Saints on the sunday, second game on 3.15 kick off.

Wanted to play Wigan

Can't wait, hope we create as good an atmosphere as we have at the Etihad the last few years.

I'm wondering what the logic is in having Cas vs. Wakey on last.

I may be wrong, but I looked at the Magic Weekend as like a gig: the warm up acts go on first, and then the headliners finish off the event. With that perspective I am struggling to understand how ourselves and the current champions got 'demoted'.

What's the reason for this event now?

Revenue, it can only be revenue.

Here's a thought, mix it up a bit and you might attract more fans.

Sorry Hudds/Cats? you'll get more fans at Leigh
Calder derby as the premium fixture..meh
Sunday on a non bank holiday v Saints AGAIN...no thanks.

Well exactly. We've progressed from having another game every year against Wigan, to another game every year against you lot.

With the new league structure and the massively increase in the significance of a high league placing, how ridiculous is it that we're going with an uneven fixture schedule again? 'Magic' Weekend should have something exciting about it. It should be different. At the moment it's incredibly boring and it's hard to see how they are hoping to draw a big crowd for those fixtures.

Wakey and Cas dont have as far to travel?

I'd imagine if we were last we'd be on here complaining that we won't have time to get home for work and are thus not going?

Just bored of the same stuff every year, mix it up ffs.

Thought it was ridiculous that they've left it so long to announce the fixtures and then announce 5 of the 6 exactly the same as last year. Especially considering that the one that they have changed they were forced into.

Moan, moan, moan and moan ... I just thought I'd join in. Cheer up you miserable lot!

Which stand are most people going to book? It looks like you can't move between stands and it'd be a shame to have supporters split over 4 sides of the ground as it would make it hard to recreate the brilliant atmosphere of recent seasons.

Yes, if we're going for a "magic weekend" my preference would be to have it as the first round of games after the split, which would mean there's not an uneven fixture schedule leading up to the split, all the teams in that final seven games could then have three home and away games plus the "magic" game, and it would operate as a good springboard for that phase of SL. And yes, it would be later in the season and you might need to rearrange some of the Challenge Cup schedule but surely that could be worked around

The problem there is that the situation would be similar to play-off games, when people would wait to see who's playing who and not even bother getting tickets. There's already some excitement in the NE about this and it will help the build up if the public know what the fixtures are.

I would also suggest that anyone who's coming up on the Friday makes a point of going to the Gateshead Thunder v York match on the Friday evening at Kingston Park (the Falcons ground). It's easy to get to by the Metro and also has a huge carpark. It would give a huge boost to RL in the NE if the Thunder got a good crowd.