The sale of bricks by Home Depot to be used to pave the
proposed Centennial Olympic Park have not gone as well as
expected, according to Home Depot top marketing exec Dick
Hammill.  With paving set to begin in a few months, fewer than
100,000 bricks have been sold, less than 5% of its inventory.  In
order for Home Depot to make its goal, it will need to sell 1.9M
more bricks.  Currently, the bricks are selling at a rate of
2,000-3,000 a day, with sales increasing 30% each week.  Even so,
Olympic organizers are going to "take a stronger hand in the
marketing program."  ACOG President Billy Payne:  "What we didn't
do initially was combine the collective and creative marketing
resources of Home Depot with ACOG."  ACOG officials Dick
Yarbrough and Scott Anderson will begin working directly with
Home Depot (Melissa Turner, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 1/6).

     In Atlanta, officials are blaming the "flurry of Olympic-
related building and a nationwide increase in construction
costs," for the shortage of funds for two state projects tied to
the Olympics.  The $106.5M Olympic Village at Georgia Tech, which
is currently under construction, will require another $5M for
completion and bids for a proposed $27.4M pedestrian plaza and
parking deck at the Georgia World Congress Center have reportedly
come in $8M more than expected (Ken Foskett, ATLANTA
CONSTITUTION, 1/6).