Is this year when the RFL finally kills the magic weekend.

They balls the fixtures this year.

They had a chance with Magic (and I`d still like it to be the last 16 of the challenge cup) but to rebrand it now as a Wacky weekend in edinburgh.

The marketing men really aren't earning their corn.

I like the marketing. Original and professionally done. Any excuse to bag the RFl with some people.

Sounds like an "It's a knockout" event.

If you look at the top ten sports in Britain, rugby league marketing is probably in the bottom 3. Thats why we have lost the major sponsors to other sports and the reason the editorial coverage is treating league with contempt.

i like the idea of having it as a last 16 CC weekend.

For it to work, it needs to be the derbies at first, more people will go if its a bigger game!
We should also move it back to Cardiff, its the best place to have it, especially now we have a team in Wales.
Loads of pubs and bars right near the ground, great city! And also a much better stadium with a better atmosphere.

Where did you get these figures from?
What are the top 7 sports?
Which major sponsors have we lost and to which sports?
The attitude of the press has very little, if anything to do with the marketing capabilites of rugby league, in my opinion of course.

Wales already have two teams in rugby now so no need to stage the weekend there at the moment and IIRC they priced us out of going back there. Nothing wrong with the Murrayfield venue just wish the games were more appealing.
Switching it back to derbies would be better and now we only have 2 a season it wont undermine them as much as it used to.

To be honest I'd rather not have it.
I can only think that the RFL are somehow making money from it as I really can't see any other reason to keep the thing.

I'm sure we had this discussion over a month ago?!

It's that time of the month Wellsy

I get the feeling its going to die a death this year

The novelty of Edinburgh has worn off, most people who went said it was good but very cold (which will put some off this year)

all the games are on Tv and there's a recession on

and most importantly the draw is dull...I woulden't rush to attend another Hull-Quins game if it was being played at the KC, never mind going all the way to Edinburgh.

it was a decent enough idea, just badly implemented/doesn't have a big enough marketing budget. I'd rather it was axed and we had one less game to be honest.

We are atrocious at marketing the game, above us in this particular area:-
Football, R Union, Cricket,Tennis, Golf, Snooker, Athletics.
We no longer have any "Blue Chip" companies sponsoring our sport:
All we have is haulage, bathroom, bingo, local contractors sponsors.
We don,t market the game in national newspapers, I remember 2 years back the RFL appointed the Daily Mirror as the official "rugby league voice" for the sport and more or less give up on the rest. Hence Union gets nationally a few pages, rugby league gets column inches regionally.
Marketing the international game is almost non existent.

Most of the above sports use a market research agency, I think its called IFM to develop the sport to sponsorship involving:- Banking,Telecomm, Kit Sports, Car Manufacture, Airlines, Leisure groups, Drink Trades etc. The RFL don,t bother, they bleat on about expanding the game nationally but they won,t do it with local sponsorship deals.

Gillette are heavily involved with rugby league both domestically and internationally.
Co-operative, Sky Sports, Steeden, Carnegie, Holiday Inn. They're all official partners/sponsors of the game and hardly your local corner shop.
The way things are at the moment I'd suspect most clubs couldn't give a flying fooz what their sponsors do or sell just as long as the money comes in.

ps Make this the last Magic Weekend please.

I was thinking more in the line of Reebok, Adidas, Nike, Vodophone, O2, Orange, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Guiness, Heinekin, Barclays, HSBC, Santander, BP, Shell etc, if wewant Rugby League to have any standing in Sports these companies need to get on board......so its over to RL marketing to get there finger out.

Nice wish list but if they aren't interested what are the RFL supposed to do?

Don't Puma make the national teams kit and leisurewear? I may not be 'down with the kids' anymore, but aren't they one of the leading brands in sportswear?

Gillette are known around the world as a male grooming company. Irn Bru is sold worldwide. The Co-operative have chains all over the UK.

Away from the RFL, Nike make the Catalans jersey.

Toyota are sponsors of the NRL and the U20s Cup. The Australian competition is sponsored by many well known multi-million dollar national companies down under.

Of course if you're talking about gloabally then the NRL does very well in terms of sponsorship.

Its a big problem, I suppose you could say the RFL are putting the game into "one basket in Sky Sports". I,ve just found another body called sporting link UK (sponsors) and they show the current sponsors for Union:-
Emirates, Land Rover, O2, Nike, M+S, Bollinger, Sports Match, Sunday Telegraph, Gilbert, Yazoo, BMI,IPA, QBE, Investec, Wolf Blass, Powerade, Rhino, Guiness.
I think the RFL need to spend (or waste) loads of money in advertising the game on national TV, newspapers etc in the hope that some major sponsors take a risk in backing our sport. I,m not sure if the correct people are in place at the RFL with the right vision.

What do Sports Match, Yazoo, QBE, Investec (got an idea) and Rhino do?

You could argue it's horses for courses. How many of your average Land Rover owning, Bollinger drinking, Sunday Telegraph readers are going to be tempted to watch a game of rugby league?

Cricket are in a similar position to us then. If Sky pull out, then the ECB could well have huge debts and struggle yet again.

And football?

there were 34 races in the wacky series, the bulletproof bomb (the mobsters) was the most successful car with 4 firsts and five seconds

The Ant Hill Mob.
Always preferred the Slag Brothers myself.

For once great marketing by the RFL