1996 Summer Olympic Positive Effects On Atlanta's Economy
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1996 Summer Olympic Positive Effects on Atlanta’s Economy On July 19, 1996, Atlanta hosted Georgia’s largest event ever. In order to prepare for the 83,000 expected watchers and visitors Atlanta had a lot of work, time, and money needed to be put into the city. Atlanta had six years of intense organization to establish the city to appear and be capable of hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics. Atlanta came a very far way after spending billions of dollars in building, cleaning, and modernizing the area. All the preparation put into preparing for the Olympics bettered the economy of Atlanta and helped it prosper and grow. “Atlanta, a city exemplary of the New South economy, saw hosting the Olympics as a way to boost the local economy through tourism dollars and development” (Rushing 179). In 1996 Centennial Olympic Park was built to help host the 1996 Summer Olympics. A lot of work and money was put into building the…show more content… Many restaurants even opened on PeachTree Street because their owners knew that they would gain an incredible amount of profit from the huge crowds attending the Olympics. Not only did small businesses around Centennial Park profit significantly off of the Summer Olympics but so did the airports. Airports gained hundreds of millions of dollars due to all of the tourists from other states and countries. Atlanta also had to build and expand hotels because of the amount of people that were flying in.The 1996 Summer Olympics boosted the employment rate up by creating over 77,000 jobs. The government also fixed small details for the Olympics, such as road and sidewalk work. “The federal government spent millions of dollars on replacing sidewalks, installing pedestrian signs, planting trees, putting up new lighting, and installing public art” (Newman). The money gathered from out-of-state people that attended the Olympics was enough to fix many things in the city of