Im not sure the idea of Magic should be to promote it to new fans. If I was being introduced to a new sport I wouldn't want to sit through 6 games back to back all weekend.

What kind of engage are the players having with the local community in the week before magic weekend? I read the NRL had players engaging with 10k kids in Queensland via schools and workshops prior to the weekend in Australia.

thought it was poor outside the ground with no fan zone this time

inside anfield i thought the seats were awful, hardly any leg room!

but a good win for the giants so i enjoyed the day

crowd was no where near as bad as some would have you believe before the event had even started

Depending on where it is held it should showcase the local team or be based an strategy to win new fans. The same 12 teams every season tells you nothing.

As a minimum the Local team should play a game. Such as Thunder at Newcastle.

Or have a women’s game or an under 16s game to showcase kids playing

I would like 6 teams piked for each day and then a draw to see who they play. Even something like a mini fans it’s a knockout to determine the games on the day. So teams have no idea who or when they will be playing on a particular day. Means if you want to watch you have to turn up for the day

Unlike the Millenium, the Etihad and St James’; Anfield has got absolutely nothing going on around the ground or isn’t near/in the centre of its city.

It’s also still got a lot of restricted views even with the new stand (which took out many restricted views). The Anfield Road end (where Wire were last night) is where there are numerous white poles hold up the tier above, if you’re behind any of them you can see nothing of any game. Also at the back of that first tier in the Anfield Road end you can’t see the other end of the stadium and can see a letterbox view of the bit of the pitch you can see. Over in the Kop, if you’re at the back (where the Wigan fans were singing last night) you can’t see the sides of the pitch.

It’s a poor choice of venue for Magic.

Being a bank holiday weekend should help keep the crowd in til the end, other years the ground has emptied early on the Sunday.

Still cant beleive they missed an easy trick to get the crowd up by letting Widnes play there as a warmup, would have added at least 3k on. Real issue is however not attracting any Scousers in.

scouse pie was decent, never knew they existed

Yeah but Elstone pocketed an extra few quid from going to Anfield. Biggest problem is clubs don’t raise to the occasion like you’d hope for an event fixture (and never really have). Only Hudds have upped their game this weekend and even that was helped by Hull being utterly dreadful.

Anfield was a poor choice from day one . For one it is far away from the City Centre , and the lack of public houses & eateries around Anfield didnt help .
It wasnt even promoted around Liverpool City Centre . Cardiff is first choice for me followed by Newcastle .

30,057 came through the turnstiles to watch day one at Anfield, 26,812 were in attendance today for an overall total of 56,869.
The crowd at Anfield this weekend is still significantly down on the 64,319 who attended St James’ Park last year.
The crowd is the lowest since the 2010 event in Edinburgh

2007 in Cardiff.
Day one: 32,384
Day two: 26,447
Total: 58,831

2008 in Cardiff.
Day one: 30,628
Day two: 32,516
Total: 63,144

2009 in Edinburgh.
Day one: 29,627
Day two: 30,122
Total: 59,749

2010 in Edinburgh.
Day one: 26,642
Day two: 25,401
Total: 52, 043 (lowest crowd)

2011 in Cardiff.
Day one: 30,891
Day two: 29,323
Total: 60,214

2012 in Manchester
Day one: 30,763
Day two: 32, 953
Total: 63,716

2013 in Manchester.
Day one: 30,793
Day two: 31,249
Total: 62,042

2014 in Manchester.
Day one: 36,339
Day two: 28,213
Total: 64,552

2015 in Newcastle.
Day one: 40,871
Day two: 26,970
Total: 67,841

2016 in Newcastle.
Day one: 39,331
Day two: 28,945
Total: 68,276 (highest crowd)

2017 in Newcastle.
Day one: 35,361
Day two: 30,046
Total: 65,407

2018 in Newcastle.
Day one: 38,881
Day two: 25,438
Total: 64,319

2019 in Liverpool
Day one: 30,057
Day two: 26,812
Total: 56,869

Just to give balance to the attendance figures, how many of the Magic events have been made up of derby fixtures and how many with more "random" games.
If you put a Hull derby and Wigan v Saints into the fixtures, plus Leeds v Cas, the attendance figures would increase significantly, regardless of where the event is staged.

It's time for the RFL to seriously think what Magic should be about.
Where should it be played, which types of games should feature and what do we expect to come afterwards.

The concept of "spreading the game to new areas" seems a great reason to stage Magic but, we've gone a long way from this.
Liverpool and Manchester are not exactly breaking any new ground and having the event so close to the heartlands, whilst making it easier for fans to attend, actually takes all the "magic" away.

There was something really different when we played down in Cardiff and Newcastle but, Liverpool and Manchester



Maybe we should scrap Magic as part of the league and maybe have one of the Challenge Cup rounds as an "on the road" event or, be really ambitious and go for Dublin or Paris.

The concept of magic has died. It was about the rugby- it seems reading the comments on here most are bothered about where the pubs are