The '98 Goodwill Games will begin on Saturday night with
an "explosive, star-studded opening ceremony" in New York
City's Battery Park as "organizers try to overcome lackluster
ticket sales," according to Tara George of the N.Y. DAILY
NEWS. Ray Charles, Brandy and Hootie & The Blowfish are
among the performers who will kick-off the event. Ticket
sales "have been sluggish" for the two-week long event, as
"about" 200,000 of a total of 500,000 tickets have been sold
(N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/17). Goodwill Games Founder and Time
Warner Vice Chair Ted Turner is interviewed in both USA TODAY
and the N.Y. TIMES. Turner tells USA TODAY's Martzke & Weir
that the Games are "not losing" money. Turner: "It's not
going to even come close to what the losses are going to be
for the NFL rightsholders." Asked about the changing mission
of the Games in the international arena since their inception
in '86, Turner said, "Whenever you have any kind of
multination gathering for fun and for sport, that's a very
good thing, and there's not very much of that going on in the
world today" (USA TODAY, 7/17). Turner tells Richard
Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES, "You can't get too much good
will." The site of the next Games, scheduled for 2001, is
"expected" to be Asia or Australia. Goodwill Games President
Michael Plant say that "last-minute marketing, much of it
targeted to various ethnic groups, will lead to substantial
walk-up sales." But ISI President Frank Vuono said the Games
are "not making our radar screen. It's like a tree falling
in the forest and no one being there. I haven't seen its
message" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/17). NEWSDAY's Shaun Powell writes,
"The success of the Goodwill Games will either support or
destroy the notion, silly as it sounds, that an Olympics in
New York would work" (NEWSDAY, 7/17).
TV TIME OUT: TBS will televise 45 hours of prime-time
coverage, while CBS will have ten hours of weekend coverage.
(PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/17). Ratings for the previous
Games were: a 1.8 in '86 on TBS, a 2.7 in '90 on TBS and a
1.4 on TBS and a 2.7 a ABC in '94 (N.Y. TIMES, 7/17).
SCHILLER'S LIST: Turner Sports President Harvey Schiller
is profiled by Michael Hiestand in USA TODAY's sports cover
story. Schiller "might have the sports world's most diverse
management experience and holds one of its most wide-ranging
jobs" (USA TODAY, 7/17)....Time Warner's 2Q income tripled to
$101M, "beating analysts' forecasts (L.A. TIMES, 7/17).
