Interview with Bob Brennan, April, 1996

by David Yeung

Bob Brennan: Somebody is suing us (joking). Other than that, not really. Everyone is anxious to get on the Games.

DY: What do the people in Atlanta think? Are they really excited about the entire situation?

BB: It depends on whether or not they get tickets. If they get tickets they are happy. Generally speaking, Atlanta is looking forward to having the Games. People are a little worried about traffic. That's pretty much what happens when you invite the world.

DY: You just mentioned ticket sale. How is the ticket sale going?

BB: We start with more tickets to sell than Los Angles and Barcelona combined. We have maybe 3 million tickets left, out of the total 11 million. Large number of tickets that are not sold out yet for soccer and baseball. Other than that, all major events, say track and field, basketball, opening and closing ceremonies, are all sold out. There are still some women's basketball tickets left. But we expect them to be out very soon also. Many tickets are still on sale on the Internet.

DY: How good is the overall security going to be?

BB: As good as we can make it in the United States, and that's pretty good. We will have very high level of sophistication in terms of technology available to us. Our President has said that during the Olympic Games, Atlanta will be the safest place on Earth. And the Olympic village is going to be the safest place of the safest place.

DY: Is President Clinton going to be around during the Games?

BB: The Head of State traditionally opens the Games. And he is also a real fan. He may stick around.

DY: What will the Olympics bring to Atlanta?

BB: A much higher name recognition for sure. Even among U.S. people, a lot of them don't have a lot of ideas about what Atlanta is about. Atlanta probably ranks only about tenth to twelfth in the nation [in national recognition]. Therefore the Olympics is definitely going to bring Atlanta huge exposure to the world. There are also physical things that will change after the games are over. We (ACOG) will give this community over 500 million worth of new facilities, tax free, debt-free. For example, the [Atlanta] Braves will get a new stadium. The Braves were also involved in the design plan of the Olympic Stadium.

DY: How many people, including tourist, athletes, are expected to visit Atlanta?

BB: Approximately 2 million.

DY: How many countries are going to participate?

BB: 197, most participating countries ever in Olympic history. That's partly due to the breakup of Soviet Union. The previous high was 172, in Barcelona.

DY: What is the theme of the Olympic Games this year?

BB: We are celebrating the centennial Games, and we have to go beyond presentation of our country. We have the responsibility to make this year's Olympics a global event. So the three major elements of the Games and ceremonies will involve recognition of all the cities that had held Olympics before us, recognition of the host city Atlanta and the South, and [commendation of] youth. There is not going to be any resemblance between the Olympics in L.A. and ours. The Los Angles Olympics was very American. Ours is the centennial game and it will be a global Olympics.

DY: Any hint how the opening and closing ceremonies are going to be?

BB: It will be a very integrated program. Again we are the centennial Games and global representation is our theme.

DY: How will the condition of Olympic village be? As we know the accommodation has always been a concern.

BB: The athletes, and also the representatives of the athletes told us that this is the best Olympic village ever. The biggest difference is probably air conditioning. None of the previous Olympic villages were fully air-conditioned. We also built some new facilities around Georgia Tech for athletes.

DY: Drug use by athletes is yet another hot issue. What will the policy of this year's Olympic be in terms of drug use?

BB: There will be a lot of out-of-competition testing of athletes. A new technology called High Resolution Mass Spectrometer will also be used to test in a much higher level of accuracy. All athletes in the top three [rankings] will be tested. Random samples of others will also be taken. Even preliminary winners will be tested.

DY: How do people like Izzy the mascot so far?

BB: It does really well. Interesting thing about the mascot is that a lot of people were critical about the mascot and made all kinds of awful remarks about it. Later we found out that these are all the adults complaining because their children love the character too much. I think that's what it matters, the children love it.

DY: Last Question: Do you think US athletes are going to benefit from the fact that they are the home team?

BB: Sure! They will have much stronger fan support. But our job is to provide equal opportunities for all athletes and participants.