I was underwhelmed. Hated that they herded me through a shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon to get there. Purgatory is shopping centre on a Saturday,

If Shaun "Magic" Johnson and Kieran Foran had been playing it would have been bouncing.

The problem is that 44k at Wembley would look really poor on TV.

Hopefully once it becomes a regular venue, rather than -as now - a special event venue, it will improve in regard to toilets, stewarding etc. As for atmosphere, it's hard to generate much when the on- field entertainment is so mediocre ( except when it's filled with Union fans who are used to getting excited over very little)

If the teething problems can be sorted, I still think it represents a better proposition than Wembley at the moment, since we can reasonably expect to fill it.

We need to play internationals in big grounds and run the risk of it 'not looking good on TV'. Only England RU sell out their internationals, and that's because it's a massive corporate jolly.

Wembley is RL's home in London and if we're playing in London we should play there.

Meantime we should also be looking to play in cities in the 'hertlands' that aren't such rugby league hotbeds in order to spread the game.

Forget Wigan & Hull. We should be targeting St James's Park, Anfield, Old Trafford, or Hillsborough as venues.

Only problem with wembley us the one tube station, at least Stratford has two tube lines overground and DLR

Transport was great. 5 minutes or so from Liverpoool Street station on the tube. On the Central Line which is a prime line into Central London.

The Olympic Stadium is not a big ground? It holds 55K, there aren't [ithat [/imany stadiums in England that are bigger...

I do agree though about looking at using bigger football stadia for Internationals. St James Park in Newcastle would be a good option as it works well for Magic Weekend

The atmosphere yesterday was nothing to do with the ground - a combination of fans from different teams scared to cheer for England and a load of people new to the sport. It was crying out for an England supporters group...

I'd also argue Old Trafford atmosphere is better than Wembley. Club Wembley has ruined that place...

I'm sure West Ham fans will love it...not! However West Ham's owners/backers will be jumping for joy, £2.5M rent PA but with about £1.5-£2.5M worth of tax payer funded freebies/services/equipment.
The 272 millions to convert it to a 'multi use' stadium is utterly unbelievable considering the £429M odd to build it initially (Bid cost was only £280M).
I think the stadium itself is bang average all things considered, not that fussed if we don't go back any time soon as fans are too far away in too many places. I would imagine some seats are comparable to the nose bleeds at OT. I think the Emirates is superior/nicer/more inviting.

Why would the Emirates host a game of rugby league? Correct me if I'm wrong but they never expressed an interest in hosting a far more commercially appealing Rugby Union World Cup fixture.

Not quite true, there's Wembley Stadium station as well.

Three tube stations within walking distance of Wembley. As I said above, I'm no Wembley fan, but it gets the nod for me over the Olympic because you are a little closer to the action.

Just on stadium size, the NRL, who can do no wrong , it seems, in the eyes of some posters here, regularly schedule televised games in enormous, virtually empty stadia, and nobody thinks they're in crisis.

Very underwhelmed with the stadium itself. Is it always going to be like that? I can't imagine West Ham fans being happy with a massive gap in between sections.
Wembley is by far a better stadium. Unfortunately it's just a bit too big for us at the moment.

I think the transport links are great, I was home within 40 minutes (I can't wait until our offices are finished on the site) I'm not so keen on the inside of the stadium though. They either need to make it in to a football/rugby stadium or keep it as a athletics stadium rather than some hybrid mess with temporary stands on top of the existing seats.