Sydney:
Sydney missed out on a tourism and conventions bonanza by failing to build on its successful 2000 Olympics, a senior official said on Wednesday, tempering lavish 10-year anniversary celebrations.
Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates said convention facilities in the country's biggest and best known city were now "inferior", criticising a lack of investment.
"The area I'm critical ultimately of is there wasn't further investment in promoting Sydney and getting events here in convention space, which is inferior in this city now," Coates said.
The Sydney Games, which kicked off exactly 10 years ago, are often described as the best Olympics in history after blending sporting drama with smooth organisation and a convivial atmosphere, against a stunning physical backdrop.
But a 2007 study by Monash University's Centre of Policy Studies found the harbour city and its surrounding state, New South Wales, suffered a 2.1 billion dollar (1.98 billion US) loss from hosting the Games.
And despite a rapid population rise from 4.1 to 4.5 million people, rail and road transport infrastructure is largely unchanged, while conference facilities are limited and often ageing.
Meanwhile Australian tourism revenue has also dwindled from record highs in the 1990s, hit by the strengthening local currency and competition from other destinations.
"To be fair 9/11 happened, and to be fair there's been some financial crises over the last 10 years," Coates said, in reference to the September 11 attacks of 2001.
"But certainly if there was a lesson to be learned, it's that you can't just host a Games and think the tourism and the conventions will necessarily follow."
London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said Coates was "spot-on" with his analysis, adding that the British capital was already preparing for the post-Games period.
"Legacy... is not something that simply falls in your lap because you get to the end of the Olympics and Paralympic Games and everything just takes off," he said. "You really
have to plan for it."
Australian Olympic legends Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman and Jamaica's Usain Bolt are among the athletes in Sydney for the 10-year commemorations, along with thousands of fans, officials and former volunteers.
The event will culminate in Freeman's ceremonial re-lighting of the Olympic cauldron, reprising 2000's agonising moment when a technical hitch delayed proceedings for about four minutes.
Australian media gave blanket coverage to the celebrations, although the Sydney Morning Herald also sounded a note of regret in an editorial headlined, "Sydney as it ought to be".
"Ten years on Sydney seems still to be suffering from post-Games let-down," it said.
"The Olympic venues work well, but have had a troubled financial history. The main Olympic site has not become a hub of activity... public transport has reverted to its pre-Games standards, helped by decades of under-investment."
The Daily Telegraph also put progress into perspective when it called an online ballot for filming of the Oprah Winfrey show "Sydney's biggest ticket scramble since that other big O -- the Olympics".