ATLANTA — Thirty years after Atlanta welcomed the world for the 1996 Summer Olympics, Georgia State University continues to see the impact of the Games on its campus.
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“It got us on the world stage as a location that can and will host mega events of that nature,” said Kyle Townsend of Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business.
Georgia State was at the center of that world stage during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. According to Townsend, one of the most significant long-term impacts of the Games was the university’s growth in student housing.
“The real takeaway I think for what the impact of the 96 Olympics was was the growth in our housing,” Townsend said.
During the Games, Georgia State’s campus housed some Olympic athletes. Afterward, those facilities became University Village, the university’s first residence halls. Georgia State later sold University Village to help fund the construction of University Commons, which opened in 2007.
“We used to be purely a commuter school. That’s not the case anymore. You can come live downtown here on campus, have a great college experience on what is growing every day to be a more traditional campus experience in one of the world’s great cities,” Townsend said.
The university’s sports arena also played a role during the Olympics, hosting the badminton competition. The venue was part of Atlanta’s effort to use as many existing structures as possible during the Games.
“Not only was it a successful part of the Atlanta games, it has become the template for successful mega events around the world,” Townsend said.
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Georgia State’s football stadium also has Olympic roots. The stadium sits on the site of Centennial Olympic Stadium, which later became Turner Field after the Games.
“Talk about adaptive reuse. It was done for the Braves, and then the Braves side goes somewhere else, and then, well, it’s turned out to be a great bonanza for Georgia State,” said Sheffield Hale of the Atlanta History Center.
The 1996 Olympics helped pave the way for Atlanta to host other major events, including two Super Bowls and the recent World Cup, bringing even more visitors to Georgia State’s campus.
“We have an awesome location, so we have tons of folks that are walking through our campus for the first time; they don’t maybe know we exist, and who knows where that will lead as it goes on,” Townsend said.
Georgia State hopes to gain even more exposure when Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl again in 2028.
“Atlanta deserves to be on the world stage for mega events,” Townsend said.
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