Judging by the amount of phonecalls people have received, with the RFL practically begging people to buy tickets, it would seem the magic weekend has not been as successful as they expected.

The big question is: do we really need a magic weekend? And if we do, where should it be held? It seems Edinburgh is not all that popular.

My back garden

I think you'll find that next year's 'Magic' weekend is already ear-marked for Mr Chicken's back garden.

It's a cracking concept, no other sport has it. But the thought, marketing, location and timing of the event needs more much much more planning. RL fans if you follow your team home and away now have a massive financial calender and this is something both the RFL and clubs maybe need to look at if planning to carry on with this.

Indeed, I have made a start on the car park already

I can hear the chants from the terraces now........Jerry Jerry Jerry

I think the weekend is losing its magic. Very dissappointing attendance and we mustn't kid ourselves that we are promoting the game. Sky had it on their 4th channel with the RU semi final, cricket 20:20 and key Chelsea game getting higher billing, while on BBC there was the world snooker. Also the matches chosen were mostly predictable with not enough big clashes. Not good planning from the Redhall.

I know it can be a good weekend out, but really the attendance is a bit pathetic when you consider its a SL full weekend fixture list.

Would be better to pick a date after the Union & soccer seasons have finished with nothing else on. IMO we should stage it somewhere closer to SLs home area, where you can choose to either have a weekend away or go for the day(s) Could be say Yorkshire one year and Lancashire the next or even Newcastle.

It certainly needs a rethink.

Our game with Wakefield aside (and possible the Cas/Catalans game), the games have been very one-sided this weekend.

I think the concept is a good one but it’s the execution that lets it down.

My thoughts (all things being equal):

Move it Newcastle – St James’ is bang slap in the middle of Newcastle centre, there is a tun of cheap hotels, the night life is cracking and it’s driveable with a return trip in the same day.

Move it to the Spring Bank Holiday – the kickyball season has finished, the RU season is finished and it may even be a bit warmer.

Make it the ‘Derby’ match - …and not just ‘another’ derby game. The tastiest pick of this weekend was Leeds v Wakey???

Make it a Season Ticket game – add £20 to the cost of the overall price, that’d boost the attendance figures.

…and (just for the Admiral) get Cheggers back!!

We don’t have a magic weekend in rugby league do we really?

Yeah this weekend has been marketed as magic. But you know what Bill Hicks said about marketers..

By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself.

No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself.

Seriously though, if you are, do.

Aaah, no really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers. Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no ing joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are ed and you are ing us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your ing soul, kill yourself.

Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, "he's doing a joke..." there's no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, ing hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend - I don't care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil ing makinations. Machi... Whatever, you know what I mean.

I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, "Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart."

Oh man, I am not doing that. You ing evil scumbags!

"Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research - huge market. He's doing a good thing."

Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags! Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every ing thing on this planet!

"Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill's very bright to do that."

God, I'm just caught in a ing web.

"Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar..."

How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like ing babies at night, don't you?

"What didya do today honey?"

"Oh, we made ah, we made ah nic a childhood food now, goodnight." [snores "Yeah we just said you know is your baby really too loud? You know?" [snores "Yeah, you know the mums will love it." [snores

Sleep like ing children, don't ya, this is your world isn't it?

WTF

Is it possible for Damo to get any stranger?

Have to echo what has already been said. The location is the key thing to me.

I loved the weekend when it was in Cardiff. You could enjoy which games you wanted to watch, get a pass out, and be in the pub within 2 minutes.

The atmosphere on the streets of Cardiff during the day was cracking and the nightlife afterwards just as good. Also, having the roof shut gave it a special feel, and there was at least a little bit of atmosphere that you didn't get at a half empty Murrayfield.

I'd deffinately go if they moved it back to Cardiff and know of at least 50 people who would follow suit, I'd imagine there's a damn side more people with the same view all over the country. To me, the rugby isn't the be all and end all of the weekend, so I want it be somewhere where there is something to do aswel as the rugby.

"You showing any of the 2nd day of the Magic Weekend today mate?"


Sports Cafe -"nah, too much sport on"

Buzzzzz,

"Maureen, if this user rings for tickets for next year will you tell him I'm out, ta luv..."

I can't believe I read through all of it. I normally drift in and out but god knows what happened there

Anyway I was offered 2 free tickets and turned them down. If it had been cardiff though I'd have gone. Murrayfield had no pull for me. Went in 2000 and it's the worst final venue I've visited.

Totally agree. It doesn't even have a proper concourse ffs!

Another vote for Cardiff. Loved it there. Edinburgh holds no appeal for me. Would def go if they took it back to Cardiff.

If you didnt go you missed out, it is a great venue and there was a great atmosphere, it helps that there are several rugby fields within the compound which means there were lots of things to do outside the ground and space for a variety of food and drink (although overpriced compared to the North it is usual Edinburgh event prices), i cant think of another stadium that has that

Re-name it the "We hate Rhinos Weekend", it might attract a few more people. After all it was what I heard all weekend. There's a lot of jealous people out there.

it was the first chant of the weekend


the bulls fans who sat in front of us were all excited about us being outside the playoffs and losing the WCC but when I shouted "and this game is over"when crusaders went in for the second try (and I was right!), they didnt seem so happy with a bit of banter


they left at full time in their game

I think the magic weekend concept suffers from one main problem-that of contradfiction. On one hand it looks to be a festival of rugby on a single weekend, and on the other it looks to spread the game to a new region. Both are good ideas, but trying to do them both with one event is foolhardy.

I support having a whole weekend of rugby league in one place. But that place should be at Old Trafford, for round 1 of superleague (as the RFU kick off with the double-header of 4 teams at Twickenham), with the 2 teams from the previous grand final kicking off the season. It would help to raise the profile of the game in Manchester, which should be one of the biggest strongholds of the game.

The idea of expanding the game is also a good one-but it should be done week by week, to give a continuing prescence of top-level rugby. The people of south wales quickly turned off when they realised Celtic Crusaders were going to get hammered every week. Every round, one match should be played away from the heartlands. So south Wales would get weekly superleague to prepare the area for their own team and build up a sustinable supporter base. Also, this should be done in an appropriate stadium-Swansea's liberty stadium or the Cardiff City Stadium-not somewhere so huge it can't be filled.

Another good way of expanding the game would be to bring in teams from other regions. Barrow, for instance, to bring top flight RL back to Cumbria.

just home.... we loved the weekend, had a two night family break in the city centre, wasn't cheap but we spent what we chose to! we went last year but the big diff was a smaller crowd and therefore the atmosphere suffered greatly....maybe a move to somewhere closer that people could easily travel to and home within the day to see the matches would benefit the 'magic' concept!!

and yes mark_w i agree!!