Quote: nathanwood7 "From the articledown on last year’s aggregate of 63,144 at the Millennium Stadium.
But the RFL are taking encouragement from the fact that crowds were up on the 58,831 that attended the first Millennium Magic in 2007
A simple answer to a simple question.'"
I was not trying to question the RFLs ability to add and subtract. I am just questioning the logic/ethics of comparing an attendance two years ago rather than last year (the usual choice). All for the purpose of claiming that the, quote "Magic Weekend crowd grows" and the event was a success justifying the move to Edinburgh. The former is not true and the later is very disputable.
The RFL will not compare the second years attendance figures with next years event. They will compare this years as they are lower.
Why could they have not said "Encouraging" rather than "Grows".
Using such logic just makes us look foolish.
Quote: nathanwood7 "The second someone in PR opens his/her mouth.
HTH'"
Hmmmm Good answer. Maybe I am wasted in my job.
Quote: nathanwood7 "Er, yes - but there was one more game this time with (theoretically, at least) two more sets of supporters travelling up for the occasion!'"
My thoughts exactly. OK you would suspect that Celtic probably did not affect the attendance figure too much but Salford would have. Also the RFL had introduced season ticket discounts making attending both days more attractive. This should have resulted in an increase on the 2008 figure. It also means that it is likely the gate money is down as the average fans ticket price will have decreased.
The argument for the event is worth £10m.
They miss "to the local economy" bit at the end quite a bit. The RFL get significantly less and the clubs, from what I have been told, receive nothing.
The average RL fan does not have a lot of disposable cash. Surely the RFL can think of better ways for us to spend our money than giving it to overpriced hotel chains, Virgin Rail and the owners of Man City.
I did enjoy the weekend but I have done the long weekend Edinburgh and am unsure if I will return next year. They will have to offer something significantly different to get me (and I suspect a number of other people) up their next year.
The failure to increase the attendance on last year would also indicate that there were few locals at the event. Which was one of the negative comments said about Cardiff when they announced the move.
All I ask is for marketing and innovation to replace spin and groundless optimism.