The RFL were issuing Spin before they announced 6,000 down on last year in Cardiff.

I have nothing against The Magic Weekend, and about it moving around the country, but, I would keep it away from Wembley as that would devalue away from The Challenge Cup.

Still feel it should have remained at Cardiff this year!

Seems Newcastle are interested?

Pod was sat on his own in the south stand. There's plenty of atmosphere when your sat with the fans. They signed a two year comntract at Edinburgh and I can't wait to go back. I also agree that they could look to scale back the size of the stadium or increase the value of the game- make it a derby and make it worth 4 points. Either way this is the best event on the RL calender and long may it continue.

The match: Not pretty but we won, may have been helped by a couple of dodgy (non) calls but after 12 years of seeing us screwed over I can live with that. Very strange watching a game without being able to shout sing and cheer but hopefully the voice will be fully recovered for the next game.

The atmosphere: The cluster of Quins fans made a good fist of it but in a mostly empty stadium it was never going to be great. The only time anyone neutral cheered was when Salford scored - I guess they don't all hate Leeds after all. Still don't understand why they open the upper levels at these things, would have been far better to put everyone down below. Even for the "big" games on Saturday the place was still mostly empty.

The venue: Liked it. Helped that the sun shone and made the village a pleasant place to be. Plenty of pubs and restaurants near the ground so nobody could complain about a lack of places to go. City centre was also a pleasant place to be and made it possible to do something other than drink if you wanted to. Personally I preferred it to Cardiff.

The Publicity: Others have stated that just about every city centre pub knew about the game and the (Scottish) Sunday Mail had an 8 page centre spread on the event. That said, with a 10k run and some seemingly important scottish soccer being played it was clear where the priorities laid for the locals.

Next Year: Yeah I'd be happy to go back there and I'd recommend it to others. Two years is long enough as these things can tend to get stale and its nice to explore somewhere else. Newcastle? Bring it on, gotta be worth a visit just for that amazing building.

Will certainly "bother" to go to away matches, like have been doing so for the past 3/4 years. Wembley, no, leeds festival the same weekend, sorry.

Wembley has been mentioned on this thread a couple of times as a possible venue, which I think would be a terrible idea. They would need to do something about that pitch for a start, an article I read on Friday gave some technical stuff about why turf (which Wembley apparently is) is significantly worse than seed (murryfield) for supporting two days of at least three RL games per day.

February, May, August and October for "showpiece" events is spread out enough, Leeds (world club), Edinburgh (or Cardiff, Newcastle or where ever), Wembley and Manchester are spread around the country enough. Personally I can't afford to go to all, so Magic Weekend wins simply because I can garantee to see Quins play, in addition to seeing other teams.

ok couple of things that have been mntioned on here
WHY would they make this a 4 point game!!! lets shoot that one down straight away
As for the domestic game not supporting several big events during the year, well if make every event a big event then they all ebcome the norm
Would be interested to see how the numbers through the gate at edinburgh compaire to the gates through clubs on a normal week

Edinburgh for 2 years!!! well apparently Cardiff was 3 years and look what happened there
It is a difficult decision, 20000 in a 60000 odd seat stadium!! (if thats the capacity) or go for a smaller stadium that looks fuller

Obviously the RFL and SL like the idea, but i do think the promotion is poor for the whole thing, so hey
lets see how i feel next year about going

Here you go:
Warrington v HKR (200icon_cool.gif 9,095
Catalan v Leeds (200icon_cool.gif 9,880
Hudds v Celtic (2009) 6,407
FC v Castleford (200icon_cool.gif 12,681
Wigan V Saints (2009) 22,332
Salford v Quins (2009) 3,367
Wakey v Bradford (2009) 6,516

so, if these games had been played at the home team venue instead of jockland we would have had 70,278 over the weekend........10k short for MM isn't a bad result IMO, but I do agree that it could and should be marketed in a more efficient way

Agree with most of this (although I know next year there is still 0 chance of me attending).

With regards to the stadium, the concept wouldn't really work in a stadium that wasn't over half empty due to the fact people enjoy moving around etc.

There was room for (a lot more) but you are generally right, if it was in a close to full stadium it wouldn't be comfortable to be in all day.

Couldn't get to Murrayfield after having done (and enjoyed)the 2 cardiffs - maybe next year. Shame about the gates being down, obviously a bit of belt tightening going on, and (almost) no derby games but RFL must be a bit disappointed as 14 teams taking part this year not just 12. Interesting to see 6,000 tickets sold to locals - would there have been more sold at Cardiff now Celtic are in SL, obviously with the right amount of promotion? I know the RFL fell out of love with the Millenium Stadium / Cardiff but it struck me as being odd to move from Wales with a Welsh team (and local appeal?) playing the opening game on day 2.

If they're looking to move the Magic weekend in a year or 2 then Toon gets my vote. Great city, great locals -was up there on a work/ secondment thing during the footie world cup a few years back, great time!Could coincide with a return to SL of Gateshead?

Quote ="Bronco1979"February, May, August and October for "showpiece" events is spread out enough, Leeds (world club), Edinburgh (or Cardiff, Newcastle or where ever), Wembley and Manchester are spread around the country enough. Personally I can't afford to go to all, so Magic Weekend wins simply because I can garantee to see Quins play, in addition to seeing other teams.'" This is really what I was getting at when I spoke of too many showpieces earlier. Don't forget too that only three years ago most supporters only had one long trip that involved seeing their own team, i.e. away to us (alright it may have been away to us twice for a few teams due to the quirk of the exta rounds in the fixture list) but now they've got their own team's trips to London, South Wales, France and Edinburgh to consider before they think about funding a trip to Wembley for the cup final, in which their own team probably won't be taking part. Personally I think I'd rather have seen one big match in a full stadium in Edinburgh even if it didn't involve my club, but I suspect I'm in the minority and most will prefer the guarantee of seeing their own team plus the opportunity to see up to six other matches. I'll still go again next year, when it seems likely we'll revert to playing Catalans: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 221869.ece

Quote ="Bronco1979"February, May, August and October for "showpiece" events is spread out enough, Leeds (world club), Edinburgh (or Cardiff, Newcastle or where ever), Wembley and Manchester are spread around the country enough. Personally I can't afford to go to all, so Magic Weekend wins simply because I can garantee to see Quins play, in addition to seeing other teams.'" This is really what I was getting at when I spoke of too many showpieces earlier. Don't forget too that only three years ago most supporters only had one long trip that involved seeing their own team, i.e. away to us (alright it may have been away to us twice for a few teams due to the quirk of the exta rounds in the fixture list) but now they've got their own team's trips to London, South Wales, France and Edinburgh to consider before they think about funding a trip to Wembley for the cup final, in which their own team probably won't be taking part. Personally I think I'd rather have seen one big match in a full stadium in Edinburgh even if it didn't involve my club, but I suspect I'm in the minority and most will prefer the guarantee of seeing their own team plus the opportunity to see up to six other matches. I'll still go again next year, when it seems likely we'll revert to playing Catalans: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 221869.ece

Same. Thats the reason why I can't wait for Wembley, regardless of who is playing. A far better day out watching a competitive game of RL with the so called "rugby league family" as everyone else seems to crave. People are actually @rsed about the result rather than just being on a jolly watching what is essentially 7 friendlies.

One of the many reasons I didn't go was because it seems pointless doing the weekend somewhere where ultimately there's little hope of League making an impact. Can we honestly see Glasgow or Edinburgh getting into Super League any time soon?

The whole raison d'etre of having it in Cardiff the last two years was as a way of promoting the game in wales with a view to giving Celtic an SL franchise. Stimulating local interest. Murrayfield doesn't fill that criteria, and interestingly enough I was at the Rose Bowl yesterday and overheard some people sat behind me talking about it and they were all utterly perplexed at a whole weekend being spent in Edinburgh.

The game can make an impact without having a Superleague team sprout up mate, Edinburgh are not that far away from a Championship level side and a small boost in interest would see the Scottish league take off.



The people of Hampshire spend their entire lives utterly perplexed.

I think it works, if i go next year, which i probably will ill probably just go for one day. 7 games is a bit of a marathon, i only watched 6. 60k fans all together in one city? I met leeds fans, fax fans, salford fans etc. and it was a really good atmosphere all weekend. But more importantly it brings in money to SL to keep a weekend free for an international break (which is massively important for the development of the sport) and it raises awareness (it does, loads of locals were very aware of it and interested in it all) in another city/region/country. What constitutes a success? 60k over a weekend does and its a really good occasion.

Whats so perplexing about watching multiple games of your favourite sport with thousands of other like minded people? It might be perplexing to cricket fans, but then i cant imagine watching four full days of one very slow game that could well end in a draw.

60k people eh? Interesting.

ok dont be a pedant. debate if you like but you get what im saying.

Its hardly being a pedant when its likely the actual figure was at least a third less than that.

If all those drinking out on the concourse would get in and watch other games apart from their own, then the stadium would look ok. When I went out during one of the games there were more outside drinking than inside.

Personally I really enjoyed the weekend, a festival of Rugby League, plenty to see and do in Edinburgh, good friendly banter with other fans. Use the park&ride and go anywhere in Edinburgh for £3 for the day, hoping on and off when you want. And the bus stops right outside the ground. No probs.

What??? Did we not get 2 points???

I'm sure people weren't that bothered win or lose, more enjoying the weekend as a holiday.

Oh you didn't see how much it meant to the Wigan fans.

Yes but we all know they don't get a lot to celebrate nowadays, just another small club

The debate for me the RFL and Super League should try and launch fully a new member club. London received Internationals to back Our Club, then the first season of a new Super League Club in Wales and they move to Scotland. For me its as if they tip their toes in the water and then run. If the RFL dropped any future internationals in London, we would feel disappointed.

I have nothing against Edinburgh, but lets ensure that London and Wales are successful first and then move on to Scotland and such as Newcastle to support Gateshead.