You've backed nothing up at all and made a fool of yourself by saying no non football events have been held at COM since a couple of months after it opened!!

Show me proof of how much the RFL is paid for the event. Show me proof of when the COM has turned down RL events. Show me proof of the limit on non football events. Show me proof of the COM saying all those games off season would do too much damage, damge you can't quantify.

Tell me why there is expansion going on in london given the previous failures and struggle of Quins RL, shouldn't be happening according to your theory of why the heartlands should be ignored.

I bring nothing new? Did you come up with anything new? An event like this is Manchester would blow anything else away attendance wise and be a massive boost for the game on it's own doorstep. Manchester is a major UK city and what RL presence does it have? Around 2m people live in the AGMA region. If you really don't think that putting major effort into the heartlands is worth it, then you are clearly not very bright at all.

It seems to me that the only credible alternative stadium is St James Park Newcastle

1. City Centre location, close to what is widely regarded as a great place for a night out - certainly compared to places like Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol etc that have been mentioned

2. Away from the heartlands of the game but not so far as Edinburgh or Cardiff, which would help with travel costs

3. A sports mad local populace who could be targetted with a huge advertising campaign, free tickets for schools etc. Might also help Gateshead.

4. A cracking stadium that would look full with 40,000 there, which I think is very achievable

Howay the lads

A fan said Midlands, I said Coventry. Nowt more to it than that. On the road games have been done before, and given the interest their was to get an NL3 title winning side there why not look again at such a thing??

Union has taken games there and done very well for crowds.

Nope, read the thread.

By the way did you go to Edinburgh or Cardiff?

Back up all you have said with proof or wind yer neck in I'll carry on tying you up in knots any time you like.
So when has MCC been approached and said no. How much did Edinburgh get paid? How much damage does a game of RL do? How many non football events can be held at COM? Howm many have been held since it opened? Is 2m not a big enough target area for development? How many live in Edinburgh??? Why London, as it does not qualify under your criteria?

Come on mouth almighty let's hear it.................................

I'll take that as a no then.
Suggest you read the thread and others on this topic, you'll find your answers.

Leaving to one side all debate over the stadia within Manchester and whether the resident clubs/ stadium owners would want this event on their pitches.

Manchester for the fans of Wigan, Wire, Saints, Salford, Crusaders, Cas, Wakey, Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield is within a very easily commutable distance meaning that they would almost all drive to their game on the day and go back home after it. Even those that watched all games on any given day would not need to stay over. At most the Hull, Hull KR, Quins and Catalans fans would have to stay over for the weekend and I think that the Hull clubs fans would be equally likely not to stay over in Manchester and to attend their own clubs' games and go home.

As a consequence the potential for income to local businesses would be much poorer (they would make the same if not more when City or United are at home than they would from this event) in Manchester than it would be for those in cities where most fans had to travel a long distance to get to. There is less incentive for Manchester's tourist board therefore to put in a large bid to stage the event. So even if Manchester have submitted a bid to host it (Richard Lewis said on Thursday on BBC Radio Manchester that a number of cities are interested but didn't name any) their bid is unlikely to be equal to the amount bid by cities such as Edinburgh, Cardiff, Newcastle, Dublin, London (used as examples due to posters suggesting them) that would stand to make much more from tourism while hosting this weekend.

A Manchester bid would be unlikely to be accepted therefore over other bidding cities even if one was made as it would mean less profit for the RFL so less value in holding the event.

The popular suggestion seems to be take it to Newcastle, however IIRC I'm sure I read somewhere that Newcastle has a surprisingly low number of hotel beds available for a city of it's size. That may be a problem for an event like this.

I do know it is pretty hard to get room discounts on a weekend, weather that is down to lack of rooms or hoteliers just determined to keep prices close to rack rate. There are a number of options though with a couple of campsite/caravan places just up the coast.

Or you could travel in?

So you haven't given any answers yet again. Are you a politician?

Given the ease of travel, i think you would get people staying longer and becoming more involved in the event itself. No day trippers rushing to get home because they have a long trip back. I don't know what the breakdown is of those who day tripped or bought tickets for both days.

Any potential drop in whatever payments are made could easily be covered by a huge increase in ticket sales. 52,000 tickets sold for Edinburgh, I can't see any reason why that won't top 80,000 in Manchester.

I personally think you'd get an awful lot of younger fans having a night out in Manchester and staying over, and it would make it a hell of a lot cheaper for families to go along.

No one knows what the deal RFL has with Edinburgh, but is this event primarily a money maker? Given the huge population around the AGMA region, and the complete lack of development that goes on, isn't it about balancing profit and development of the game?

I just said on another thread, Wire Catalans got 18,000 in Barcelona just last year.
Take the magic weekend there, I bet it wouldnt cost much more

More than what?