Atlanta has a lot to teach cities seeking Olympics

[Fiona]

If one moment made it clear to Billy Payne how difficult it would be to sell Atlanta as a Summer Olympics host, it was at an International Olympic Committee meeting in 1987.

"I spent this whole time telling them how warm and friendly our hospitality was and all of these things," said the Atlanta investment banker who headed that city's successful quest for the games. "And when I was done talking, they looked at me and said 'That's great. We can't wait to come there and gamble.' They thought I was talking about Atlantic City."

But Payne managed to get the world to take a gamble and bring the Olympic Games to the American South in 1996.

Since that time, his phone has been ringing off the hook when any city around the world wants to make a bid to host the games.

"We've had delegations come here to inspect how we did things," Payne said. "We're always getting calls from people. But I'm always willing to do it, because there were other organizers who helped me out when I was planning back then."

Now, a new batch of U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, seem poised to make a run at being the American representative in the 2016 bid process.

Payne, who visited the city last year, said he has noticed what the City of Brotherly Love is bringing to the table.

"I think of Philadelphia as the center of our country and everything that we stand for as Americans," Payne said. "The selling points - great venues thanks to the pro and college teams, an amazing historical district, great residential areas, the ability to draw from other communities for help - are all there.

"It's something that has a great, attractive nature," he said. "Philadelphia is going to be a formidable foe for anyone in this process."

Still, Payne said, the main ingredient Philadelphia must have is a united public-private partnership.

"You must have the entire support of the community," he said. "You need the businesses and the private sector to pick up the cost of organizing the games, building facilities and such. The cost there is huge, so that's where you need the business community.

"Where you need the government is for transportation, infrastructure and security. They are the only ones who can really handle those issues," Payne said. "So you need the two working together if you are going to present a good bid."

The organizers also must be prepared for every possible situation that might arise, he added.

"You have to look the International Olympic Committee in the eye and say that you are ready for just about anything," Payne said. "Now, it's impossible to be that way because a lot of things can happen over seven years [from the time of the bid to the time of the games]. But you have to assure them that you can handle things. And that means being prepared about everything."

The main thrust behind Payne's Atlanta bid, which started in 1987, was to get the city noticed on a grander scale.

"When people thought of Atlanta in international circles, they thought of two things: Civil War and civil rights," Payne said. "It allowed us to present a new image of our community. We were able to build our own reputation because of the Olympics. And if you look at it now, 10 years later, we've become an international trading center because of the games."

Atlanta built 30 venues for its Olympic Games. They ranged from the Olympic Stadium, which has been turned into Turner Field for the Braves, to the Olympic Village, which has been turned into dormitories for Georgia State University.

"Our main thing was we didn't want a lot of white-elephant structures around after the games," Payne said. "We created temporary facilities but wanted them to not feel like temporary stands. The people who sat in some of the 90,000 seats at Olympic Stadium had no idea they were on temporary seats.

"But when the games were done, we turned those stands over to high schools in the area and helped them with their football stadiums," he said.

Not everything in Atlanta was rosy.

The Centennial Olympic Park bombing midway through the games killed one person (another died of a heart attack) and injured more than 100.

And some international critics, including then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, said the games had been too commercialized.

"You are always going to have international critics about the way that we did things," Payne said. "I know that we had a great Olympic Games, just because of the love and the warmth that was in this community for that time was incredible."

Ten years later, Payne has returned to his investment banker career in Atlanta. A statue of him stands in Centennial Olympic Park.

"I would tell them that there's a lot of hard work that goes into it," Payne said of cities seeking the Olympics. "But it's so rewarding and it changes things in so many different ways."

Kevin Cooney can be reached at 215-949-4209 or kcooney@phillyBurbs.com.

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