Stick it in Manchester for the next three or four seasons and see how/if it grows. Really use it as a vehicle to try to expand the game in Manchester itself. You could have a couple of amateur games in the athletics ground next door on the Friday night - for example Mancunians RL v someone & Eccles v someone. You could have a local Championships club play the opening game on the Saturday - Swinton v someone for example one season, Oldham v Rochdale the next. Get local schools engaged, those that the RFL are already working with and any that have kids that play for Manchester Storm and really help push Mancunians RL to eventually achieve their goal of semi pro status.
People knock Manchester as a venue because it's near the heartlands. Yes, near but it's not in them. It's more of an expansion area than South Wales is and between Manchester and Edinburgh.......which city would probably benefit the sport more and have a bigger chance of the game taking off? Manchester for me.

It was OK - much like Murrayfield. Stadium is good to view from, walk was fine, not much else to say - sun out, beer (rubbish Fosters at £4 a pop was annoying, but it's a football ground) in hand, rugby league in front, difficult to complain.
I thought there were more than 63000 or whatever the quoted. It was announced as 30000 plus on Saturday and there were a lot more on Sunday.

what confused me was that I found pints of fosters at £3.50 in the stand opposite the dugouts but £4 elsewhere.

Shhhhh! Don't tell everyone, or the queues will be a mile long at that bar next time!

Tap water was even cheaper (free) but took the bar staff a few minutes to locate the tap!

i really enjoyed it. It is a fantastic stadium with lots going on in the area within the sport complex but a bit of a dump outside of that until you got back to city centre, which was a 10 minute bus or half hour walk, Steve L especially enjoyed crossing Canal Street! Obviously Cardiff is better for the ground being smack in the middle of town, but next year the tram will be running as well.

Seemed to be quite a few heartland fans staying over for the weekend apart from Wire. Place was packed with Wire shirts on Sat but hard to spot on Sunday!

I thought we were pathetic as fans in terms of getting together, my seat was in the reserved Broncos bit and I watched the first game there with about 25 other fans. Then met Wire Quin, Stevel and co and managed to persuade the Stewards to let me in unreserved for the rest of Sat and our game on Sun. During our game the Broncos in the unreserved were scattered about and we didn't get together which we should do next year. To be fair though I suspect we had less fans there than the very colourful (as ever) and loud Dragons fans most of whom were staying in the hotel was in. By the way the Britannia Hotel is rubbish, good city centre location and impression when you walk in but the rooms are crap.

Saturday highlight - sitting with the FC fans on Saturday as they went from jubilation to abject misery in 15 minutes.

Sunday highlight - Steve Magee picking up the kicking tee at the opening kick off and then falling straight on his ar5e!!

Good crowds, good city centre pubs and food places, full range of hotels and prices available. 25 minutes walk to stadium. I think it's the best place to go until after the recession. Cardiff still my favourite, but Manchester cheaper and more convenient.

Suggestion elsewhere not to hold a full round of SuperLegaue, but the quarter finals of the Challenge Cup, think the round before would be even better 4 games a day and the chance to see a couple or more championship clubs that you might not have seen before.

This might be a real financial prize for the championship clubs too, but not sure of the economics of 'Magic', does it make a profit or subsidised by RFL? It gives 14 hours of broadcasting to Sky so hope they pay too.

Only drawback I could see is most fans not staying the night just there for their own team, so not quite the Rugby League community feel Saturday night. I had a good night out with some Hull KR fans though.

Great Stadium! not bad as a legacy from the Commonwealth Games, much better than the Olympic Stadium and I bet not as costly, City did well out of the deal, though Maine Road was a good ground if not too nice an area.

The whole idea of Magic Weekend has been allowed to slip, it was to take the game to new areas, the RFL have
put so much Spin on last weekend, well they dropped on with the weather, it is right in the middle of the
the M62 belt and easy to get to, even if it annoyed many paying £4 for a pastie which City usually sell for
£2.80p!

Quarter Finals of the Challenge Cup may be a good idea with the way the crowds are declining, but you can bet
Magic is now signed sealed & delivered for 3 years already.

The Truck! yes they attracted big crowds (well Stobart had informed all their fan club) and photo's we soon
circulating to the media what records crowds waiting for autographs, but most of them never went in the
stadium?

The gap between games on Saturday is a joke! people will not sit around. I don't feel many fans will make to a weekend away in Manchester!

The number of derby matches now per season takes away the USP of a derby, but it will be okay when McManus
and a few others have their own way and Super League becomes 12 teams with one of the Toulouse! perhaps they can play it all in a day!

A stadium I would rather use than Old Trafford.

I'll agree with all this, I think having some stuff just outside the ground was really nice so you could have a little wander if you wanted. Inside the view was great from everywhere on the unreserved level, and being unreserved really worked. We watched Broncos in the sun and then moved to the shaded stand for the following 3 games (the first place we sat was in sun until about the last 30 mins of Saints v Wigan, so I'd have looked like a boiled lobster!).

]

I sat opposite the cameras, halfway line thinking that would be prime, but I had one other Bronco 3 rows behind, 3 Catalans direclty behind and a few other Broncos in the next block. Everyone else was Wigan, Saints, Leeds etc. I saw some Broncos fans on the opposite stand adjacent with the 40. Admittedly though when I asked the stewards if the Broncos fans had congregated they all independently said 'you're the first one we've seen' so I guess that tells us the level of visible support.

We cheered though and made a point to be funny about it, so actually got people from other teams around us to join in (they thought I was being funny when I suggested taking 2 from the first penalty in case we didn't get another chance). Hopefully by being loud and proud we've given a few people a better impression of the Broncos support.

A few things put me off...I don't like driving so to get to Manchester by train by 12pm would have been really squeaky for me unless I stayed overnight.

I think its a bit much have another big RL event in Manchester when we already have the Grand Final which I found underwhelming.

Still it sounds like they made a better effort with the fan-zone this year and I guess the weather would have helped (anyone remember how freezing Edinburgh was?)

I will give it a try next year though I wish it was in Cardiff, so you can all get together in the pubs...2 miles a bit of a walk to the pubs!

BTW - all the beer in the Twickers pubs was £4.50 a pint last Sat...blimmin racketeering!

Ah - so it was you in front of us!

Haha, could you hear us? We were doing our best. Especially when the mascot walked past.

The other reason for moving to the opposite side was that we ended up surrounded by a St Helens old womans club all chatting away on some nonsense. The people in the shade were much nicer, including the two mums and their sons from Harrogate, all of whom supported Leeds except the smallest kid who supported Wigan. Black sheep obviously.

Really enjoyed both days, drove up Friday night and came back Monday. Prefer Cardiff as its 20 miles from home but felt Manchester was more compact in as much as everything you wanted on the day was there and no need to leave the stadium and immediate area. Can't speak for the nightlife as my 15 year old son with us. Hopefully it settles in one place, as a concept I think it should just be a festival of rugby league and we need to fiind other ways to spread the word.

We took the train Saturday, stayed over Sat & Sun and came back Monday, total £48 - I think we could have had the same price coming back Sunday.


Stayed in "The Place", tripping distance of Piccadilly, nice rooms, wi-fi, gym access (unused ) and despite several Hen Night parties and a wedding, not that noisy - £170 for the two nights.

Thought the weekend was brilliant!! Found it really funny sunday morning watching the Catalans coach turn up and then drive past the entrance! We drove up and stayed the weekend in Bolton (it was nice, honest!) and parking was so easy in the school opposite. Easy to get to, easy to leave and 'stuff' to do during the day. Loved the mascot races and the cheating, loved the Stobart trucks - nice to see which players had been chosen. Fantastic weather and 'comfy' seats (padded) hope its there next year too!