The 'purpose' is that it makes a profit for the RFL and more importantly is a great event to attend. In any other sport, this would sell out every year. In RL, we get people say at home moaning that empty seats look bad on TV.

Hold it wherever Headhunter tells us to and make sure it is to his exact specifications because he is an uppity soul.

Brilliant news! packed stadium instead of half empty one, and only over the pennines

As long as there isn't a clash with a Leigh game then I'm planning on being there and I'm sure it will be attractive to neutrals and potential fans alike, particularly given the time of year and Bank Holiday weekend aspect.

Guaranteed lower crowds than any other year as people will watch their team and then leave. Utterly stupid.

removes a quite a lot of the point of having it to be honest. Cant see why 80k people with discounted tickets watching at the Ethiad is better than 80k people paying full price for tickets in the clubs own stadiums.

Most RL fans live within about 60miles of Manchester, who will be tempted to travel their for the weekend when they can go, watch their team, then go home again?

We arent going to get the games played in a packed stadium because people will simply leave after their game has been played, at least Cardiff and Edinburgh being so far away caused the audience to be a little bit 'captive'.

nah... ive been to edinburgh, cardiff (twice) and only stayed the one day...didnt leave after my game finished and cant see me leaving just because its closer too home, if anything you would stay because you dont have the 4 hours journey to get home!

Worth considering that, presumably with a bigger crowd, the best seats will go much more quickly so people might arrive much earlier for the games prior to their own team to secure a better spot etc? I think the lack of travelling will also mean people will be less inclined to try and get early dart as the day goes on.

having it in manchester will be a good thing as its not far to travel and still have all the super league teams having more supporters there and i reckon lower league teams will come as well like swinton leigh halifax all local fans will be there

Its not up to City, the council own the ground. City wouldn't be happy if the matches were held during their season, but Feb is too cold to hold that sort of event in a stadium with no roof. May, after the soccer season, is a better time.

Plus, why wouldn't the council be up for it? They could potentially make more out of this then United do out of the Grand Final. There could be in excess of 40k fans on both days and the stadium would be open all day, both days, meaning an awful lot of beer and burgers can be sold. It also means the council have a good photo opp for New Islington, the regenerated area of Ancoats on the way to the stadium.

I think Manchester is a great choice. While the areas surrounding the city are RL heartlands, RL doesn't get the attention it deserves in Manchester itself, and with BBCSport moving to Salford there can't be a better time to increase the games profile there.

8 of us were planning to go from work, including 2 non rl fans, cant see any of us bothering now, who wants a weekend away in manchester?

People who enjoy visiting civilisation?

Lancashire would be the last place you would visit if that was your aim, have they even got electricity yet?

Are they allowed to consume alcohol in the seats at the COMS ?