i think the etihad was perfect for it, i really dont like st james park, its too tall, and feels too segregated for me.

Which Stadium in York is big enough to stage the Magic weekend?

All of them at the moment..

You knew full well what I meant in context to the poster saying that York would be ideal fro a "Magic weekend" but crack on!

It would imo be madness to scrap it permanently. One of the big events of the year. Maybe take it down to London and have London play as the opening game. Wrt the fixtures I liked the idea of based on previous years place.

Hi Mike, thanks for the interesting post, do post more

York would be a wonderful venue if the new stadium can cope, I don't know the capacity nor the current crowd interest in Magic, or the demand if York was used......

Not sure Coventry would be a pull, but if Coventry RL had a significant and serious ambition for Superleague then fair enough, but I can't see it when they are up against Wasps, albeit we took a major International there.

Financially how does magic weekend ever benefits clubs? Hugely discounted tickets so lower income compared to a standard ticket price which effectively reduces the revenue on top of significantly fewer overall fans even for games with no derby matches, not having the game on one of the teams home turf means zero concessions or private boxes/hospitality.
It continues to erode into the bigger games or traditional rival games with it being another loop fixture so a significant % of fans simply get switched off and don't attend by the third or fourth event. Suggestions of Cardiff ignore that for some teams/fans it's the same distance/time as travelling to Wembley, if it were more central in the country it would make it far easier for all fans but it simply should be stopped.
As should the additional fixture on the Easter Monday, this to my mind is a huge part of the player welfare that the RFL bang on about yet they ignore the very obvious in terms of protecting players and the entertainment itself from being diluted.

14 teams, 26 fixtures, league leaders as champions, no magic, no Easter Monday fixture, tighter control on salary cap plus maybe licencing reintroduced. Have a top 8 play off for a minor end of season competition if you like (first round and 'semi' at a single location), with teams required to have at least 9 of the XVII coming from the academy/rookie players with fewer than double digit first team appearances in all the rounds including the final.

This protects senior players and gives time slots for internationals without increased player fatigue for those that are more likely to be selected.

Typical Rugby legaue that people want to chop, change and move and event about every 5 minutes. Magic was working well at Newcastle, and I have no doubt it would have gone well again had it been held last year. Newcastle Thunder are growing nicely too and the publicity from Magic has helped with that.

The games biggest event is the Grand Final and a big reason why isn't they haven't altered the venue (last year excepted for obvious reasons) the time of year or the kickoff time. You have to let these events build.

It's about reducing the number of games by removing them not chopping and changing, and it's not every 5 minutes, this is just not true is it?
The only thing that we can confirm regards 'magic' is that it has increased the cost to fans to watch a game but with no increased or worse lowered revenue for clubs, it also eats into attendances for the derby games and even the challenge cup.
Worse it puts more pressure on players as does the faux champions play off system, and that in turn makes it harder for the national team to compete in the late autumn internationals/world comps.

What hard evidence have you that magic has directly influenced Newcastle getting to where they are? It's a hell of a lot to lose to get another mediocre championship club that didn't actually earn promotion but were granted it by the RFL. Newcastle could have developed no worse without magic being located in Newcastle.

Having a n engineered event that actually does a lot of damage to all clubs/national team and has a detrimental effect on player welfare is not ever a good idea, it's plain insanity, but then it's typical in rugby league that some people think that running with an idea and sticking with it despite its continued failure is somehow going to magically start to make things better

The initial point was made that we have 'newcastle' (thunder) due to magic weekend being in Newcastle, I asked for evidence of that claim, you go first.
Even if there were any hard evidence there is no cost justification whatsoever for holding the event, Newcastle is never going to be a hotbed of rugby, it's just another small outpost and always will be.

Let's look though at how Gateshead had multiple times more fans attending home games than Newcastle post huge investment and consecutive 'magic' in Newcastle. They required no 'magic' weekend to garner interest in the club, did people just come off the streets to go see games or was there already an interest in attending.
Just because London has a team with well supported soccer teams and multiple rugby union teams it doesn't equate to big numbers attending even against the top sides.
Yes Gateshead declined, that was going to happen given the circumstances but there was latent interest there already, there's simply no evidence that redeveloping the club has been significantly aided by having the magic event.
*over 6000 for the St.Helens home game of 1999, even the London home game saw over 2,600, current average even including the big travelling support from Bradford for the pre MW is under 1000.

But what are your thoughts re the rest of the aspects of magic?

Do you disagree with my premise that the event draws significant sums away from clubs directly, that it has a direct effect on player welfare by adding this contrived game into the calendar, that it adds more costs to supporters such that this can dissuade from attending other primary events including the local rival games?
Do you disagree that having an extra weekend of a contrived fixture and the mini cup/play-off system adds even more pressure onto players, more fatigue/injuries and that is likely to directly affect how we go at national level?

No!

Going to any game at the moment would make it a magic weekend for me!