On September 16, 1990, the International Olympic Committee met in Tokyo, Japan to vote for the site to host the 1996 Summer Olympics - the centennial games of the modern Olympic era. Six cities were competing: Atlanta (USA), Melbourne (Australia), Toronto (Canada), Belgrade (the former Yugoslavia), Manchester (England) and Athens (Greece). Athens was a sentimental favorite being the birthplace of the modern Games and the first city to host the modern Olympics back in 1896.
As understood, a city must receive a majority - 44 of 86 votes - in the balloting to win their bid. It was clarified if no candidate received that much support, the city gaining the fewest votes would be eliminated and the ballots recast. The process would continue until 2 candidates remained or a majority had been achieved. The winner therefore, it was said, may have to survive 5 rounds of voting.
Athens and Atlanta finished first and second on most of the ballots. Belgrade was eliminated on the first ballot, followed by Manchester on the second, Melbourne on the third, and Toronto on the fourth. On the fifth and final ballot by the IOC, Atlanta received 51 votes to 35 for Athens. It was mentioned many of Toronto's votes went to Atlanta, resulting in the victory margin.
'The Washington Post' learnt, "Geography was another problem for Athens, because the 1992 Games (summer in Barcelona, winter in Albertville, France) and the 1994 Winter Games (Lillehammer, Norway) will be held in Europe." Atlanta was "supported by a unified, broad-based coalition of business, political and civil rights leaders", reportedly spent $7.3 million on a 2-year campaign that made it only the third US city to host the Summer Olympics. St. Louis first hosted in 1904 and Los Angeles (1932, 1984). Athens spent $25 million on its bid, said to be more than any of the other cities. "Only Belgrade, with a budget of less than $1 million, spent less than Atlanta's $7.3 million," 'The Los Angeles Times' noted.
The $1.6 billion Centennial Olympic Games held in the "Cinderella city" of the New South in 1996 was "the most important event in the history of Atlanta, Georgia" and "the largest and most important event of the 20th century," Billy Payne, the chief organizer, stated. On September 18, 1990, Juan Antonio Samaranch announced, "The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 1996 Olympic Games to the city of…Atlanta." IOC vice president Richard Pound of Montreal told the press, "We got to the point where we had to decide, in the centennial year, whether we were going to look back or look forward. We decided that what we were really doing in 1996 was launching our second century."
From the outset, the Centennial Olympic Games would be privately financed by the Atlanta organizing committee. As understood, "The money comes from broadcast rights, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales and merchandising." Billy Payne spoke to 'Sports Illustrated' at the time, "It has now been nearly nine years (dating back to February 8, 1987) since I first had that which is still described as the crazy idea. Nine years since I came to believe that the United States could do great justice and great service to the Olympic movement at this most important time in its history, the only movement in the world that brings people together for a common and singular purpose under a common set of rules."
As understood, a city must receive a majority - 44 of 86 votes - in the balloting to win their bid. It was clarified if no candidate received that much support, the city gaining the fewest votes would be eliminated and the ballots recast. The process would continue until 2 candidates remained or a majority had been achieved. The winner therefore, it was said, may have to survive 5 rounds of voting.
Athens and Atlanta finished first and second on most of the ballots. Belgrade was eliminated on the first ballot, followed by Manchester on the second, Melbourne on the third, and Toronto on the fourth. On the fifth and final ballot by the IOC, Atlanta received 51 votes to 35 for Athens. It was mentioned many of Toronto's votes went to Atlanta, resulting in the victory margin.
'The Washington Post' learnt, "Geography was another problem for Athens, because the 1992 Games (summer in Barcelona, winter in Albertville, France) and the 1994 Winter Games (Lillehammer, Norway) will be held in Europe." Atlanta was "supported by a unified, broad-based coalition of business, political and civil rights leaders", reportedly spent $7.3 million on a 2-year campaign that made it only the third US city to host the Summer Olympics. St. Louis first hosted in 1904 and Los Angeles (1932, 1984). Athens spent $25 million on its bid, said to be more than any of the other cities. "Only Belgrade, with a budget of less than $1 million, spent less than Atlanta's $7.3 million," 'The Los Angeles Times' noted.
The $1.6 billion Centennial Olympic Games held in the "Cinderella city" of the New South in 1996 was "the most important event in the history of Atlanta, Georgia" and "the largest and most important event of the 20th century," Billy Payne, the chief organizer, stated. On September 18, 1990, Juan Antonio Samaranch announced, "The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 1996 Olympic Games to the city of…Atlanta." IOC vice president Richard Pound of Montreal told the press, "We got to the point where we had to decide, in the centennial year, whether we were going to look back or look forward. We decided that what we were really doing in 1996 was launching our second century."
From the outset, the Centennial Olympic Games would be privately financed by the Atlanta organizing committee. As understood, "The money comes from broadcast rights, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales and merchandising." Billy Payne spoke to 'Sports Illustrated' at the time, "It has now been nearly nine years (dating back to February 8, 1987) since I first had that which is still described as the crazy idea. Nine years since I came to believe that the United States could do great justice and great service to the Olympic movement at this most important time in its history, the only movement in the world that brings people together for a common and singular purpose under a common set of rules."
'Sports Illustrated' reported, "Because officials at every level of government had made it clear that an Atlanta-based Olympics would be staged without government underwriting, Payne claimed that he would raise the estimated $1.6 billion the city would need through the support of corporations and other private-sector sources." Six years before "the curtain goes up and Atlanta steps upon the international stage," 'The New York Times' reported, "Twenty sponsors paid up to $40 million apiece to become Olympic 'partners'.
"NBC wrote the largest corporate check, paying $456 million for American television rights. McDonald's is one of eight corporations that has anted up at least $40 million for a 'partners' sponsorship. McDonald's has also struck a deal with NBC, which will televise the 1996 Summer Games, to be the sole restaurant advertiser on Olympic telecasts."
The $1.6 billion were spent on construction projects, from Olympic venues such as the Centennial Olympic Park, 3 Concourse E at the Atlanta airport international (at a cost of $305 million), 4 Centennial Olympic Stadium (including the 85,000-seat Olympic stadium), 5 Georgia International Horse Park, 6 Clayton County International Park, 7 Olympic Aquatic Center, 8 Stone Mountain Tennis Center (at a cost of $22 million) to the 2 Olympic Village (at a cost of $200 million) housing the 10,318 athletes from 197 countries, 5,000 coaches and officials, 15,000 journalists and 2 million spectators. Harvey Newman told Associated Press in 2011 the 1996 Centennial Olympics had "certainly put Atlanta on the map as a place to be taken seriously among cities throughout the world."
Aramark Corporation was contracted to supply food created "550 ethnically diverse nutritional recipes for the menu." It was reported "there was an official dining hall - a 75,000 square-foot tent with a 3,500 seat capacity. For athletes from the 197 countries who could not eat in the Dining Hall, special Olympic Lunch Boxes would be provided and transported to competition sites in refrigerated trucks. Approximately 50,000 box lunches were prepared."
By September 1994, McDonald's disclosed it would "operate six of its fast-food restaurants at the Olympic Village during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, serving 7,500 nutritional meals a day during the Games and feeding 15,000 athletes, coaches and officials. World-class athletes generally subscribe to a diet low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates, featuring fruits, vegetables, pasta, whole grains, fish and chicken. For those who want to skip fast food, a cafeteria-style restaurant service will provide the bulk of food to Olympians, Atlanta officials said."
Chris Campbell, a freestyle wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics told 'The New York Times', "If McDonald's doesn't help out the Olympic movement, we don't get to compete at the level we need to. We're not like most countries, where the government pays for its athletes. Our government doesn't pay a dime. It's got to come from the commercial standpoint."
'The Los Angeles Times' reported in 2002, "Three times since the 1980s - Summer Games at Los Angeles in 1984 and Atlanta in 1996, and Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 - the US has played host to the Olympics. Each time the organizing committee has finished in the black. The L.A. Games registered a $232.5-million surplus. Forty percent of that money went to the Amateur Athletic Foundation, which has since given out millions in grants to youth and community sports activities.
"The 1996 Atlanta Olympics ended with a slight surplus, about $10 million. Atlanta's legacy, however, includes a stadium built for the Games and then reconfigured afterward for baseball, both at organizing committee expense. The 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City generated a whopping $56-million overall surplus, testament to first-rate organizational and logistical plans and a vivid reminder of the financial possibilities inherent in staging the Games in the United States. The net surplus, $40 million, will be divided two ways. Most of the money, $30 million, will go to the nonprofit Utah Athletic Foundation, which oversees facilities built for the Salt Lake Games. The rest, $10 million, goes to the US Olympic Committee."
The 1976 Montreal Games went into public debt of $1 billion. Unlike L.A., which used existing facilities and accumulated a surplus of $232.5 million, Atlanta had to construct 10 new competition venues and refurbish several others. Dick Pound believed, "Revenues should pay for the party, not the banquet hall." Donald Katz reported before the start of the 1996 Games, "The business side of the Summer Olympics has changed mightily since 1976, when the Montreal organizing committee garnered revenues from sponsors and licensed suppliers totaling only $7 million. The organization (for the 1996 Games) is still short of the recently revised $1.6 billion required to meet projected costs, but that deficit is slated to disappear with the continued sale of 11 million tickets and other items.
"As soon as Payne's marketers began pitching costly Olympic associations in corner offices around the world, a global business recession set in. But Payne's troops talked 30 billion-dollar corporations into lending executives and technicians to ACOG or donating goods and/or ponying up between $10 million and $60 million apiece to be domestic Olympic 'partners' and 'sponsors'. A total of 125 companies signed up to be product licensees. By the time the Games begin next July 19, more than 70,000 full-time employees and volunteers (more than three times the size of the workforce at Delta Airlines, the largest private employer in Georgia) will be working for ACOG and Payne."
Maureen Feighan told 'The Detroit News' readers in August 2016, "Nearly 20 years ago to the day, I worked in the main dining hall at Olympic Village during the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta. Call it destiny or good luck, a friend had a brother who worked for Aramark, the food service provider at the '96 Olympics. They were looking for college students to work in the main dining hall.
"I was one of thousands hired to serve food in Atlanta. My job: serve up cafeteria-style food to the best athletes from across the world. I've always been a huge fan of the Olympics, but to see athletes up close and personal was something else entirely. I marveled at the tiny gymnasts from China and the bulky wrestlers from Russia. Surprisingly, hot dogs were hugely popular in 1996.
"We served up more hot dogs – without buns – than any other food. And while most of the big name athletes didn't eat in the main dining hall, a few did. Dishing up dinner for tennis star Monica Seles, it took all the self-control I had to not set down my serving spoon and ask for an autograph. I never saw an Olympic medal up close during my time in Atlanta, but I saw something else that was golden: McDonald's golden arches.
"McDonald's, a longtime Olympic sponsor, had set up shop in one corner of the main dining hall so athletes could get their fix of McNuggets, fries or Quarter Pounders at any meal. McDonald's bridged cultural divides in a way I’ve never seen before. It brought together athletes from different sports, ethnicities and cultures. It was a reminder that we're all more alike than we are different. And it made these superhumans seem so much more real."
Professor Zhao Jinlin told Florida International University in 2014, "When I heard Atlanta was going to host the 1996 Olympics my reaction immediately was one day in the future China is going to host the Olympics. As a strategy, I have to squeeze in there and learn. Maybe one day my motherland will ask, ‘does anyone know anything about this?’ And I will be able to say I can help."
"NBC wrote the largest corporate check, paying $456 million for American television rights. McDonald's is one of eight corporations that has anted up at least $40 million for a 'partners' sponsorship. McDonald's has also struck a deal with NBC, which will televise the 1996 Summer Games, to be the sole restaurant advertiser on Olympic telecasts."
The $1.6 billion were spent on construction projects, from Olympic venues such as the Centennial Olympic Park, 3 Concourse E at the Atlanta airport international (at a cost of $305 million), 4 Centennial Olympic Stadium (including the 85,000-seat Olympic stadium), 5 Georgia International Horse Park, 6 Clayton County International Park, 7 Olympic Aquatic Center, 8 Stone Mountain Tennis Center (at a cost of $22 million) to the 2 Olympic Village (at a cost of $200 million) housing the 10,318 athletes from 197 countries, 5,000 coaches and officials, 15,000 journalists and 2 million spectators. Harvey Newman told Associated Press in 2011 the 1996 Centennial Olympics had "certainly put Atlanta on the map as a place to be taken seriously among cities throughout the world."
Aramark Corporation was contracted to supply food created "550 ethnically diverse nutritional recipes for the menu." It was reported "there was an official dining hall - a 75,000 square-foot tent with a 3,500 seat capacity. For athletes from the 197 countries who could not eat in the Dining Hall, special Olympic Lunch Boxes would be provided and transported to competition sites in refrigerated trucks. Approximately 50,000 box lunches were prepared."
By September 1994, McDonald's disclosed it would "operate six of its fast-food restaurants at the Olympic Village during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, serving 7,500 nutritional meals a day during the Games and feeding 15,000 athletes, coaches and officials. World-class athletes generally subscribe to a diet low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates, featuring fruits, vegetables, pasta, whole grains, fish and chicken. For those who want to skip fast food, a cafeteria-style restaurant service will provide the bulk of food to Olympians, Atlanta officials said."
Chris Campbell, a freestyle wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics told 'The New York Times', "If McDonald's doesn't help out the Olympic movement, we don't get to compete at the level we need to. We're not like most countries, where the government pays for its athletes. Our government doesn't pay a dime. It's got to come from the commercial standpoint."
'The Los Angeles Times' reported in 2002, "Three times since the 1980s - Summer Games at Los Angeles in 1984 and Atlanta in 1996, and Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 - the US has played host to the Olympics. Each time the organizing committee has finished in the black. The L.A. Games registered a $232.5-million surplus. Forty percent of that money went to the Amateur Athletic Foundation, which has since given out millions in grants to youth and community sports activities.
"The 1996 Atlanta Olympics ended with a slight surplus, about $10 million. Atlanta's legacy, however, includes a stadium built for the Games and then reconfigured afterward for baseball, both at organizing committee expense. The 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City generated a whopping $56-million overall surplus, testament to first-rate organizational and logistical plans and a vivid reminder of the financial possibilities inherent in staging the Games in the United States. The net surplus, $40 million, will be divided two ways. Most of the money, $30 million, will go to the nonprofit Utah Athletic Foundation, which oversees facilities built for the Salt Lake Games. The rest, $10 million, goes to the US Olympic Committee."
The 1976 Montreal Games went into public debt of $1 billion. Unlike L.A., which used existing facilities and accumulated a surplus of $232.5 million, Atlanta had to construct 10 new competition venues and refurbish several others. Dick Pound believed, "Revenues should pay for the party, not the banquet hall." Donald Katz reported before the start of the 1996 Games, "The business side of the Summer Olympics has changed mightily since 1976, when the Montreal organizing committee garnered revenues from sponsors and licensed suppliers totaling only $7 million. The organization (for the 1996 Games) is still short of the recently revised $1.6 billion required to meet projected costs, but that deficit is slated to disappear with the continued sale of 11 million tickets and other items.
"As soon as Payne's marketers began pitching costly Olympic associations in corner offices around the world, a global business recession set in. But Payne's troops talked 30 billion-dollar corporations into lending executives and technicians to ACOG or donating goods and/or ponying up between $10 million and $60 million apiece to be domestic Olympic 'partners' and 'sponsors'. A total of 125 companies signed up to be product licensees. By the time the Games begin next July 19, more than 70,000 full-time employees and volunteers (more than three times the size of the workforce at Delta Airlines, the largest private employer in Georgia) will be working for ACOG and Payne."
Maureen Feighan told 'The Detroit News' readers in August 2016, "Nearly 20 years ago to the day, I worked in the main dining hall at Olympic Village during the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta. Call it destiny or good luck, a friend had a brother who worked for Aramark, the food service provider at the '96 Olympics. They were looking for college students to work in the main dining hall.
"I was one of thousands hired to serve food in Atlanta. My job: serve up cafeteria-style food to the best athletes from across the world. I've always been a huge fan of the Olympics, but to see athletes up close and personal was something else entirely. I marveled at the tiny gymnasts from China and the bulky wrestlers from Russia. Surprisingly, hot dogs were hugely popular in 1996.
"We served up more hot dogs – without buns – than any other food. And while most of the big name athletes didn't eat in the main dining hall, a few did. Dishing up dinner for tennis star Monica Seles, it took all the self-control I had to not set down my serving spoon and ask for an autograph. I never saw an Olympic medal up close during my time in Atlanta, but I saw something else that was golden: McDonald's golden arches.
"McDonald's, a longtime Olympic sponsor, had set up shop in one corner of the main dining hall so athletes could get their fix of McNuggets, fries or Quarter Pounders at any meal. McDonald's bridged cultural divides in a way I’ve never seen before. It brought together athletes from different sports, ethnicities and cultures. It was a reminder that we're all more alike than we are different. And it made these superhumans seem so much more real."
Professor Zhao Jinlin told Florida International University in 2014, "When I heard Atlanta was going to host the 1996 Olympics my reaction immediately was one day in the future China is going to host the Olympics. As a strategy, I have to squeeze in there and learn. Maybe one day my motherland will ask, ‘does anyone know anything about this?’ And I will be able to say I can help."
