The first person to see it, you are correct & we should applaud the RFL for it. Edinburgh fund the stadium the fans that want it get a weekend away the RFL gets money to spread around the game every one is a winner & still people moan. Wake up Rugby league is a business.

At the end of the day, whilst I agree about the poor showing on the "terraces" - the actual event has managed to persuade me to sit in my trackie bottoms all day and watch every match whilst supping some beers! And I am looking forward to our lass going out tomorrow so I can do the same again. I'm sure there are thousands of others out there who have done the same. Success is measured in many different ways....

These are extra fixtures. Who cares how many people are at Murrayfield. Why don't people forget about the reasons why they might be doing this "mad weekend" and instead just enjoy it. Its ironic though that whilst people are criticising the Scottish event, that 2 expansion clubs have both recorded great wins today

I think its a great event, but it probably is better for the TV viewer. My TV has been on channel 454 all day, I'll be interested to see SKY's viewing figures for this weekend

Some thoughts from someone who bothered to go to the event...

Crowd - A little down on last year but being in the bottom of a recession and it p**sing down all morning only 3k down on last year isn't too shabby.

Fans - Great turn out from Warrington, Salford and HKR (who weren't even playing today)

Best chant - Warrington - "we're not y and more"

Beer - £4 a pint :-0

Food - Not bad value at stadium prices.

Games -
Bradford v Crusaders - Did Bradford turn up? Sammut looks good.
Quins v Hull - Spoilt by a pedantic ref. Saints better watch out next week.
Warrington v Salford - Salford wish they hadn't turned up...
Leeds v Wakefield - Just how lucky are Leeds?

[size=150A)[/size It's needs to be turned into an event all rugby fans want to see.

Wigan v Wire [u(evenly matched)[/u
Saints v Leeds [u(some great battles between the two)[/u
Hull FC v Hull KR [u(obvious derby)[/u
Bradford v Huddersfield [u(Local-ish derby)[/u
Wakefield v Castleford [u(obvious derby)[/u
Quins v Catalans [u(evenly matched)[/u
Salford v Crusaders [u(evenly matched)[/u

I'd pay to watch these games

[size=150B)[/size Move it around, have it in a different stadium/area every year. Play at least one in London (This is where the media live) probably The Emirates.

[size=150C)[/size Make it the Fifth round of the cup (last 16, eight matches) ???

[size=150D)[/size play it in summer

It should be the opening to the season. Start the season with a bang, not a whimper.

There seems to be a general feeling to keep magic weekend for financial reasons so maybe we should keep it? I think there is lots of milage in it.

If it were to go maybe replace it with a "heritage round" a la NRL. Old kits and staged at the Galpharm as a big opening round 1??

I agree entirely - that is why I put 'Brough/Cooke' as Cooke replaced Brough and is injured.

You know what they (don't) say "A Slash is not a Comma"

Sounds good in theory, but have you forgotten what the weather was like when this season started? Part of the attraction of Magic/Wacky Weekend, or whatever the RFL are calling it this week, is the al-fresco drinking and socialising in city centre bars and pubs and around the stadium. How many people will want to spend all day outdoors in Edinburgh (or most other UK locations for that matter) in early February? Most of us would have struggled to even get to Edinburgh with the amount of snowfall three months ago.

=#FF0000Agree. I enjoyed the Hull derby at the first Cardiff event, which immediately followed our own game. I'd fancy seeing most of those fixtures, but for the two Edinburgh events almost none of the neutral fixtrues caught my imagination.


=#FF0000Agree in principle, and Arsenal FC would be the best venue in London being much closer to the West End than any other stadium of suitable size, but I think you'd have to offer the club a huge wedge to persuade them to co-operate. They have the best pitch in the country by all accounts and M Wenger would surely do his best to keep us egg chasers off it! Maybe if it was scheduled for straight after the end of the football season to allow plenty of recovery time for the pitch (i.e. Whitsun Bank Holiday) there might be a chance. However that would produ ce a clash with the football play-offs at Wembley and I suspect the Old Bill would stick their oar in to stop our event being scheduled in London at the same time.


=#FF0000Again, sounds alright in principle, but taking this season as an example five SL clubs would have missed out altogether. Unless the competition format is altered so that SL clubs enter at 5th Round stage I can't see this happening, and that would mean most NL clubs having almost no chance of ever having a cup tie against SL opposition.


=#FF0000Ideally it needs to be staged over a three day weekend, so the closest you'll get to summer is the one at the end of May rather than the beginning.

I dont see that as being a problem - it doesnt have to be a Super League only event. If you miss out, you miss out - tough.

Looking at crowds - and not knowing how many Cas fans are travelling today, I would expect Barrow fans to enjoy their big day out and take thousands more than Cas would.

Also means that next year, the fans that miss out would be more keen to go than they would for a normal SL fixture.

It wont happen anyway, the BBC wouldnt screen all 8 games, even though they hvae the digital capacity to do so.

Or
1v2
3v4
5v6
7v8
9v10
11v12
13v14

No one would know who they had until a week before

Do they (not) say that at the same time they (dont) say "when you're playing for Brisbane, you're not playing for Wakefield"? and "When you're fired by Wakefield, you dont play for Wakefield"?

Manchester Magic on the second May Bank holiday. Football season has finished, summer has just begun. Breathe some life back into schools/amateur RL in the heartlands. Fill COM for both days, dead easy for fans everywhere to get to, huge spaces all round ground to set up everything and more that has been in Edinburgh. Huge festival of RL on the doorstep. Make all the games derbies, apart from Hull, proximity to Manchester shouldn't hugely affect numbers.

Can't really see how it wouldn't be a massive success.

FFS, not again.
How bloody hard is it for you to understand, neither football side in Manchester will allow seven games of RL to be played on their pitch?

How about at the Willows?

Same weekend as the football play-off finals, which could end up being in Manchester next season anyway because Wembley is double-booked with the Champions League final.



Depends on what you define by "success". In terms of ticket sales, perhaps. In terms of profile, links and investment from partners outside RL (think Visit Scotland, Visit Wales, etc) and as an exercise to lessen the "northern sport for northern people" image, I can't see what yet another RL event in Manchester would achieve. After all, we have a Grand Final held there. We also have 13 Super League rounds held in the Manchester area throughout the year that attract pitiful crowds.

More chance of that new stadium being finished mate

Thats what I've been saying. Wigan v Wire would have been a beauty this weekend. Hardly seems fair to be that Warrington have been able to massively boost their points difference in this extra game. Those 52 points gained could be the difference between a home or away play off come September. Who knows.

And how do you reach this conclusion? Where has this been stated, for example, by Manchester City? The PL season has finished by that time. They could let the grass grow a bit longer to protect the surface which would then have until the end of August before being used for PL games again. Is 10 weeks not long enough to repair any damage that might be done?

Correct me if I am wrong but the COM has hosted many events in the football off season with thousands of people and stages all over the playing surface. Ricky Hatton has staged big fights there. You are as ever talking and sniping without any back up for your pathetic jibes.

So Saracens and Quins at Twickers and Wembley reinforces union being a southern sport for southern people does it? Isn't there a North West tourist board? Maybe Manchester City Council would jump on board, like they did to get England RU to Old Trafford? The council does after all own the COM does it not?

Salford IS NOT Manchester. The amount of RL played in Manchester itself is pitiful. The game is very weak in many of the towns around Manchester also. Put some strength back into the roots of the game for once. Have a massive promotional push to reinforce the grass roots and get every local authority around the area involved, eg all those in AGMA. That's ten councils with a total populations of over a couple of million to get the game into all the schools.

Plenty of expansion to be done on the doorstep too................

And as ever you are talking without thinking, you make suggestions without bothering to check if the grounds want the games played and totally discount the whole value of the weekend, I expect no more from a union troll though.

scrap it - 26 games home and away and nobody has to worry about it. If we must have an away day - Challenge Cup Quarter Finals - 4 games over 2 days - sorted.

Come on mouth almighty, give me any proof whatsoever that either Manchester club has said, as you state, they would not allow seven games over two days, whilst taking into account I only mentioned the COM. Where has Manchester City Council, the satdium owner, said such? Come on, back up your pathetic jibes with proof or shut your stupid mouth once and for all. If a pitch can take hundreds of thousand people plus all the equipment on it for for Take That/Oasis concerts, it can stand a few games of league.

How did I discount the value of the weekend? Such an event could and would be a masssive boost for RL in the AGMA region. Give the fans a break from the expense, pay the grass roots some attention and crack areas on our doorstep where little or no league is played.