Quote Itchy Arsenal="Itchy Arsenal"Not remotely interested.
A concept past its sell by date and I have no idea why it continues. I'll correct myself in that it probably makes a few bob therefore it will continue until the crowds drop to insufficient numbers where no money is made. I imagine Newcastle was picked because the cost is less than at City.
The only way in my opinion that it could work is if it wasn't a 27th round and it was the opening round of the season. There are at least two problems with this namely where could it be played and which SL teams would give up a home fixture?
The weekend just adds zero value to the sport to me and represents just how unimaginative the marketing guys are at SL and Sky.
Frankly Scarlett I couldn't give a damn.'"
City councils are paying the RFL to take the event there so the actual crowd figure, whilst important, isn't the be all and end all.
I can't agree it's past its sell by date, infact its the opposite IMO. It's growing and getting better (although they really need to work harder at the fixture selection) and the crowd last year would back that up. The weekend gets far more publicity then a normal weekend of superleague action and takes over a Sky Sports channel for 2 days which can be no bad thing.
Do I think it's perfect? No, it needs tweaking but if they do it could go on a level. The venue in Newcastle is perfect (we had a great weekend last year). It brings in a lot of locals, loads of Cumbrians and also many league fans who are looking to have a good weekend. I'd move the CC final back to May and put the magic weekend as a super 8 round (plus middle 8's) on the August bank holiday weekend. It would add meaning to the fixtures although we would need a free weekend from Newcastle United being at home (so the event would probably have to continue to move around venues which is no bad thing).
It's a great concept IMO and will be around for years to come and so it should be.