Then there were those infamous tickets fiascos, the aftertaste of which has yet to subside for many Sydneysiders. Raised in an aggressively democratic country, where it is held that the inalienable right of every Australian is to get his or her "fair go", the locals were understandably excited when SOCOG urged them all to go back to their homes and prepare for excitement.
"Come Along and Live the Dream," they were told, as SOCOG love-bombed them with pamphlets. The preparation for living the dream involved the filling out of a docket wherein those interested (just about every Australian) ticked off the events they would most like to see (swimming and Cathy Freeman mainly). The dockets were sent off with a handsome cheque for the appropriate amount. If an event was oversubscribed, a computer-run lottery would be run. Everyone would get their Fair Go and would then be invited to apply again for under-subscribed events, wherein more Fair Go's were ensured.
Of course the Olympics is the real world. The draw was made and finding an ordinary Australian with a ticket to anything proved harder than finding lines to live by in Neighbours. The grumbling began. People had cheque stubs and no tickets. It was revealed that some 800,000 of the best tickets had already been filtered off the public allocation and touted in packages. Unless you wanted to see the synchronised, small-bore, Greco-Roman, equestrian event, you would be watching on the telly. SOCOG tried to brazen it out, but, eventually and reluctantly, were forced to put some of the tickets back into the draw system. The bad feelings lingered and embarrassment was compounded when it was discovered that the hottest tickets of the Olympiad, those to see Freeman run, had inadvertently been sold at half price.
There have been other problems. Media grumblings about the state and price of the media village are already loud. The beach volleyball arena on Bondi Beach has proved particularly unpopular with locals and its construction has been hampered by winter winds. Just this week the war between national icon Cathy Freeman and her former manager Nick Bideau spilled on to the front pages again, with harsh words being flung like battery acid. Meanwhile, allegations of systemised doping were being made against the Aussie sports authorities and the Australian selections for the triathlon involved a $100,00 law suit after the World Championships in Perth finished two kilometres short.
Quite what form Aboriginal protests during the games will take has yet to be decided, but the country is braced for more embarrassment concerning that bloodspattered aspect of its history. There have been transport problems, too - 28 train derailments in the Sydney area this year so far - and a 15-second breakdown in the computer system used by air traffic controllers at Sydney Airport last week was exacerbated by the more than 10 minutes it took for the back-up system to kick in. Then there are the Paralympics and the terse announcement this week that Sydney just didn't know if it would have the 200 wheelchair accessible buses required for running the event.
And another legal battle looms, this time over the fate of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, a principal Olympic venue situated downtown in Darling Harbour. The centre is beloved of Sydneysiders and booms all year round with events and life. Documents leaked last week suggest that the local authorities, concerned at the viability of the Homebush site (and the Superdome in particular) when the Olympics go away, intend to shut the entertainment centre and force acts and their audiences out to Homebush.
That's the bad news, though, and the period before any Olympics is always filled with bad news and dark warnings. The good news is everywhere to be seen. Sydney is a fabulously attractive city with sufficient hedonism and irreverence in its air to take some of the stuffiness out of the Games. The Australians have done their work, too, they've tested for just about every contingency by now, from feeding simulated results in from 21 venues simultaneously, to ensure that their central computer didn't swoon as did Atlanta's, to simultaneously flushing all 1,200 toilets in Stadium Australia.
As for the Irish, well we've come a long way baby. Pre-Olympics, the team will shack up at state-of-the-art training facilities in Newcastle, about two hours from Sydney.
The place resonates with Irish history, too. After the failed convict rising of Castle Hill in 1804, United Irishmen were duly flogged and then sent to the mouth of the Hunter River to mine a seam of coal discovered by accident by Lt John Shortland some years previously. The turbulent Irish convicts and political prisoners were increasingly dispersed around Australia and it was they who colonised the Hunter River Valley, inland from Newcastle, mining coal in leg irons and then harvesting the cedarwood forests with which colonial Australia was built.
Chris Bastik, a former Mayor of one of Sydney's suburbs and the man in charge of allocating 199 teams to training sites with tracks and pools and other appropriate facilities (you getting this, Gay Mitchell?), is especially pleased with the outcome of his dealings with the Irish.
"I would have to say that Patrick Hickey and Dermot Heneghan came to us right at the start knowing exactly what they wanted and needed and as such they were fixed up early and have one of the best facilities. Some countries still don't know what they want at this stage. Other countries have sent people down here to live for a year just to liaise with us, but nobody would be ahead of the Irish. They ran it like a military operation."
So fine have been the results of that operation that the Irish track and field athletes are joining the rest of the Olympic team in Newcastle in an unprecedented outbreak of harmony.
Elsewhere, plans are afoot for the nation to make its impact in the hospitality and entertainment stakes during the Games. Pat Hickey secured something of a coup in securing the services of John Fahy, Australian Minister for Finance, in chairing the Irish Hospitality Committee. Fahy has been hands-on, chairing all meetings, and the committee has secured a large premises in Bondi Junction, or County Bondi as the area is known, because of the freckled complexion of many of its inhabitants.
Tony Lally, a former Irish Olympic cyclist (Moscow Games) and now a leading banker and one of the key organisers on the committee, leads a guided tour of the building, showing the upstairs room where corporate dinners for sponsors will be held every evening , a massive hall into which Guinness are placing a prototype Irish pub as we speak from Canada, and the basement from where RTE will anchor much of their coverage.
"This will be the place to be during the Games. There'll be Irish music here, we'll have big screens showing the Games and focusing on the Irish athletes and after their events we'll be expecting that many of the Irish competitors will come down here to relax. Apart from the excitement of being in the stadium, we would say that this will be the next best place to be. "
Just over 60 days left before the world goes Down Under. Sydney has had its squabbles and its troubles, but no city has been ready sooner and no Games have promised more. Last week Sydneysiders were gazing at their benign winter skies and wondering would September break wet and windy on them. No way. For their mix of black-humoured fatalism and youthful ambitions the Australians deserve a slash of high summer for their Games.
