, at the time it amused me as being the same-color as our frequently maligned Olympic mascot, Izzy.
AND Izzy’s Blood -
The food and drink were incredible in that tent, and literal royalty, many of whom were IOC board members, dined there each day.
One morning of a particularly long day, prior to the July 27th bombing when many things took on a more somber tone, I was starting the day with a flute of Cristal champagne and blue Powerade.
I jokingly told the bartender that the concoction should be called, “Izzy’s Blood.”
About half way through that flute, a beautiful young lady appeared next to me at the bar, inquiring about my blue mimosa… I shared the contents, and the benefits of loading electrolytes on a hot summer day…
She ordered a large round of Izzy’s Blood for her table, which was the royal family of Sweden, whose national and royal colors are of course white and royal blue.
As it turned out, she was a personal secretary to Princess Victoria, and when I returned to the tent a couple of mornings later, the Royal Family were all well ahead of me, on round 2 of Izzy’s Blood.
I was introduced to King Carl Gustaf, now Sweden’s longest reigning sovereign, as well as his wife the Queen, the Prince and Princess. By Swedish law passed in 1980, the first born is heir apparent, making Crown Princess Victoria the next sovereign of Sweden.
Her hand maiden and I kept in touch for awhile. I was later told that Izzy’s Blood became all the rage of the Royal Court at summer events in Sweden with the royal family.
Someday I will need to reach out to Coca-Cola bottler in Sweden and explain where their fascination came from. Cheers to that hot, crazy summer, and even to Izzy! Skal! (cheers in Swedish).
