it was e there where not that many pubs near the stadium, and they should have had all the derby games on it makes it better!!

I remember having a ding dong on here with you about it last year, you were massively in favour it. Good we have got another convert to common sense

Come on then what did we miss by going home after watching the game of the team we support? The whole top flight of our sport can't fill half a stadium, shows how highly regard it is by fans. And how on earth is that intended to spread the game? You spread the game from grass roots up simple as, not gimmicky gimpfests like this weekend.

Anyway I'm off there is 3 amateur games on at The Willows I'm gonna go and watch, just got to sort my fancy dress costume out first.

If the figures are true and I did say "If" I would call 4-6000 scottish ticket sales a success in it's first year.

Are we who are already fans of the game the right ones to ask if it was a success. We already love the game and would probably watch it if it was being played in downtown Kabul. The people to ask are those who went to watch the game having little or no knowledge of our sport and the questions to ask them are not just did you enjoy the weekend but would you watch this sport if we stuck a team in Scotland. Whats not to enjoy about having a weekend away in an historic beautiful city like Edinburgh, watching Rugby and drinking beer? But it was an event not designed just to have a beano but to "expand" the game in new areas. Only time will tell if its been a success from that perspective but as pointed out in other posts the numbers of local fans who attended are the truer test of its value not that the numbers of fans who are already supporters of the greatest game. And as a final thought if the RFL do decide to franchise to Scotland or Ireland or Kabul!! which teams do you think are vulnerable to being dispensed with?

I thought you had it on already Enjoy your amateur game youth finals

I didn't go to the Cardiff version so have nothing to compare this weekend with & don't know if it was better or worse.

I do find it puzzling that so many people went all that way at such cost and watched so few games - sat in a pub (and what a goodly number of great pubs there are!!!!) on Saturday night chatting with some Saints fans, they'd ONLY watched their match (and therefore were drowning sorrows) - surely the point of the weekend was an opportunity to see a lot of games and watch many as a neutral - for me that was the most enjoyable thing about it. RL is a fantastic sport and to be able to enjoy the skills on show was great.

Now - to answer the question posed - was the weekend a success? I suspect from a marketing point of view the answer is a resounding "no!" Playing in a half empty stadium benefits no-one; If the aim is to show what a great spectacle we have then you need people to really WANT to get tickets and clearly not enough did. My son lives in Edinburgh and it appears there was precious little local marketing done in the lead up to the weekend - surely free tickets to schools and colleges, competitions on local radio to win tickets etc etc all could have been organised - but when you look at the rugby league organisation generally are we surprised?

For me it was a terrific weekend and I would definitely go again.

I had a good day, thought it was great
I also found it funny when walking back to my car seeing a ed up henry paul chatting to some wire fans saying he loves it when saints get beat hahaha, and then was shocked to see Stapo and Cashmere in the same premier inn as me with thier families

Was miles better than Cardiff however the event is never going to work as most fans are only interested in their own clubs games (myself included) so despite the aggregate attendance of 60000 I bet there was no more than 15000-20000 in the ground for any one game which looks pretty poor in a 70000 stadium.

Did not go as it is a RFL/ Sky deal to fleece the fans of even more money.
I can not think of any other sport who would move a whole weekends fixtures to a stadium and an area who have no concept of the game that is being played there.
To listen to Sky you would think it was a huge success.
I watched United then Salford drunk a load of beer, had a nice meal and then collapsed to bed.
All done at home for a fraction of the cost of going to Edinburgh.

Thanks to the Salford lot, great bunch, great laugh

The bouncy, bouncy song was class, see you all next year

from the Times online Blog, not it all but bits that nicely sums up the weekend, at least one very good point,

"The Ain't Rugby League Brilliant Award to a Rugby Union Correspondent goes to Iain Morrison, who wrote in Scotland on SundayBiggest travelling supportI thought it was Hull KR from TV

One final thought. Anyone under the illusion that Edinburgh is a sporting city, think again. It's a great hosting city for an event like Magic Weekend but expecting the locals to get involved - and 6,000-odd is a very respectable figure, believe me - is a folly as great as wild talk about a Super League franchise eventually in Scotland. In Edinburgh, Hearts and Hibs are low on the public's radar and people don't much care for club rugby union.

I was struck by an interview in The Sunday Times Scotland with Edinburgh chief executive Nic Cartwright - the same Nic Cartwright who was at London Broncos. A similar hearts-and-minds battle for spectators applies here. Edinburgh's average attendance is 4,274 - a figure swelled by a Scotland record in the Magners League of 12,534 against Glasgow. The core Edinburgh audience is between 2,000 and 2,500. Let's enjoy Magic Weekend again next year but, please, no more talk about professional rugby league north of the border."

the bottom bit from a man in the know.