Is Wales failing to catch the Olympic bug?

About 40,000 tickets remain unsold for the Great Britain women’s football team’s clash against New Zealand on July 25.

The 75,000-seater stadium in Cardiff will host eight football matches, but only three have sold out so far.

Cardiff was selected as a co-host city along with Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Coventry, Weymouth and Portland, but the disappointing ticket sales have added to fears that the Games has failed to inspire local people.

Some 22 Olympic and Paralympic teams are training in the Welsh capital and a record number of Welsh athletes are competing in the Games.

Local journalist Carolyn Hitt said: “Wherever you are from in Wales, you have Welsh people to root for in the Olympics.

“You’re from Llanelli, you’ve got your hometown boy Dai Greene going for gold. You’re from Cardiff – Geraint Thomas, cyclist, he could win a gold. North Wales, Tom James could very well get a gold in the rowing.

“So it is a pan-Wales experience if you’re enthusiastic enough and positive about it. We’re not quite there yet, are we?

A survey in the Western Mail newspaper found that 52 per cent of 1,000 people sampled thought that the Olympics would bring no benefit to Wales.

And Channel 4 News found mixed feelings about the 30th Olympiad while speaking to people in the valleys of South Wales.

One Aberdare resident said: “For that one day or two days the Cardiff people will benefit, the shops and the pubs, but the valley people won