All's fair in love and war.

At the end of the day, it's not a FPTP system, so we need fixture unbalancing to justify a play-off system. Whether this unbalancing should be done before the split or after is moot, considering the MM wouldn't be the same with just the Super 8 teams, or too overloaded with Super 8s and Middle 8s combined. It is worth abandoning what is an "event" that grants the game more exposure?

Yes, maybe it is unfair financially for a team to finish 9th, having a harder fixture at MM, than a team who finishes 8th who had an easier fixture .

But realistically, who's in 8th place is hardly going to make the Top 4 or be crowned champions. And finishing 9th is never going to find you in the bottom 4 of the middle 8s.

At the end of the day, if you're a team languishing in these positions. Try harder next season!

You couldn't play the Magic Weekend as a super8's opener as not knowing what fixtures would take place until last minute would hit the gate, for example HullFC took the most fans again this year (6k+) but our top8 status has been on a knife edge, and a tie with say Catalan isn't as attractive as a derby, so a good few thousand wouldent bother with it. Also football clubs wouldent be happy to host in July/August and it wrecking their pitch.

It's a growing event why mess with it?

My only suggestion to change would be to have a random draw rather than leaving the inept RFL to pick the fixtures

Would people really not attend based on who they may be playing?
If so then why bother having the event anyway?

I think it's a definite that more Hull fans would go if they are playing Hull KR compared to almost any other team, and vice-versa. Same applies for all clubs - the local derby/decent rivalry has served Magic well and I can't see it being changed. The one year when it was an open draw was something of a let down in retrospect.

This would be a crucial thing. Premiership kicks off the same weekend the Top 8's start. Even us moving forward a week would be too close to the start of the football season for the likes of Newcastle and Man City to agree to having a weekend full of RL matches played on their pitches. The current time of Magic Weekend (just after the football season ends) is the only realistic time to host it.