They've been doing this for a few years now and with some good marketing, it's been getting bigger and bigger. Saracens even took on South Africa at Wembley and got over 46,000 for it and have been playing Heineken Cup games at Wembley too with good crowds. They are definitely one of the more innovative clubs out there.

They've even done it in France with Stade Francais hiring out the Stade de France and selling it very well with a lot of cheap tickets.

It makes a great occasion, gets media coverage and brings in fans - many of them new. Compare that to Magic Weekend with some dismally attended games. Hats off to all involved and it'd be nice to see something like this tried in League.

i bet they could sell it twice over if they took a nsw v queensland state of origin decider to wembley

It's each to his own ..My love is Rugby League Watch it played it I also watch and played Union In my Forces Days
People are not daft because they like something different to others ..It would be a odd World if we all like the same things in life ..It would be boring.. ps it was a great turn out no matter what sport

We can only just half fill Wembley for an England vs Australia game, but we'd fill an Australian game (and twice over)?

Not too sure about that lad.

Think we'd do better for crowds if we separated the extra games and took them on the road to big nearby venues that both clubs agree on.

e.g. Wigan vs Saints and Salford vs Huddersfield double header at Old Trafford
Widnes vs Warrington at Goodison Park
Leeds vs Bradford at Elland Road
Catalans vs London at Paris or Avignon
Wakey vs Cas at Oakwell, Barnsley
Hull vs Rovers at Bramall Lane, Sheffield

Would get bigger overall crowds at these than at any of the MW we've had.

Couldn't agree more. It'd be great to see and, if you had some a little further away from the home towns, you'd still keep the whole "weekend away" part to it that many people enjoy with the Magic Weekend.

Congratulations on the marketing but not lets get carried away by the product of Rugby Union. Only a couple of weeks ago Saracens played London Irish in front of just 6,240 people.

Just a quick question- whats wrong with giving awat free tickets? You guys have the facilities so throw them at schools and get another 10thousand through the gates, all kids eat and drink so cant be losing out surely?

What's wrong?...

It costs money because of our deal at the stadium.
Giving things away for free devalues the price of a ticket anyway (who would buy a child's season pass if they keep getting in free?)
Just because it's free doesn't mean they'll come. If someone gave me a free ticket to Rovers, I wouldn't go and I imagine many others wouldn't. If they offered these people a very cheap ticket, they have the option of buying then and the ticket has value and you also know who is going.

And I'm not sure about this, but IIRC we don't take money from food and drink, the EMC do.

My god - the OP is pathetic! Why not devote your energies into promoting RL and gleaning some of the better ideas from this obvious success rather than have the usual Hull attitude of moaning about it!

82k for a club game, you can b*tch all you want pal - but thats a success!
So maybe look and see WHY it was a success then try and give them a deserved pat on the back - rather than slag it off.

(BTW, im a Hull FC who lives 1 mile from Twickers/Stoop)

double post sorry.

I do so wish that people would realise that RU is a lot bigger then we are or will ever be. RU is a whole culture where people an actually play the game at all levels and its a business link. I have been known to go to games at Leicester and ten minutes half time many seats are still un occupied, because they are still in the bar doing business.

RU has big business, media, royal patronage, and is not regionally based and certainly not bothered by its smaller and poorer rugby rival. They are two differing games serving a differing public we need to stop worrying about them and use the strengths our game has, one of them is our northern base. We should look now towards consolidating our homelands even at the expense of " expansion" it has never worked and that is down to RU dominating everywhere outside our core area. I would love to see RL teams in London, Wales, Scotland et al but its never going to happen and we have history to prove it. We are wasting countless millions propping up clubs that are basicaly bankrupt and for what ?

Of course its big business, thats why the money comes flowing in along with people.
Whilst the Boulevard was crumbling away and Knowsley Road was crumbling, Leicester RFC developed Welford Road, and strategic mergers started taking place across the country.

RU moved on with the times, RL just looked on envious, and did what it does best - MOANED!

There's so much wrong with all that I don't know where to begin.

Guess I'll start with where you was right. Yeah, RU is a lot bigger than we are. Bigger than we will ever be? Maybe. More likely than not as they've got a considerable head start, money, links, etc. but mainly because RL isn't run by the right people worldwide to make the differences needed to go forward at the rate we need to.

RU is a public school game that benefits from the Old Boys network that have power in places. That won't always be the case and things ARE changing. League is getting into places one step at a time and breaking down barriers. We get more funding and sponsorship now than ever before, not because we're "worrying" about what they're doing, but because we're paying attention to what they and other sports are doing and emulating it where it matters whilst at the same time trying our own innovations.

If we look to "consolidate the homelands" and sod everything else off, we'll be left with a tiny sport played in small pockets of Yorkshire and the North West that gets no funding, little sponsorship and TV revenue and would most likely have to go down to semi-pro level. Our top players would bugger off to play union en masse and we'd be left with Championship standard rugby and no internationals at all. Doesn't sound like a strategy to improving the sport to me.

Expansion "doesn't work" is nonsense as well. Just because there are instances where expansion clubs have failed doesn't mean it doesn't work. It just means it's been done wrong. Catalan Dragons are a huge success and it's a model we need to (but stupidly haven't) emulate. And I'm not sure where you've been recently, but there are loads of RL teams in London and Wales, and a few in Scotland to boot.

And what money are "we (the game)" wasting? Do you think we fund these clubs or do private investors? It's them "wasting" their money, not us. The only thing they get from the game is SL TV revenue, which they are entitled to like every other SL club. Is it wasted any more than it would be on clubs like Wakefield?

Sorry, I can't agree with anyone that would want to keep the game inside their own backyard and thinks it would be "progress".