im with you here.........was the random draw that threw up awful games that made that a disaster............on the other hand.........why should saints have to play us 3 times..its not fair on them

At the end of the day, at the moment Rugby League as a sport doesnt have a strong enough fan base for something like this to be a success.

Yeah Wigan and Leeds have massive home fan bases. Warrington, Hull and St Helens is ok. The rest of Super Leagues is pretty poor for anybodys standards. No matter what the RFL do they are not going to fill an 80k stadium two days in a row for 7 matches. Its only something that would work where fans are crazy like in America with the superbowl. It wouldnt work in football because the fans are thugs. It wouldnt work in RU because the fans would get bored, its never going to be a massive success.

The RFL would make more money just having one extra fixture of Derbys, at seperate, normal RL stadiums. Im not saying thats what they should do (there is no point) but as Wigan/Leeds Andy has already said, the attendance is less than normal for an average weekly round, and as Katrina pointed out, most of the '60k' that attended the matches will have had weekend tickets and gone on both days so the real amount of people that actually attended is alot less than that!

We have International players complaining to the press that its hard for England players to perform at the end of the season after such a long gruelling hard season - so why are we making them play an extra match?

There are soooooooooo many reasons for this event to be scrapped, and so little for it to carry on going, its getting worse and worse every year.

Reasons for it to carry on:
1.The RFL will have made well over £1 million from this event.
2.Everyone who went loved it.

What are the reasons for it to be scrapped?

As I came out of the ground after the Wire game, they were stamping your hand to allow re-entry, loads of Wire fans refused the offer. I spoke to a few and they said they were here for the match and were buggering off home. I'd say that around 30% of the Wire fans were in attendance for the Wigan-Saints match.

I'd say the complete opposite was true. What other major(ish) sport has completely changed the time of year it is played and also completely changed the way it decides it's champions, and have both embraced by it's core support over the last 10-15 years? The one thing RL fans can't be accused of is resistance to change.

Maybe those who think it's a crap idea that has run it's time fail to see what Nigel Wood on another freebie actually brings to the sport?

Are you just talking from gate receipts there, or other sources of income?
As I sat in the stadium yesterday I discussed the very same thing that we can't have made much profit from the event.

Bearing in mind Stadium hire, stewarding costs, advertising...etc?

Quote: 19 Leagues "Read my posts and you will see. The fact that you can only come up with a massive 2 reasons for it to carry on says it all. I dont know how much money they made because I dont work for the accounts department for the RFL (im assuming you do) but i know that everyone who went did not love it. A group of my mates went and said it was a waste of time, im sure theres more also.'" See how many negative posts about it you can find on these forums. In fact don't even bother, just read this post from a Leigh fan of all people: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=482295&p=15839605#p15839605 If your mates didn't like it then that's a shame. They don't have to go again if they don't want to. Doesn't mean the RFL should scrap the whole event. Give me one good reason why it should be scrapped.

Quote: 19 Leagues "Read my posts and you will see. The fact that you can only come up with a massive 2 reasons for it to carry on says it all. I dont know how much money they made because I dont work for the accounts department for the RFL (im assuming you do) but i know that everyone who went did not love it. A group of my mates went and said it was a waste of time, im sure theres more also.'" See how many negative posts about it you can find on these forums. In fact don't even bother, just read this post from a Leigh fan of all people: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=482295&p=15839605#p15839605 If your mates didn't like it then that's a shame. They don't have to go again if they don't want to. Doesn't mean the RFL should scrap the whole event. Give me one good reason why it should be scrapped.

Bearing in mind that they are all paid for by the Welsh tourist board, who also pay the RFL £500k to host the event? Did you really think the RFL would just do this for the sake of it?

Maybe I should have said swap and change.
Imagine the RFL switching to summer for a few years, then winter for a couple before back to summer? I would like to see average attendances over the 95/96/97 periods for all clubs as no doubt we would have had the tradionalists grumbling. I know ours dropped but that could have been the hangover effect of the dominant period.

Regards the Grand Final, support increased from 43k to 70k gradually over a number of years, helped I would imagine by the fact that supporters were getting used to the format and the fact it remained at Old Trafford on a Saturday in October.

That's a nice sweetner then.




Maybe the RFL of the past. I've been to internationals at a third full Twickenham before for instance.

I fail to see how moving it from Cardiff to Edinburgh could in any way but used as similar to changing when RL is played. If the concept was so fantastic as some are suggesting, where it was played would have little difference. I actually preferred Edinburgh to Cardiff having been to both.

The fans are voting with their feet on this one, and from a marketing and PR view for the sport it doesn't look good.

Well as well as moving from Cardiff to Edinburgh, they changed from derby matches to random fixtures (and since back). They also changed from May Bank Holiday weekend to the 2nd week in February. I agree it looked poor on TV.

i haven't been to a magic weekend, but that doesn't mean that i, and others who haven't been to one, don't have a valid opinion on the event. just because i don't eat at mcdonalds doesn't mean that i can't have an opinion on how unhealthy the food from there is.

there are a number of issues with the magic weekend this year which in my opinion mean that the event was not a success.
1) the event was held on the first weekend of the season where teams are not playing at their best, hardly a good advert for our sport when trying to attract new supporters to our sport.
2) the event was held in wales the same day that the welsh rugby union team were playing.
3) we couldn't even half fill the stadium on either day of the event (in fact, the total attendance could have fit into the stadium at the same time and there would still have been empty seats).
4) there isn't enough accommodation in cardiff, if it's hard to find somewhere to stay when the event has sold less than half the available tickets, then where are other supporters supposed to stay if they turn up.
5) even if all the tickets are sold for the event, the stadium will never be filled due to fans coming and going whenever they want and only watching their own team and maybe one or two other games. this would not come across well on tv.

despite the above points, i'm not saying that the event should be scrapped (although that is my own personal view), but if it is to succeed then changes need to be made. firstly, move it closer to the heartlands of rugby league (not necessarily to lancashire or yorkshire, but somewhere closer than cardiff). this would reduce travelling time/costs making it more accessible to rugby league fans.

another option would be to have a host city rather than a host stadium, with games spread across multiple venues (situated close to each other so fans can attend all games if they wish). this would reduce wear and tear on the pitch and increase the likelyhood of finding suitable venues, particularly if the magic weekend takes place after the football season has finished.

one thing that would definitely not improve the event is giving away free tickets, this rarely works as a lot of tickets simply won't be used. if you look at wigan for example, they have a no free ticket policy, yet are the best supported club in the league.

i'm not claiming to have all the answers, in fact, i'm not claiming to have any of the answers, but i am suggesting that changes need to be made if the event is to be successful in the future.

Well said