Dreamers & Believers Celebrate 25 Years Since Atlanta's Olympic Wishes Came True

Twenty-five years ago -- Sept. 18, 1990 -- Atlanta won its Olympic bid to host the 1996 Games.

Tonight the bid's originator, William Porter "Billy" Payne, hosted a classy anniversary event to say thank you and celebrate the "Dreamers & Believers" who shared his five-ringed vision as early as 1987.

In a tent filled with about 400 friends at Centennial Olympic Park, Payne proudly explained his remarks for the evening were "25 years in the making" before rolling a video unveiling two new monuments coming soon to the urban park he created.

The additions include custom marble benches honoring key Atlanta business leaders (Jim Kennedy, Bill Dahlberg, Bob Holder, Bennett Brown, Herman Russell and Ivan Allen III) first to embrace the Olympic bid. A new marble column featuring the names of the "Atlanta Nine" volunteers who led the bid committee will also join the statue of Payne installed in 1997. 

Though more details remain to be announced, Payne briefly mentioned a capital campaign in the works to provide other park improvements in time for next year's 20th Anniversary of Atlanta's Games, which will take place on the eve of the Rio 2016 Olympics. 

Introduced by Payne as the keynote speaker of the evening, bid partner Ambassador Andrew Young put into perspective several Atlanta milestones of the 25 years since the city's Olympic victory.

Young referenced the city's rapid growth (more than 25 percent, according to a state representative who spoke earlier in the evening), successful collaborations (to build the world's busiest airport, create MARTA, and to pursue then host the Games) and details of his initial conversations with Payne when Young was Atlanta's mayor. Young said Montreal's $750 million debt from the 1976 Games made his staff members reluctant for Young to meet with the 34-year-old Payne. 

"[But] I heard Billy got this [Olympic bid] idea after church," said Young. "I'm a preacher and I know now the Lord works on you, and when an aging jock in midlife crisis gets religion ... that's the way the Spirit works." He took the meeting and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Other party presenters included WSB's Monica Kaufman, who was in Tokyo covering the 1990 vote, and Charlie Battle, the Atlanta attorney credited with visiting more nations during the bid and for helping forge the most friendships with voting IOC members. Other VIP attendees included former Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games CFO A.D. Frasier, Cohn & Wolfe co-founder Bob Cohn, a longtime Olympic collector whose firm provided early public relations counsel for the Atlanta bid team's domestic campaign, and University of Georgia football coaching legend Vince Dooley, for whom Payne played years before his Olympic feats and current role as chairman of Augusta National Golf Club.

During his remarks detailing the bid committee milestones of 1988 to 1990, Battle called out several volunteers including Atlanta Marriott Marquis concierge Albert "Smitty" Smith who charmed many IOC leaders and staff.

"[Smitty] is one of the first people IOC friends ask about when I travel and see them," said Battle.

Battle also mentioned the bid team's early events that wooed the U.S. Olympic Committee away from competing bids from San Francisco, Minneapolis and Nashville. He detailed the scrappy manner through which Atlanta created an "Atlanta House" in Seoul during the 1988 Olympics and around the 1989 IOC Session held in Puerto Rico. 

Forging friendships across the Olympic Family echoed as key to the win, according to remarks from Battle, Payne and Young. Since the rules of Olympic bidding now forbid voting IOC member visits to candidate cities, its likely Atlanta's networking techniques were a first- and last-time option for Olympic bid committees of the 2010s and beyond.

Young said Atlanta proved to have a lot more Olympic connections than anticipated, including then-USOC Treasurer Dr. Leroy Walker as a local high school graduate, and Edwin Moses as a top Olympian of 1976 and 1984. 

Young attributed divine intervention, through his U.S. Ambassador assignments from President Jimmy Carter, as federal duties that helped him renew existing connections to up to 55 voting IOC members on behalf of Atlanta. In Young's mind, things started adding up that "The city was ready for it" and "we did it."

During a media Q&A prior to the event, I asked Young if he could recall waking up in Tokyo on Sept. 19 after reality over the victory may have set in for the team.

"The first thought I had was, 'Damn! We won this thing and we're broke,'" said Young. "They [the IOC] gave us a letter saying that we won, but it was also a bill for $1.5 million for the victory party. I said, 'Thanks, you gave us the Olympics and a bill to start with?" 

Like tonight's gathering, that was one party worth every penny.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

USOC Announces America's 2024 Olympic Bid City

Team USA just added a new chapter to the evolving book of L.A. stories by officially naming Los Angeles the U.S. Olympic Committee entry into the 2024 Olympic bid process.

Replacing Boston just two weeks after scrapping a Bean Town bid, USOC officials joined a beaming LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and several Olympians at an afternoon press conference emcee'd by Al Michaels in the Annenberg Community Beach House on Santa Monica Beach. 

I caught the latter half of the press conference online, then dialed-in to a media Q&A, informing several perspectives on the news of the day.

An impressive element of the announcement was that many official participants stayed on message proclaiming #LA2024 is "America's bid city" for Olympic hosting honors. Olympic champion Janet Evans rallied fellow Olympians and other press event participants stating the bid enjoys 80 percent thumbs up approval, but it will take more than Angelinos' local support to win.

"If we are going to win these Games we need every American behind this bid," said Evans. "[This is the start of] a national campaign and a national celebration." 

This message of national unity is appropriate and something that was, in retrospect, buried or never part of earlier bid news. 

During the media Q&A call, USOC Chairman Larry Probst expressed gratitude while acknowledging stumbling out of the bid city gates with Boston.

"[We are] incredibly grateful to have a partner in Los Angeles," said Probst. "We did not take the most direct route to get here today ... [a day of] excitement, enthusiasm and hope. I think we are going to make L.A. and the Olympic Movement better (through this bid)."

Other key messages resonated with this blogger. Garcetti described his city as the nation's "most connected city" and a "global city of diversity ... ready to compete globally" to which other officials explained LA's unique ability to help athletes of the world "feel at home and enjoy a home field advantage" no matter their nationality. 

Press materials also strike a positive and future leaning tone stating the bid and the city's connectivity will engage "the next generation of global youth" in new ways. The City Council's unanimous (15-0) vote in support of the LA bid is another feather in the new cap for #LA2024.

As a public relations executive I was dying to ask which agencies or other communications professionals are already on board with the LA bid committee. I also want to know definitively whether San Francisco and Washington, D.C., also tried to reel in USOC attention after the Boston debacle. It would also be interesting and timely to find out how many jobs may become available through the bid committee featuring Casey Wasserman at the helm and a former political strategist who resigned his Mayor's office post to join the bid. 

I am genuinely energized by the LA24 and Team USA bid -- it is such a relief to feel the organizers have their stuff together, a vibe never felt at any stage of the Boston 2024 effort. 

It also was cool to hear an LA city official express gratitude for the bid committee's "courage moving the city in an Olympic direction" (a sentiment never felt in Massachusetts) and astonishment that they "got it done in two weeks" during which they reigned in community support. 

Confidence also reigned on the media call. When veteran Olympic reporter Philip Hersh asked if LA would pursue a 2028 bid if locked out for 2024 (New York 2012 and Chicago 2016 did not repeat bids after one loss each), officials quickly and energetically responded "we are in this to win" and "ready to win again" (after hosting in 1932 and 1984) with no interest in discussing an alternative ending to a victorious 2024 bid game.

With confirmed competition from Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome -- and a possible Toronto bid also TBD -- Los Angeles has some hard work to complete before the IOC vote in Lima, Peru, two summers from now. 

LA's initial budget and fiscally-responsible approach may resonate. 

There is one communications-related Achilles' heel not yet tested through today's media Q&A: Disclosures. Boston's bid team shot off one foot then the other by failing on the public disclosures front. I hope there won't prove to be a "Gotcha!" moment for LA24 in this regard. I'm still dying to know what other lessons learned the Los Angeles team noted and learned from in the last several months, and time may reveal their key takeaways. 

"Convincing IOC members that LA is the place to be ... is now our mission," one official stated. 

Images via #LA2024 and BigSkyline.com

Banksy To Disney: It's A Small World, LOL!

If you boil down my public relations portfolio to three types of clients, the triumvirate includes, in no particular order, arts, Olympics and theme parks (more broadly "attractions").

From time to time there are overlaps among these genres of business.

Olympics meets arts at the Cultural Olympiad. Or theme parks coincide with the Games as sports venues become attractions (like Beijing's Water Cube turned water park), or new destinations are born around an Olympiad (the new-in-2014 Sochi World theme park, for instance). 

But unless you count art museums as attractions -- as my client International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) does for their membership base of permanently-affixed destinations for fun and learning -- it's less common for the news cycle to blend theme parks and the arts.

And that's not all that's uncommon about the new art installation titled Dismaland now open on the west coast of England. 

In case you haven't read the reports and seen the videos or photo galleries, Dismaland is perhaps the world's first 'bemusement park' now open in Weston-super-Mare, a coastal town three hours from London by train.

The hometown newspaper Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury has some great galleries and daily updates like the pop-up park's first wedding.

Dismaland is presented by the artist Banksy, who recruited a few dozen other modern and contemporary artists for his secret-until-last-week installation at an abandoned beach side pool attraction named the Tropicana.

While the Weston-super-Mare locals were told a movie production would take over the abandoned Tropicana for a feature film setting, Banksy & Co. quietly assembled numerous rides and experiences inside its walls.

A wave of publicity began around August 18 as external signage and black flags went up, and by last Friday several global news outlets carried the story of Dismaland's opening weekend.

The installation remains in operation through much of September. 

Banksy has some major league art friends. Two favorite names -- Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer -- leaped off the screen when my friend Brian first told me of early Dismaland reports in the Wall Street Journal.

A look at the complete list of artists yields a who's who compilation of known or rising stars of modern and contemporary artists, skewing heavy on the cynical scale through their conversation piece (and critically acclaimed, bold and unforgettable) creations. 

I fell in love with Holzer's work at her Walker Arts Center installation in Minneapolis in 1991, on my
first 'adult' visit to a museum during the autumn of my college freshman year.

She had me at Truisms and her carved benches at the High Museum of Art (a client from time to time) and other museums always make me smile. 

My first Hirst encounter arrived in 2012 at the Tate Modern's Cultural Olympiad exhibition the day after the London Olympics ended three years ago.

Something about a bovine head decomposing in a fly-filled glass box, or a great white shark encased in jello, or a live butterfly room followed by several canvases made from tens of thousands of butterfly wings, not surprisingly stays with the museum visitor.

Hirst's anatomically correct (inside and out) carvings of male and female medical school models, and gazillion-dollar diamond-encrusted skulls, also made an impression. 

Banksy's Oscar-nominated documentary film "Exit Through The Gift Shop" introduced me to his work -- then mostly a distinctive graffiti or tagging pieces -- making me an instant fan.

Banksy's Olympic street art intrigued me on the lead up to London 2012 (though I never did find any of it in person, likely due to collectors' theft or authority figures covering up Banksy's handiwork).

I theorize that one episode within "Exit Through The Gift Shop" itself created the foundation for Dismaland.

In the documentary, Banksy and a filmmaker accomplice embarked on a mission to install a temporary work of art -- an inflatable 'Guantanamo Bay prisoner' -- inside a fenced ride area of Disneyland. After purchasing tickets and making their way through the Happiest Place On Earth, Banksy did successfully deploy the smuggled work while cameras rolled.

It's safe to say Disneyland's security team was not amused.

According to the documentary narration, "While Banksy went on the rides, [the filmmaker] was introduced to a different side of the Magic Kingdom."

I won't spoil the film by revealing details of that experience, but it's a solid bet the shared adventure and its outcome planted many seeds for today's Dismaland, and last week's installation opening may be the result of more than five years of planning.

And, oh what bemusements await Dismaland visitors!

Outdoor highlights (er, lowlights) spotted online so far include:

• Entry queues for several hundred ticket holders (with wait times authentic to many theme park experiences), after which guests are curtly greeted by black and white-clad security guards and signs banning everything from weapons to underwear
  
• One Shamu-like orca leaping from a toilet toward an awaiting trainer's hoop
• A park bench on which a woman is swarmed, Hitchcock-style, by attacking seagulls
• Midway games including 'Topple the Anvil' (featuring the metal tools straight out of Looney Toons' Coyote and Road Runner episodes), and 'Hook the Duck' at which players attempt to rescue petroleum-covered rubber duckies from an oil spill (hint: the hooks are mismatched for an impossible latch)
• More oil spill adventures on an unplayable golf putting green nicknamed "Mini Gulf" (the top half of the "o" rusted and broke off)
  
• A not-so-merry-go-round carousel ridden by protesters and a knife-wielding purveyor of lasagna
• Park employees clad in day-glow "Dismal" branded vests, with some offering black Mylar balloons bearing the message "I AM AN IMBECILE"
• A massive, pretzel-bent tanker truck sculpture, with matching impractical picnic tables belched out of (and still attached to) rolled sheet metal (or is that bath tissue?)
• Motorized boat game through which players steer Mediterranean refugees or pursuant coast guard cutters 
  
• Children's sandbox play area with built-in micro-loan bank charging only 5,000 percent interest
• Caricature artist who only sketches the backs of her customer's heads
• Selfie holes featuring blank outlines or cutouts for group photos with ISIS soldiers
• A new twist on the pop-up puppet show featuring Punch & Judy
• Book burning featuring glowing works by local author James Joyce
• Several "traditional" Banksy street art works spray-painted about the Dismalandscape.

The creepiest and perhaps coolest, edgiest works are inside a custom-built castle, the centerpiece of the installation. Inside its doors visitors explore:

• An fan-suspended beach ball precariously hovering over a few dozen skyward-pointing (and sharpened) steak knives
• A miniature urban landscape featuring only police and media crews in the hours after a Ferguson, Missouri-like violent event
  
• Canvases featuring a truck full of weapons-clad ISIS soldiers (driven by Cookie Monster) and pollution-blackened Los Angeles skyline with one surviving color billboard for the real Disneyland
• Holzer's latest, brilliant word-infused works, including one stating (paraphrased here), "Keep Your Church Out of My Sex Life and I'll Stop Having Sex In Your Church"
• Bumper car demonstration featuring The Grim Reaper with soundtrack provided by Blue Oyster Cult

The most shocking work of Dismaland may be Cinderella's overturned golden carriage featuring a dying princess hanging out of the crashed vehicle, illuminated only by the strobe flashes of paparazzi cameras.

With the approaching anniversary of Princess Diana's fatal crash in Paris, this work is bound to remain a conversation piece (it takes one's breath away).

Looking at the actual rides installed at Dismaland with some knowledge of what buyers seek at IAAPA Attractions Expo each November, I cannot help wondering whether Banksy or any of the other artists attended the trade show in Orlando in recent years.

After all, some IAAPA member ride manufacturers likely provided the customized carousel, space ride (made to look like a camping trailer gone off its hitch), miniature Ferris wheel, the aforementioned bumper cars and other on-site thrills. What remains unclear is whether paying customers are allowed on the rides (for safety's sake, I hope if rides are permitted then operator protocols are in place).

I've been pricing flights to London and train tickets to Weston-super-Mare and for about $1,800 for a five-day journey from Atlanta, a trek to Dismaland my be slightly out of my budget. But then again, a week in Orange County, California, might be about the same range, right?

Since Dismaland includes its own signs instructing everyone to "Exit Through The Gift Shop" one might expect an expensive glossy catalog may soon be available as an alternative. Consider this blogger delightfully Banksy-bemused.

Most photos via Reuters except the Damien Hirst image at Tate Modern photo by Nicholas Wolaver

Olympic Sponsor Will Have A Ball In Rio

Since readers are still drowning in Rio pollution coverage in the wake of an Associated Press report, here's a positive Olympic water story to consider from now to the 2016 Games.

Brazil-based FloatBall LLC is working with a to-be-announced Rio Olympic sponsor to launch several Games-time 'FloatBalls' in time for next year's party.

And according to one company executive, the FloatBalls will help create an iconic image and lasting memories at some water competitions next year.

What's a FloatBall? 

FloatBalls are a new, spherical watercraft topped with a windowed dome reminiscent of a golf umbrella. Inside the 12- to 15-foot-wide vehicle, passengers find a dedicated captain, plush cushioned seats, flat-screen televisions, Wi-Fi access and refreshments, creating a luxurious and floating living room. 

When deployed into a large body of water, such as Lagoa Rodriogo de Freitas (in Rio's Copacabana venue cluster), FloatBalls resemble European footballs or soccer balls accidentally kicked into a pond. The boat's electric engine is eco-friendly and quiet.

Float Balls debuted in tandem with World Cup events in South Africa and Brazil, and last year FloatBall arrived in North America at Zoo Miami, according to published reports and a photo gallery. 

On the heels of the Florida opening, FloatBall exhibited at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2014 in Orlando, the global convention and trade show of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), a long-time public relations client of this blogger. 

I spent a few minutes talking with FloatBall CEO Giovanni Luigi in the company's outdoor booth, where one of the Miami-style FloatBall boats was on view. Though he would not reveal which Rio Olympic sponsor(s) may engage FloatBall for their Games-time activation, he said it was a safe bet that rowing and canoe spectators would see FloatBalls charting a course near Lagoa Stadium.

"Some special guests may watch competitions in a FloatBall," said Luigi.

It was unclear what sponsor activation(s) may be possible in the waters surrounding Barra Olympic Park, the heart of the Games on the north shore of Lagoa de Jacarepagua. Luigi said Olympic security topics were a big part of the Rio Olympic FloatBall negotiations, but he remained confident any hurdles could be cleared.

"It will be a fun experience of Rio," Luigi added.

First image via FloatBall, second image via FalandodeViagem.com.br. All other photos by Nicholas Wolaver. 

Frank Gifford (1930-2015), An Olympic Appreciation

One of ABC's better known Olympic commentators of the 1970's and 1980's, Frank Gifford, died today in his home in Connecticut, according to published reports.

Gifford is one of those Olympic correspondents who provided on air reports with consistent skill and strength but for fewer iconic moments like those of Jim McKay or Al Michaels.

I recall Gifford's voice on the 1972 Olympic basketball gold medal match during which the Soviet Union and Team USA squads shared a controversial ending. Sure enough, several pages of Howard Cosell's 1973 autobiography "Cosell by Cosell" feature the author's interactions with Gifford as he worked with officials to file the protest of the Soviet victory.

According to Cosell, "Gifford had done one hell of a job in staying on top of the story from beginning to end."

Unfortunately Gifford's research and later segment with Cosell -- during which they did an interview with an official Olympic scorekeeper whom Gifford located during two sleepless days -- did not alter the outcome for the gold and silver medalists.

A quick online search also showed that Gifford provided Winter Olympic commentary from Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976 and in 1980 at Lake Placid, where he and wife Kathy Lee Gifford apparently hosted late night reports (according to a 2014 interview with Kathy Lee).

He also took on more prominent Olympic reporting duties during the Los Angeles Games of 1984, including a decathlon preview with gold medal decathletes Caitlyn Jenner (then Bruce) and Bob Mathias in the studio.

Gifford also shared a desk and microphone with Howard Cossell for 'Monday Night Football' for many years, including the night the duo announced the death of John Lennon.

It looks like Gifford wrote three books during his career, and I'm now curious about his own words on the Olympic and reporting experience. Sorry to learn of his passing just shy of his 85th birthday.

Photos via this link and this link.

Rio de Janeiro's One Year To Go

It hardly seems possible the Rio de Janiero Olympic Opening Ceremony will take place in just one year.

The night in Brazil on August 5, 2016, should be extraordinary.

Rio was not my first choice when the IOC named next year's hosts. Playing the 'what if' game is a losing proposition, but anyone who supported the Chicago Olympic bid likely can't help themselves from imagining the possibilities of the last six years every once in awhile. I thought I'd be married and working at AON Center while commuting from Milwaukee or other Chicago suburbs. But for the most part, my current situation pleases me, and optimism reigns for great things on the horizon.

Rio 2016 will present a magnificent party, and this writer can barely stand to wait to see things unfold during the next 365 days. My fingers and toes are crossed for a 'cake' volunteer assignment; my top three choices on the Brazil application: Olympic Village, Main Press Center and/or Torch Relay media duties.

I'm told my video interview got me through to the next stages, and it will be exciting to learn the potential assignment later in 2015.

It's been 10 years since my first visit to Rio, and it's fun to dream of new friendships and experiences to be realized. The challenge of finding temporary Olympic housing seems easier than London, and definitely easier than for Athens or Sochi.

Obrigado/thank you to many readers and supporters who helped this site achieve nearly 140,000 page views to date. Please share requests and ideas for what you'd like to read about in anticipation of Rio 2016. See you next year!

Photo illustration includes image by Pedro Kirilos/LatinContent/Getty Images via this site.

Kazakhstan or China for 2022

In a few hours the International Olympic Committee will at last vote on the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. 

The IOC selection process is limited to only two options: Beijing, which seeks to become the first metropolis to host both a summer and winter Games, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, the central Asian nation's former capital.

Almaty, Kazakhstan

After my incorrect predictions for the 2018 IOC vote (for which Munich was a personal favorite), and since Tokyo was not my first choice for 2020 (I was vying for Istanbul), and since my top pick for 2022, Oslo, long ago bowed out of the race, it's been challenging to summon enthusiasm for either remaining candidate. 

Also in mind, I remain devastated about Chicago's loss to Rio, and the state of the U.S. candidate cities makes me cringe. 

With that said, for this blogger, my 2022 vote is for Almaty for a simple list of reasons:

• New territory for the Olympic Movement
• Major city with a compact Olympic venue map and gorgeous mountains in view
• Controversy-free government (at least comparatively) 
• Real snow

To me, Beijing offers only headaches for all:

• Lightning rod for protesters worldwide (thanks to China's human rights record)
• Scattered Olympic venues, villages and victims of Beijing 2008's migraine-inducing processes
• Closer proximity to Korea, site of the 2018 Winter Games
• Fake snow and mountains far, far away. Did I mention fake snow?

I do believe a return to Beijing would put some 2008 venues and successes to another round of good use. It might be fun to see China in a new light and in a different season. 

Regardless, I wince at the realities their bid brings in terms of navigating hundreds of kilometers between venues. Geography alone makes a vote for Beijing a vote for insanity.

But what do I know? Crazier things have happened in the Olympic bidding ballpark. 

Almaty's theme is 'Keeping It Real' and I hope the voting IOC members will do just that with a vote for Kazakhstan. 

Images via Economic Times, AsiaNetIndia.com and AboutKazakhstan.com