Years ago, the founder of ChatGPT set out to discover what would happen if you give people cash every month, no strings attached.

The results are in from the largest Universal Basic Income study in the U.S., though how it went depends on how one interprets the findings.

Right-leaning Reason writes: Bad News for Universal Basic Income: Researchers found that giving people $1,000 every month for three years resulted in decreased productivity and earnings, and more leisure time.

While center-rated The Register writes: Sam Altman’s basic income experiment finds that money can indeed buy happiness: But not necessarily health.

Keeping in tune with Straight Arrow News’ mission of unbiased, straight facts, let’s look at the facts from the research paper itself.

First, the ground rules. Researchers randomly selected 1,000 low-income people to receive $1,000 a month, no conditions, for three years. A separate control group of 2,000 people received $50 a month to participate in the research.

The people in this study had an average household income of $29,900 in 2019, so $1,000 a month translated to a 40% increase in household income.

In 2016, Sam Altman wrote about launching the Basic Income Project and his desire to answer some theoretical questions about it.

“Do people sit around and play video games, or do they create new things? Are people happy and fulfilled? Do people, without the fear of not being able to eat, accomplish far more and benefit society far more? And do recipients, on the whole, create more economic value than they receive?”

So now that you know the rules and the lens of focused intention, here are the results.

Excluding the free money received, individual income fell by about $1,500 a year, or 5%.

It led to a 2 percentage point decrease in labor market participation.

And people worked roughly 80 fewer minutes per week.

So what did they do with that extra time? Researchers saw the largest increase in leisure time, followed by smaller increases in transportation – people are driving around doing more – and time spent on finances.

They found no impact on quality of employment. They did see hints that people were thinking about entrepreneurial endeavors, and there were some signs younger participants were investing more in education.

Researcher Eva Vivalt wrote: Overall, the negative effects on labor supply do not appear to be offset by other productive activities, and we do not observe people getting better jobs over the 3-year duration of the program.

But the study concludes: While decreased labor market participation is generally characterized negatively, policymakers should take into account the fact that recipients have demonstrated–by their own choices–that time away from work is something they prize highly.

Universal Basic Income, or UBI, is a hot topic in Silicon Valley. That’s because the tech world is actively developing AI that could make people’s jobs obsolete.

“There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better. What to do about massive unemployment. This is gonna be a massive social challenge. And I think, ultimately, we will have to have some kind of universal basic income. I don’t think we’re gonna have a choice.”
“These are not things I wish would happen. These are simply things that probably will happen.”

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who was behind this study, said that while UBI is not a full solution, it’s a component that should be pursued in the face of AI advancement.

“As cushion through a dramatic transition and just as like the world should eliminate poverty if able to do so. I think it’s a great thing to do as a small part of the bucket of solutions.”

Of course, the idea of paying people with no conditions is incredibly expensive – the Tax Foundation said Andrew Yang’s $1,000 per month proposal would cost $2.8 trillion per year. And many believe its an affront to capitalism.

“This is straight out of the Karl Marx playbook. This is not out of the Adam Smith playbook. Let me help you with that. Karl Marx, Father of Communism. Adam Smith wrote the Tome that we were all required to read on capitalism if we took Economics. So, my friend Art Laffer, one of the leading economists in the world says, ‘if you pay people not to work, please expect them to not work.”

Again, the people from this study did still work – try living off $12k a year – but they did take off a little more than an hour per week.

For unbiased straight facts, download the straight arrow news app for stories like this.

Simone Del Rosario:

Oh what a 10-day span it’s been for the NBA and its broadcast partners.

Last Tuesday the league’s board of governors approved an 11-year, $76 billion deal for media rights with Disney, Amazon and NBC.

The following day, the league provided its longtime partner TNT Sports and Warner Bros Discovery the details of the deal.

Just as it seemed TNT would be riding the bench starting with the 2025-2026 season, they threw up a prayer on Monday.

Or as the network said, they had executed their contractual option and “reviewed the offers and matched one of them.”

The “One of them” in question was Amazon’s $1.8 billion per year bid.

“Not so fast my friend.”

I know. I’m mixing my sports here.

Warner Bros. thought their offer was nothing but net. But the NBA blocked the shot. In a statement released Wednesday, they said “Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon.”

Time out.

According to the NBA, the deals they negotiated “maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans. Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had been adamant streaming had to be a big part of the deal. And while it was speculated some of the Warner Bros. match included games streamed on MAX, apparently the league didn’t think it did enough to meet the promise of a full time streamer in Amazon Prime Video.

For their part, TNT Sports says they matched the Amazon offer, as was their right, and now they’re calling foul on the NBA.

Andrew Brandt, a former Professional Sports Executive told Straight Arrow News in an email:

“The NBA was obviously advised by their high-powered lawyers that TNT did not match, perhaps due to a cable company having no ability to match a streaming service. As with everything, it comes down to the contract: did it address that TNT would have no ability to match a streaming service? Or did it not? In this case, it is not about the lawyers in the dispute; it is about the lawyers who drafted the ‘match.’”

You can bet on this heading to court – the legal one, that is – as TNT Sports says its contractual rights have been “grossly misinterpreted” and they will take “appropriate action.”

The NBA’s decision continues to throw TNT’s famed studio show “Inside the NBA” in limbo, and, for now, Charles Barkley won’t have to think too hard about going back on his promise of retiring from TV after the next season.

Charles Barkley:

“No matter what happens, next year is going to be my last year on television.

David Wallechinsky:

“Salt Lake City is going to get the Winter Olympics again. But in a more honest way.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Call it a second chance.

Thomas Bach:
“The International Olympic Committee has the honor to announce that the 27th Winter Olympic Games 2034 are awarded to Salt Lake City Utah.” (hold sound for a bit of applause/crowd shot, can carry over into track)

Simone Del Rosario:

Two days before the Opening Ceremony for the Paris Olympic Games, the IOC confirmed what has been speculated for months.

The Winter Olympics will return to Salt Lake City 32 years after it last hosted, when a bribery scandal rocked the Olympic world.

Bribing IOC members to win Olympic bids was a poorly-kept secret for Olympic insiders. But there wasn’t a lot of public proof until Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Games bid.

David Wallechinsky:

“The Salt Lake City people realize that you you had to keep a file on each IOC voting member. And then, you know, do whatever you could to get their vote. And so there was one case in particular, caught my attention, where there was an IOC member from Togo. Well, Togo doesn’t compete in the Winter Olympics. That didn’t matter, because the guy still voted. So they kept flying him out to Salt Lake City. Well, that wasn’t good enough. So they had to include the stopover in Paris so his wife could go shopping on the bid committee’s pocketbook. It’s just the whole thing was so ridiculous. But they got the games, and that was all they cared about.”

Simone Del Rosario:

The scandal threatened the Games and the sanctity of the Olympics. Several IOC members were fired and Salt Lake City host committee leaders faced charges. Decades later, the city and the IOC have toiled their way into good graces.

After decades of bid-rigging scandals, the IOC changed the drawn-out bidding process that historically lent itself to corruption.

Now, two IOC panels are permanently open to talks with any cities open to hosting. And these panels can also make the first move and approach cities they think might be the right fit.

When the IOC got two compelling bids for this year’s Games from Paris and Los Angeles, they awarded Paris and said, LA, you can get the next Summer Games.

Same thing happened with the Winter Games. The IOC liked both the French Alps and Salt Lake City and awarded them for 2030 and 2034.

The SLC got the Games cleanly this time around but it still comes with strings.

The IOC put a clause in the contract pressuring Utah officials, including Gov. Spencer Cox, to lobby against a federal investigation into doping by Chinese swimmers at the Tokyo Games.

Some Chinese athletes had tested positive for a banned heart drug called TMZ at a meet months before the Tokyo Games. The World Anti-Doping Agency allowed the swimmers to compete after China’s Anti-Doping Agency blamed the “extremely low” concentration of the drug on contaminated food. China’s swimming team won three gold medals that year. By the way, the same swimmers in question will be competing in Paris.

While the U.S. has opened its own investigation, IOC President Thomas Bach contends the World Anti-Doping Agency should be the only body to investigate Olympic doping cases. Here’s Utah Governor Cox addressing his part in all of this now that Salt Lake City has the Games.

Gov. Spencer Cox:

“We’ll work very closely with the Department of Justice, we’ll work with the Senate, we’ll work with the Biden administration and whatever the next administration is so that we can get a comfort level in what we’re going to do to work together. Because the United States cannot clean up sport by itself. That’s impossible. And conversely, WADA can’t clean up sport by itself without countries that are willing to participate and work together.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Strings aside, the citizens of Salt Lake City are ecstatic for the games returning to Utah, gathering in the wee hours of the morning to hear the announcement.

Person 1:

“The world gets to see Salt Lake on the global stage, again, I mean, this place really is the best community in the United States and the whole world will get to experience it. And I’m stoked for that”.

Simone Del Rosario:

If you’re hungry for Olympic content, you’ll love this piece we did on the history of

{if we can do one of those things where we show the story in app stuff. }

Olympic corruption and what goes into a successful Olympic bid. Search for it on the Straight Arrow News app.

[BROCK KOLLER]

RYAN ROBERTSON HAS HELD MANY POSITIONS IN HIS BROADCAST CAREER. REPORTER…PRODUCER…NEWS DIRECTOR. .

RECENTLY HE TOOK ON A NEW ROLE HERE AT STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS – PODCASTER.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

“What a time to be alive when we can live in this opportunity that this technology that allows us to reach so many people in so many places with relative ease to me is just kind of mind boggling.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

EACH WEEK RYAN SPEAKS ON THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MILITARY WORLD IN HIS PODCAST “WEAPONS AND WARFARE.”

HE SAYS THE MEDIUM IS GIVING HIM THE FREEDOM TO TALK ABOUT THESE TOPICS AS THEY ARE MEANT TO BE DISCUSSED TO AN AUDIENCE ON A WIDE RANGE OF PLATFORMS.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

“We’re given a certain amount of time to tell our stories that we gather from around the country and really explore the space on how we do that, we’re not pigeonholed into a certain formula or certain format, we’re able to say this is the best way this story needs to be told, so that’s how we’re going to tell this story.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

RYAN IS PART OF THE EVER-GROWING POPULATION OF PODCASTERS BEHIND THE RESURGENCE OF THE AUDIO INDUSTRY.

NOT SINCE RADIO WAS KING HAVE PEOPLE FLOCKED TO AUDIO AS THEIR GO-TO SOURCE FOR ENTERTAINMENT. BUT WHO KNOWS THE REASON?

“The Shadow Knows….hahah”

WHAT WE DO KNOW IS THERE ARE OVER 414 MILLION PODCASTS OUT IN THE WORLD – EACH TRYING TO GET YOU TO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE.

[WILL PEARSON]

“What’s been so incredibly exciting over the past four years is seeing podcasting develop into the newest mass reach medium.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

WILL PEARSON IS THE PRESIDENT OF IHEARTPODCASTS – — THE NUMBER ONE PODCAST PUBLISHER IN THE WORLD – WITH MORE THAN 750 ORIGINALS TO ITS NAME.

[WILL PEARSON]

“If you look back five, six years ago, you’d call it a niche medium, just this really exciting, interesting space, just not reaching the masses. Today, podcasting is reaching 135 million people every single month in the U.S. alone, almost half a billion people when you look beyond that.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

THOUGH THE WORD PODCAST WAS FIRST COINED IN 2004 – THE MEDIUM TRULY POPPED ONTO THE SCENE MOST NOTABLY A DECADE AGO WHEN SERIAL GRABBED LISTENERS BY THEIR EARS.

[SARAH KOENING]

“FROM THIS AMERICAN LIFE AND WBEZ CHICAGO, IT’S SERIAL – ONE STORY TOLD WEEK BY WEEK. I’M SARAH KOENING.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

DOWNLOADED MORE THAN 300 MILLION TIMES, SERIAL BECAME THE FIRST PODCAST TO RECEIVE A PEABODY AWARD AND LAUNCHED THE TRUE-CRIME GENRE OF PODCASTING

THE SERIES INSPIRING NOT ONLY PODCAST CREATORS – BUT INFLUENCING TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS.

[ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING TEASER]

[BROCK KOLLER]

IN 2006 – 22 PERCENT OF THE ADULT POPULATION IN THE US WAS AWARE OF PODCASTING – IN 2022 – THAT NUMBER ROSE TO 80 PERCENT.

IN EDISON RESEARCH’S INFINITE DIAL 2024 SURVEY – IT FOUND 47% OF AMERICANS 12 YEARS AND OLDER HAVE LISTENED TO A PODCAST IN THE PAST WEEK – UP 10 PERCENT OVER LAST YEAR.

192 MILLION PEOPLE – 67% OF THE US POPULATION – SAY THEY HAVE LISTENED TO A PODCAST IN THEIR LIFETIME.

THE INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU’S MATT SHAPO SAYS THERE’S PRETTY MUCH A PODCAST FOR EVERYONE THESE DAYS.

[MATT SHAPO]

“There’s this incredible opportunity for people that want to learn or know or dive into any topic of interest to them across so many different genres and verticals. That’s the beauty of podcasting. /  There’s so much wonderful content out there that podcast creators are producing every day and there’s this wide canvas of content that people who love to learn about things get a chance to interact with.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

THE PODCAST BUSINESS IS BOOMING!

“BOOM!”

THE BIGGEST PODCAST OF ALL – THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE – WITH OVER 14 POINT FIVE MILLION FOLLOWERS ON THE SPOTIFY PLATFORM ALONE.

SPOTIFY STRIKING A MULTI-YEAR DEAL WITH THE HOST EARLIER THIS YEAR REPORTEDLY WORTH AROUND 250 MILLION DOLLARS.

THAT NEWS CAME JUST DAYS AFTER SIRIUSXM’S ANNOUNCEMENT –

[SMARTLESS OPEN]

“SMART-LESS”

[BROCK KOLLER]

A REPORTED 100 MILLION DOLLARS FOR A THREE-YEAR DEAL FOR EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO SMARTLESS – THE PODCAST HOSTED BY ACTORS JASON BATEMEN, SEAN HAYES AND WILL ARNETT.

NOW THIS DOESN’T MEAN THESE PODCASTS ARE ONLY AVAILABLE ON THESE SPECIFIC PLATFORMS – IT JUST MEANS THESE AUDIO OUTLETS ARE ABLE TO GIVE THEIR SUBSCRIBERS PERKS LIKE EARLY ACCESS AND THE COMPANIES THEMSELVES GAIN AD SALE REVENUE.

AND, BOY, ARE THERE AD SALES!

[MATT SHAPO]

A lot of people are describing this current era as a golden age of audio and podcasting is obviously right smack dab in the center in this renaissance of audio.

“You’re starting to see more large-scale brand advertisers coming to podcasting, understanding that they can find the audience they want to find, they can tell the stories they want to tell, and they can find the reach and the scale they need.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

ACCORDING TO THE IAB – ADVERTISING REVENUE IS PROJECTED TO INCREASE 12 PERCENT THIS YEAR TO 2 BILLION DOLLARS — AND REACH NEARLY 2 POINT 6 BILLION BY 2026.

[MATT SHAPO]

“There really is something very special about the deep dive conversations that podcasters tend to have. Really longform content that you don’t get almost anywhere else. Really bespoke content produced by really passionate people who form these incredibly close, parasocial bonds  with their listeners, really become meaningful relationships. That, those meaningful relationships between the people creating the content and the people consuming the content is really what’s driven all this spectacular growth.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

NOT ONLY IS THE GROWTH OF THE FIRST-TIME PODCASTER ADVERTISER SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT – IHEARTMEDIA’S WILL PEARSON POINTS OUT THAT THE CHANGE IN THE TYPE OF ADVERTISERS IS A TESTAMENT TO THE STRENGTH OF THE PODCASTING INDUSTRY.

[WILL PEARSON]

“So if you look back five or six years ago, the majority of your advertisers in this space would have been what we call direct response advertisers, you think your mattress companies, your box meal companies, you know those that give you a discount code to say you know, the next time you visit the website, be sure to use the code for our podcast and you’ll get a discount on this…

“…those direct response advertisers are the ones that proved the effectiveness of host read ads and podcast advertising. And then big brands started waking up to that and realizing, Oh, wow, this is an opportunity to engage people in a very intimate and new and direct way.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

AND PODCAST LISTENERS ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO ALL THESE ADS. IN FACT — DENTSU’S ATTENTION ECONOMY PODCAST STUDY SHOWS PODCAST ADS HOLD CONSUMERS ATTENTION LONGER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA, DIGITAL VIDEO AND TV ADS.

IAB SAYS THE COMEDY AND SPORTS GENRES ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST WHEN IT COMES TO BOTH LISTENERS AND ADVERTISERS.

SHAPO SAYS THIS SHOWS PEOPLE AREN’T JUST HEADING TO PODCASTS TO BE INFORMED AND FIND COMMUNITY – BUT ALSO TO KICK BACK AND BE ENTERTAINED.

ONE OTHER PODCAST GENRE DOING THAT –

WHILE ALSO MAKING NOSTALGIA HIP – THE REWATCH PODCAST.

[WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME]

“WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME WITH ME TED DANSON AND WOODY HARRELSON (SOMETIMES)…we could hang out together”

“That was Us”

“We big three decided that we will be taking Tuesdays back. That’s right we are your hosts of that was us a rewatch podcast starting May 14th and continuing week after week you will be able to listen to our episodes wherever you get your podcasts and you’ll be able to watch our podcasts on the That was Us YouTube channel.”

[Full House rewatch]

“Andrea we are bringing back the milkman, the paperboy and evening TV.” “We’re excited to introduce How Rude Tanneritos: A Full House Rewatch Podcast.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

FULL HOUSE CAST MEMBERS ACTUALLY HAVE TWO REWATCH PODCASTS!

AND THEN THERE’S THE RINGER’S BILL SIMMONS WHO HOSTS A REWATCH PODCAST CALLED “THE REWATCHABLES.”

PEARSON SAYS THESE TRIPS DOWN MEMORY LANE MAKE UP ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR GENRES FOR IHEART.

[WILL PEARSON]

“I guess that was another thing when you think about what people are looking for in podcasting. You know, that that bit of escape or that entertainment from all that is stress relieving, looking back to times that we’re less stressful. You know, thinking about the nostalgia play in podcasting is a huge one.”

And so you know, being able to say you know what, I want to look back to 10 years ago when I was in love with the show One Tree Hill and to have Sophia Bush and the cast from One Tree Hill being able to revisit that show with something like Drama Queens, and so we’ve probably got, you know, 10 different shows in the sort of broader rewatch slash companion show category.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

SHAPO SAYS ADVERTISERS ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR WAYS TO BE PART OF THE PODCAST.

TAKE HYUNDAI IN THE REWATCH PODCAST “POD MEETS WORLD” WITH THE CAST OF THE 90S TGIF SITCOM BOY MEETS WORLD.

[Pod Meets World Ad]

“When it comes to Pod Meets World we’re synonymous with two things: watching our younger selves on a TV show from 30 years ago and loving Hyundai.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

HYUNDAI ALSO SPONSORING EPISODES OF THE SHOW WHERE THE CAST STAYED IN THE HOUSE DEPICTED ON THE SITCOM.

SHAPO SAYS NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN ANALYZING PODCAST CONTENT AND VIEWERSHIP ARE HELPING TO QUELL ADVERTISERS’ FEARS THAT THE PODCASTING WORLD IS THE WILD WILD WEST.

[MATT SHAPO]

“One of the terrific advancements we’ve seen over the last year or two is this incredible uptick in the usage of brand suitability and brand safety filtering in podcasting.

[Ted Danson]

“If you’re anything like me.”

[MATT SHAPO]

“As we continue to see advances in the way artificial intelligence is used to analyze podcast episode transcripts and not just understand in sort of a blunt keyword based way where there is safety to be found and where there is alignment to be fond for brand advertisers but also to really get into the sentiment and the true understanding of a podcast episode it opens up all sorts of contextually opportunities and chances for brands to do brand storytelling in these incredibly aligned ways.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

IN THE END – IT’S NOT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ADVERTISER AND THE SHOW THAT DRAWS THE PUBLIC IN  – BUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE HOST AND THE LISTENER.

[MATT SHAPO]

“You have this extraordinary relationship between people who are producing podcast content and the people who are coming to consume it. That is the core bedrock reason that underlies all growth stories. That is the fundamental reason you will continue to see growth in this medium.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

THAT’S THE GOAL FOR RYAN ROBERTSON – TO CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THAT CONNECTION WITH HIS “WEAPONS AND WARFARE” VIEWERS AS HIS PODCAST COMMUNITY GROWS.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

“One of the exciting things about being new is that we’re building that, we’re building that relationship with the audience…”

“We get the opportunity to build it new and build it fresh for a new product – there’s other people talking about war and military-type topics, but not in the way we’re doing it where we’re really trying to meet the masses.”

[BROCK KOLLER]

AND RYAN’S NOT SHY ABOUT JOINING IN WITH THAT UBIQUITOUS BUT USEFUL PODCASTER EXPRESSION

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

“I encourage everyone to like, subscribe and help us grow this thing.”

Simone Del Rosario: It’s the most happening travel month of the year. Americans are jetting off to beaches, national parks or theme parks, but nearly half are carrying more baggage than what’s in their luggage. 

According to WalletHub’s 2024 Credit Card Debt Survey, 46% of Americans are still paying down last summer’s credit card balance. 

Christie Matherne: And almost 25% of them reported being very stressed out about it, about their credit card debt in general. And that’s probably because of this next stat, which is nearly half of people said that they carry debt on cards from everyday purchases, which can get really expensive.

Simone Del Rosario: With the average credit card interest rate of nearly 23%, people are quickly falling behind. 

Credit card delinquencies are up across the country, though some cities are increasingly struggling more than others. 

WalletHub says in Chula Vista, California, that’s just outside San Diego, delinquencies are up 85% just in the last year. The city that’s best off is Des Moines, Iowa, where delinquencies are still up, though by a much smaller 19%. 

Christie Matherne: That’s bad news. That’s not great. That means people are late on their credit card bills, they can’t afford to pay minimum payments, and that lands you in further debt with further problems.

Simone Del Rosario: Nearly 1 in 3 people tell WalletHub they’ll have more credit card debt by the end of the year, a year that already started with record-high credit card debt. 

And though 80% of people told WalletHub that paying their credit card debt is a top priority, summer vacations can put a snag in those plans.

Of the Americans traveling this summer, 36% told Bankrate they’re willing to go into debt to pay for it. 

Christie Matherne: I do see the disconnect between that and charging your vacation on a credit card when you’re still paying off last summer’s debt. And it also might be worth saying that people need vacations.

Simone Del Rosario: As much as people need a break, nearly 1 in 3 Americans told Bankrate they’re skipping summer vacation this year because they can’t afford it. 

Credit card debt is not just about personal finances. As more and more Americans carry higher and higher credit card balances, that financial strain stretches beyond the home. 

Christie Matherne: A whole bunch of money is ending up in credit card companies’ hands and less of it is ending up in our communities.

Simone Del Rosario: That slows consumer spending, the most critical component of the U.S. economy. It drives two-thirds of the country’s economic growth. 

Which is why credit card debt and delinquencies can be a harbinger of a downturn if things don’t turn around. 

I’m Simone Del Rosario for SAN. 

Simone Del Rosario:

Every four years billions of people worldwide tune in to the Summer Olympics, and the vast appeal stretches far beyond sports.

While polls show the number of people who are extremely proud to be an American is at record lows, the Olympics have a way of turning that around. During the Tokyo games, 63 percent of Americans said they had a “very positive” reaction when they saw the stars and stripes.

No matter where you live on the planet, the Olympics drum up profound memories. I’ll still tear up to this day thinking about Muhammad Ali fighting through Parkinson’s to light the cauldron at the ’96 Atlanta Olympics…36 years after he won the gold in Rome, only to throw the medal into a river after facing racism when he came home. Even as a child, I knew that was a moment.

But the one that still gives me chills was watching Kerri Strug stick the landing on her vault after hurting her ankle, clinching gold for Team USA, the Magnificent Seven.

Sure, we watch the Olympics to see excellence and world competition in 300 different events. It’s where GOATs are born. Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles. Of course, your list of superstars will be different depending on where you live.

But the Olympics also show off some of the world’s greatest cities. For over two weeks we get to learn about the culture and history of faraway nations. The opening ceremony in Rio resurfaced a century-old debate that Brazil’s Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first human to fly, not the Wright Brothers. Watching events like the triathlon bring you right into the city, while the Paris opening ceremony will take place on the city’s famed Seine river.

It’s easy to take for granted a production that miraculously beams into our homes. But well before the starter pistol fires, there is so much that goes into a city scoring the Olympics and then pulling off an event of global proportions that attracts millions of visitors. It might surprise you to hear that both cases can be rife with bribes and other shady deals. Or maybe it won’t.

Controversy has been part of the Olympics since the ancient games in 776 B.C.

The Olympic Games were literally founded on cheating, despite the longstanding tradition of swearing an oath to Zeus to play fair.

As the Greek myth goes, Pelops won his bride’s hand by sabotaging her father King Oenomaus’ chariot before a race. The king died in the race and Pelops founded the Games to commemorate his victory.

Stroll toward the Ancient Games stadium in Olympia, the pathway is littered with what’s left of the Zanes. These pedestals once supported bronze statues of Zeus, paid for by fines imposed on cheating Olympic athletes. The pedestals had the offenses inscribed, to warn other athletes not to cheat. Centuries later, they still need to be warned.

News Coverage:

“New revelations about an elaborate scheme of alleged doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics.”

“Russia received a 4 year ban for doping from the World Anti-Doping Agency.”

Simone Del Rosario:

But it’s not just athletes foiling fair play.

In the modern Olympic era, misconduct can happen years before athletes even qualify for the Games.

News Coverage:

“It’s the Olympic bribery scandal in Salt Lake City. There are allegations the city won the Winter Games for the year 2002 by bribing some members of the International Olympic Committee.”

“Brazilian police have arrested the head of the national Olympic committee, Carlos Arthur Nuzman in a new phase of the so-called unfair play investigation.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Welcome to the world of bid-rigging.

David Wallechinsky:

You started to get real bidding corruption maybe in the ’60s…

Things got worse and worse. When you talk, It finally blew up in the bidding for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Simone Del Rosario:

Olympic Historian David Wallechinsky says this corruption scandal was so ridiculous, it was almost humorous. All told, the bribery scandal surrounding Salt Lake City’s 2002 bid is the stuff of legend.

Olympic corruption was a poorly kept secret, but Salt Lake’s really the first time it all publicly came to light. Since then, the stain on the International Olympic Committee has been hard to scrub out.

Here’s a bit of important context: Salt Lake City tried and failed to get the Olympics four times before this happened. So this whole saga started after they lost out – for the fourth time – on the ’98 Olympics to Nagano, Japan.

Salt Lake’s organizing committee later learned that Japanese officials spent as much as $14 million – $32 mil in today’s dollars – to land the games.

Little-known Nagano had reportedly given IOC officials the first-class treatment. The bid committee hosted them in ritzy digs in Tokyo, Nagano and Kyoto. They entertained IOC members with geishas and helicopter rides. And to cover up any bribery, they burned 10 large boxes of documents, incinerating the paper trail.

Instead of licking their wounds from losing out – again – Salt Lake City took notes.

David Wallechinsky:

The Salt Lake City people realize that you you had to keep a file on each IOC voting member. And then, you know, do whatever you could to get their vote. And so there was one case in particular, caught my attention, where there was an IOC member from Togo. Well, Togo doesn’t compete in the Winter Olympics. That didn’t matter, because the guy still voted. So they kept flying him out to Salt Lake City. Well, that wasn’t good enough. So they had to include the stopover in Paris so his wife could go shopping on the bid committee’s pocketbook. It’s just the whole thing was so ridiculous. But they got the games, and that was all they cared about.

Simone Del Rosario:

Some might say Salt Lake City just played by IOC’s rules. If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying?

But the revelations broke bid-rigging corruption wide open. In response to investigations, the IOC expelled 10 members.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department brought bribery and fraud charges against the president and VP of Salt Lake City’s bid committee, who both resigned years before the games came to town. The charges were dropped a year after SLC’s successful run as host city.

But if you think that was the end of IOC and bid-rigging corruption, let me direct you to the 2016 Rio Games. In 2021, Brazilian Olympic Committee President Carlos Arthur Nuzman was sentenced to 30 years in jail for crimes connected to buying votes.

But he’s still a free man after a federal court ruled the judge didn’t have the legal competence to rule on the case.

Does winning an Olympic bid take a Faustian bargain? It doesn’t have to.

Charlie Battle:

I always loved the Olympics. Growing up as a child, I loved to watch the Olympics, I was fascinated by that. I believed in it.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Meet Charlie Battle.

Charlie Battle:

“I bought into the whole, bringing the world together through sport.”

Simone Del Rosario:

The Atlanta lawyer was in public finance before playing a key role in bringing the Games – and honor – to the ATL.

Charlie Battle:

We were just in the ’80s, beginning to get international plane service. But we call ourselves the world’s next great city.

Simone Del Rosario:

Atlanta’s jockeying for the Olympics came when the mid-size city was just a blip on the global map.

Charlie Battle:

Truth be known. When we started this, people wondered if we were going to have blackjack because they thought maybe they got us confused with Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Simone Del Rosario:

But before organizers could start lobbying IOC members, Atlanta needed to win the USA crown. After beating out San Francisco, Nashville, and Minneapolis came the unenviable task of raising money to challenge international bids.

Charlie Battle:

The government doesn’t support the Olympics in this country. And it’s, you know, there are a lot of constitutional provisions that prevent cities and counties from pledging money.

We couldn’t start building our stadium until we had a TV contract in hand. That was a bankable contract.

And then when we won the US designation, we were able to get some, you know, corporate support, and we kind of kept on keeping on.

Simone Del Rosario:

The plan went down as smooth as ice-cold Coca-Cola in the hot Atlanta summer.

The Atlanta-based beverage behemoth put up tens of millions – at least – to bring the games to their home turf, though they’d long been an Olympic sponsor. Atlanta’s Olympic promise was a privately-funded affair.

But Battle says they didn’t just have to sell sponsorships, they had to sell the IOC on the city.

Charlie Battle:

there were 88 international members, we had to meet them, try to get them to come to Atlanta, go to see them. And basically, I ended up just on the road for the next couple of years.

Simone Del Rosario:

And who needs bribery when you have Charlie Battle in your corner? He says he won the IOC over with good ol’ fashioned Southern hospitality.

Charlie Battle:
that’s why I went on the road so much is to go visit people, visit them in their homes, get to know their families, try to get them to come to Atlanta, show them that we’ve got the people they can trust.

it’s a marketing deal in the end, but from our perspective, making friends was the key.

News Coverage:

“The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 1996 Olympic games to the city of Atlanta.”

Simone Del Rosario:

The city exploded in victory when the Games were announced in 1990.

Battle was quoted on the front page of the Atlantic Journal saying he was stunned, excited, elated, shell shocked.

Six years later, the host city was celebrating a wildly successful start to the games when fear struck. A bomb detonated at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, killing one woman and injuring more than 100 others.

Security guard Richard Jewell was initially hailed a hero for discovering the suspicious backpack and moving Olympic fans out of harm’s way. The bombing could have been much more destructive. But within days, Jewell was wrongfully targeted as the prime suspect. It took years to catch the real bomber, Eric Rudolph, whom police arrested in 2003.

Clint Eastwood captured Jewell’s part of the story in the 2019 movie, “Richard Jewell.”

Where was I?

Outside of the tragedy – and the traffic – and the heat – the ’96 Games was mostly seen as a success.

But in 2013, when the U.S. Olympic Committee asked cities to put their names in the ring for the 2024 Games, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who co-led Atlanta’s ’96 bid efforts, said the city shouldn’t go for it.

Plain and simple, he said, “I don’t feel like going through it again, and I don’t imagine anyone from 1996 will. It’s a 10-year commitment.”

But he did say hosting the Olympics is good for any city. Battle says Atlanta especially benefited greatly from the Games.

Charlie Battle:

Without question. Absolutely. Yes.

Charlie Battle:

There are always people who say, Well, we shouldn’t spend this money, we ought to spend it on something else. And there’s no doubt about that. We should, but that isn’t the way the world works, you know, just because we wouldn’t have had this money, you know, what we raised, they weren’t going to raise to revitalize, you know, something else, or help build housing or this that and the other.

Simone Del Rosario:

Battle says winning the Olympic bid turned the wheels on downtown development.

Charlie Battle:

We built a downtown park in Atlanta called Centennial Olympic Park, which was on nobody’s radar at the time we started, but ended up being really the best legacy of our games.

Simone Del Rosario:

In the three decades following the games, Atlanta’s population doubled. And the Olympics helped solidify the ATL as a premier sporting event destination. They’ve since hosted two Super Bowls, multiple Final Fours and the College Football National Championship.

Charlie Battle:

We were fortunate to get this and we had a tremendously positive impact.

Simone Del Rosario:

But not every host city scores gold. With the Olympics, budgets seem to be more of a false promise. From 1960-2016, Summer Games went over budget by an average of 213%. The 2008 Beijing Games supposedly went over just 2%, but they also budgeted higher than average and you can insert your own snide comment on government control over economic data. The 1976 Montreal Games had the biggest busted budget, exceeding it by 720%.

For the Winter Olympics, the average overrun is 142% with the 1980 Lake Placid Games going 324% over budget.

And not everyone’s fit to foot the bill.

Charlie Battle:

The only reason Greece was able to put on the games was the EU, but they borrowed too much money and went into financial (trouble) because they built all kinds of monuments that they didn’t need.

Simone Del Rosario:

Abandoned state-of-the-art facilities often become an eyesore on Olympic legacies and city spending.

Charlie Battle:

They build way too much stuff, and they build stuff they don’t need, and they waste a lot of money. And one of the things we always were proud of is that we really didn’t do that.

Simone Del Rosario:

In Atlanta, the track-and-field stadium transformed into Turner Field in less than a year, home of the MLB’s Atlanta Braves for two decades.

Overbudget and overdeveloped are just two reputational hazards the IOC is trying to overhaul.

David Wallechinsky:

Now it’s not as bad as it was. Because what the IOC has done is they’ve introduced a system where you have to, in advance, before you’re even allowed to bid, you have to meet a certain criteria of where you’re going to get the money, what are the venues that are going to be built. The environmental aspects, sustainability…

Simone Del Rosario:

But what about when the corruption comes in after a city wins the bid?

News Coverage:

“While Sochi is better known for its palm trees than snow, there is a blizzard of allegations of unsavory ties to organized crime figures, official corruption…”

“It’s just days until the Winter Olympic games open in Sochi. They’re already the most unlikely, and perhaps controversial games ever, they’re certainly the most expensive ever.”

Simone Del Rosario:

I can always count on Russia to help me make a point.

Enter the 2014 Games in Sochi, a $55 billion affair.

David Wallechinsky:

This was totally corrupt. Vladimir Putin gave 27 contracts to a friend of his.

Simone Del Rosario:

Well isn’t that nice. Bloomberg describes Arkady Rotenberg as “the boyhood friend and former judo partner of black-belt President Vladimir Putin.” Bloomberg counts at least 21 contracts worth more than $7 billion – which by the way – is more than some entire Olympic budgets.

The contracts ranged from a share of the transportation system linking Sochi to ski resorts, a highway along the Black Sea, and a $387 million media center.

I’ve been in quite a few media centers in my day. I can’t say I ever felt like someone spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it. I hope it came with a good spread.

After the fact, Putin also quietly handed out medals to his billionaire friends who invested in the games.

Charlie Battle:

When there’s money, there’s corruption.

Simone Del Rosario:

And let’s be very clear, there is a ton of money involved in the Olympics.

News Coverage:

“There have been a series of scandals and controversies from the moment, actually, that Tokyo won the bid for the summer games.”

“Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has filed criminal complaints against the big advertising company Dentsu and 5 other ad firms over alleged bid rigging for contracts on Tokyo 2020.”

David Wallechinsky:

There were bribes, TV, TV rights, bribes, all sorts of bribes, which sponsor would get the rights to this or that.

Simone Del Rosario:

Advertising giant Dentsu, five other companies and seven individuals are charged with colluding in assigning contracts for the Tokyo Games.

David Wallechinsky:

Afterwards is really corrupt.

Simone Del Rosario:

But Tokyo is what we call a 1-2 punch, because the committee also faced allegations of bribing IOC members to win the games.

While Tokyo’s corruption scandal still plays out in the courts, Paris is pilng on before the games even begin.

Officials raided organizers’ offices back in October. A judicial source told Reuters the raid is part of an investigation into alleged favoritism for several awarded contracts.

While heads rolled over internal bid-rigging corruption, the IOC has less control over what happens after bids are awarded. Paris will be the first Games held under the IOC’s new anti-corruption clause.

David Wallechinsky:

What we’ve seen now is a real change. Because the IOC under Thomas Bach, who’s the president of the IOC, they realize this is not good, we can’t have another Sochi situation, we can’t have another Rio situation.

So when they got really good bids, for the 2024 Summer Olympics from both Paris and Los Angeles, they went, Wait a minute, let’s not pit these people against each other. Let’s give them each an Olympics.

Simone Del Rosario:

Now, instead of a drawn-out bidding process for each Summer and Winter Olympics – one that has historically lent itself to corruption – two IOC panels are permanently open to talks with any cities open to hosting. And these panels can also make the first move and approach cities they think might be the right fit.

They’ve even floated rotating sites, though it’s not a really popular proposal.

But cities that have successfully hosted could get multiple chances.

David Wallechinsky:

Salt Lake City is going to get the Winter Olympics again. But in a more honest way.

Simone Del Rosario:

Salt Lake’s path to 2002 might have been burned by bribery and budget overages, but the city did a 180 when Mitt Romney took the reins. Yes, that Mitt Romney. The 2002 Winter Games turned a profit when all was said and done and turned Romney into the household name you know today. After snubbing him in ’94, Massachusetts voters elected him to be their governor in 2002 and the rest is history.

And though the Salt Lake City scandal forever tarnished IOC’s history, it’s now the frontrunner for the 2034 Games.

But back to this decade.

Aside from ongoing investigations into the Paris Olympic organizers, Wallechinsky, who splits his time between the south of France and the U.S., says there are other things to watch.

David Wallechinsky:

There have been some terrible terrorist attacks in France, they’ve come up with this opening ceremony, which is going to be in public with hundreds of 1000s of people.

Simone Del Rosario:

It’s an Olympic first, an opening ceremony outside of a stadium. The Paris pomp and circumstance will take place along the Seine. And while it will make for an amazing spectacle, security is top of mind.

David Wallechinsky:

The challenge that the French are facing is not just protecting the Olympic venues, but the entire city and to a certain extent the rest of the country as well, all at the same time.

Simone Del Rosario:

It’s a risk the city hopes will pay off with the entire world watching. Then again, anything you do while hosting the Olympics brings that global scrutiny.

David Wallechinsky:

I always told people from host cities, everybody’s going to criticize you before the games, because as members of the media, if we say, Oh, this is going really well, nobody’s going to follow that. They don’t want to read that. It’s not click friendly. And so we’re always looking for something that’s wrong. And you know, that’s going to be the story. And then when the competition starts, everybody forgets about that unless it’s really serious.

Simone Del Rosario:

And that’s generally the case. While the bombing at Atlanta’s Centennial Park shook the city, we still remember the Magnificent Seven taking home the gold, or Michael Johnson breaking the 200 meter world record that stood until Usain Bolt burst onto the scene.

And that’s why people like Charlie Battle still believe in the Games, despite its flaws.

Charlie Battle:

I think it’s important, I think the Olympic movement is important. I think it’s, you know, I still believe in hopefully that good athletic competition and good athletic stories can can, you know, be inspirational to young people.

Simone Del Rosario:

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