My biggest gripe is the access. I went by train yesterday. The guides said that Kirkdale was the closest station. still 25-30 minutes walk. I know buses were laid on but after the game, the queues were massive.
Thought the stadium was OK though.

Total attendance was 56,869. Coming in for plenty of flak on Twitter. Personally I got fed up of being told what hallowed turf and a prestigious arena they were playing in every five minutes. Enough with the Liverpool media love-in.

Rugby League voted with their feet and now SL has to work out why. Figure all the things people have already mentioned factor in.

56,869 is a good 1st year at Liverpool. Now people have been and worked out how to get there and back etc I think next year will see an increase in attendances.

On another note why do some RL supporters spend all the time criticising our game, its structure etc. Some must think it's cool & they're being hip. But they need to know it's not, it's just plain boring. If you dislike our game so much stop going. You won't be missed.

Very little interest from Liverpudlian public. There's too much going on there for locals to miss out on for an alien sport.

What you mean is RL supporters who enjoy the game and want it to be enjoyed by a wider audience, and think it could be organised better and promoted better so they criticise the administration of the game. If they stop going, the attendances are going to be even smaller than now, this is the whole problem. They will be missed as the game will shrink.

One thing's for sure Anfield will WANT to have it back.

I was talking to a member of the catering staff who told me they took £260,000 on the bar on Saturday, £80,000 above budget and were calling local hotels for beer supplies by the time the Wire match took place ( by then I was offered canned beer only ). They simply could not believe this level of custom.

That may have something to do with the marketing, I never saw one poster or advertisement around the city,I walked up to the stadium from lime st station and saw nothing. One thing that did catch my attention was I saw some locals talking to Rugby fans asking what was going on at the stadium I had to laugh at that has it spoke volumes.

I wish someone had told me about the magnetic thingy ma jig in the beer glasses before I rested it on my middle finger....

So Anfield is too far outside the centre, with nothing apparently around it, yet you suggest Coventry as an alternative?

I don’t see RLs obsession with Coventry, we may aswell have it on the moon if we are to have it there. Seriously, what is the point?

If we are going to have the Magic Weekend have it somewhere for 5 years and over that 5 years grow the sport in that area not just have it as a p155 up in a different stadium every year because that’s just wasted effort.

This, I can see the appeal of anfield its a global recognised stadium. I just feel that Liverpool is just too footballcentric for us to really gather much interest.

Full stadiums create a buzz start off in ones you know you can fill. If people don't get a ticket it creates demand the following year and then we can look to go to bigger stadiums.

I think if it's to go for it Barcelona would be my long term suggestion. Their game against Wigan was surprisingly well attended so we already have a good base to build on.

Also I would make one maybe controversial change to it. Make it the last game before the playoffs. With the possibility of the last game possibly deciding relegation and the order of the top 5. Possibly with a late announcement if the dm fixtures though I think that would be too open to manipulation from the rfl.

As someone who was at both the Barcelona and Anfield games I'd like the RFL/Superleague to give us a defined plan over the next few years for the Magic weekend.
Example Anfield 2020, Newcastle 2021 - 22. Barcelona 2023, Dublin 2024, Amsterdam 2025.
just let us know in good time. Whilst we were in Calella for the game in Barcelona we had this discussion over ofew (a lot) of beers.
One of the more interesting suggestions was to merge the Super League and NRL Magic weekends. eg take Wigan v Wire, Leeds v Wakefield and Salford v Cas to Brisbane one year. Over here we could have Melbourne v St George, Penrith v Roosters and Parramatta v Tigers.
In two or four years they could they reverse the venues. Just give fans time to plan, and don't moan that "we can't afford it" If you can't go to Aus then support the concept over here.

Do we have an obsession with Coventry? Played a double-header there once if I remember rightly (I was there) - what else? Funnily enough, given we have a team there, your second para is a good argument for Coventry.

I still agree with whoever said it isn't a good place for Magic. Three miles out of the city centre and, while I enjoyed my trip there, it is the sort of place people would write off as a '****hole' and decide to spend the weekend in Wigan instead.

I’m glad we only went in for our game as there’s no way I could have sat in those seats for multiple matches. Getting taxis was easy enough, but ideally you shouldn’t need to do that.

Because Liverpool is so close and we can go all the time, it just doesn’t feel special. Might be different for fans from further away.

Nottingham Forest have redevelopment plans now, which will increase capacity to 38,000+, and modernise the facilities. I’ve thought for a while that it could be a good option but the stadium capacity is currently too small at 30k.

It would tick the expansion box by going to a new area, but most teams fans could still get there in under 2 hours.
Stadium is only 1 mile from the centre, so it’s not in the middle of nowhere.
Sports ground next to the stadium so room for fanzone, and pitches for additional matches and warm ups.
Great nightlife.
Plenty of other things to see and do.
38,000 wouldn’t make the stadium look empty. Always thought that if anyone flicking through channels sees an empty stadium they will think “Well that’s not worth watching”.

Maybe in a few years down the line it could be an option.

You're getting quite personal aren't you. Seem to single me out every time when other's make the the same point.

Anyway, moving on, by means of correction, you may be interested to learn that
Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona was founded by a Catalan. Albeit Barcelona is by far the biggest supported club by Catalans and synonymous Catalan independence now this is largely due to the disparity of success and subsequent following. You will know the most famous player, Raúl Tamudo, for Espanyol is a locally born Catalan. The clubs name is spelt in Catalan. The club is quite plural with a number of Castilian leaning and Catalan fans.

Of course Barcelona and Espanyol are fierce rivals but to use the argument is like saying RL fans who don't like Liverpool would avoid Anfield in their droves.

Oh, and the Wires71 of this world were actually staying in their finca in Álora, Andalucia for this bank holiday, tending their olives