THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604290143
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
With less than three months until the start of the Centennial Olympic Games, Bubba has this to say: ``Pardon my mess.''
As the days wind down to the July 19th Opening Ceremony, Atlanta's massive construction zone is an inviting target for media terrorists, both foreign and domestic, who would question the city's readiness.
Naturally, the Games will not be postponed by a little sawdust and wet cement. But when you pour more than a billion dollars into new construction - and self-promotion - you want the biggest bounce for your buck. Let a Jakarta badminton writer stumble over a sawhorse, and Bubba will be doing damage control from here to Indonesia.
Saturday, not long after some American media began a sightseeing tour of this work in progress, derisive laughter filtered through the buses. The procession was passing Centennial Park, a highfalutin' name for what's still a dirt heap.
The location is meant to be a grassy oasis for weary Olympic tourists. For now, it looks like a venue for Olympic motocross.
Bubba better hurry.
The tour moved on to the International Plaza, located in front of the Georgia Dome. Eighty-one days before the Opening Ceremony it is impossible to distinguish the plaza from the rubble one finds elsewhere in Atlanta.
The dome, which has already survived a Super Bowl, will be used by both basketball and gymnastics. Inside, our tour guide tells us that a massive curtain will be hung down the middle of the 72,000-seat arena. On one side will be dunks, on the other side dismounts.
We sit in the upper deck. Far below, workers put together a kitchen trade show. From here, 5-foot gymnasts will look like sesame seeds.
The buses are rolling again, this time toward the 85,000-seat Olympic Stadium. The crown jewel of the Atlanta Games is Camden Yards on steroids.
The brickwork, green iron railings and classic angles are a near copy of Baltimore's Oriole Park.
The sound of air hammers could be heard as we walked over the orange track and absorbed the great, wide expanse. Olympic Stadium is impressive, huge, and, to believe Atlanta officials, almost finished.
The stadium does not try to hide its split personality. Half looks like it was built for Greg Maddux and David Justice, the other half for Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson.
``It's a baseball stadium that has been adapted to the Olympics,'' said Bob Stiles, venue manager, ``not an Olympic stadium that's been adapted to baseball.''
When the Games are over, the Olympic portion of the facility will be lopped off, leaving the 1997 Braves a cozy 45,000-seat park.
This is called addition by subtraction.
Later, as the buses pulled away from the stadium, a Yankee smart aleck wondered, ``Where are we going next, to the stock-car venue?''
The answer was Georgia Tech, site of the Olympic Village, home during the Games to 14,000 athletes.
The village will feature a shopping mall, bank, hair salon, six movie theaters, a dance club and post office, even a bowling alley.
But the dining hall, where 60,000 meals a day are to be served, is nowhere in sight. Eventually, we are told, it will appear as an air-conditioned tent atop a parking deck.
Not everything in Atlanta is being left to the last minute; it just seems that way. But a community sensitive to international ridicule can get a lot done in 2 1/2 months.
For Atlanta, and anyone venturing to the Olympics, it is too soon to panic.
One man's impression?
Bubba's gonna make it. by CNB