Hull KR did request not to play Hull which was turned down. As a Rovers fan we are clearly not at the same level as Hull at the minute. Been the case for the last few years so it never seems fair that we get a harder game when teams around us get to play each other.

It’s ridiculous that Saints have an easy win this year.

There are always byes at MW, in the name of a stupidly manufactured 'Derby' theme; it's grossly unfair, and creates some truly dire non-spectacles.

For me, the games should be based on league position, or drawn a couple of weeks before.

Precisely Bren. These games are ‘extras’ and should be made relevant to sorting out final league positions. Each game should be ‘4 pointer’ - 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 4th etc. Sts/Widnes on one hand, Cas/Leeds and Wigan/Wire on the other - how is that fair?

Although it could still create the same type of fixtures as now, to launch the event each year, there could be a "magic" draw, in Challenge Cup style.
There may be some poor fixtures but, you'd expect 3 or 4 decent contests

That's the way I'd like to see it done.

The organisers seem to work on the premise that having some semblance of proximity for the team will increase attendance figures. This may have a small influence but in the interest of the competition, surely it would be better to have 1st vs 2nd from the previous season, 3rd vs 4th etc?

Lowest attendance at Magic could be on the cards.....52k?????

Quote ="Call Me God"Lowest attendance at Magic could be on the cards.....52k?????'" Could be the biggest difference between the Saturday and the Sunday given the lineups. https://mobile.twitter.com/SuperLeague/ ... 6651759616 Going by those ticket sales by club then 5 of the top 6 are playing Saturday.

Quote ="Call Me God"Lowest attendance at Magic could be on the cards.....52k?????'" Could be the biggest difference between the Saturday and the Sunday given the lineups. https://mobile.twitter.com/SuperLeague/ ... 6651759616 Going by those ticket sales by club then 5 of the top 6 are playing Saturday.

It'a a concept that is totally pointless, why is it always at Newcastle ? Didn't the RFL introduce this to promote the game at different outposts in the UK to help our game prosper. They will never admit it, but now they have given up on the idea. I know, let's have the 2019 magic weekend in Toronto, the Canadians love their Rugby League.....even though they don't have their own league !

Quote ="ThePrinter"Could be the biggest difference between the Saturday and the Sunday given the lineups. https://mobile.twitter.com/SuperLeague/ ... 6651759616 Going by those ticket sales by club then 5 of the top 6 are playing Saturday.'" Little Cas playing poor but taking 2nd most fans. Not bad.

Quote ="ThePrinter"Could be the biggest difference between the Saturday and the Sunday given the lineups. https://mobile.twitter.com/SuperLeague/ ... 6651759616 Going by those ticket sales by club then 5 of the top 6 are playing Saturday.'" Little Cas playing poor but taking 2nd most fans. Not bad.

That would be mint and if we are serious about growing the game then yes, we should have a magic weekend over there. I would be well up for that, I love the beautiful city of Toronto.

Regards

King James

You're joking but it was only a few days ago that I was reading an article about the magic weekend attracting overseas interest...

No, but it doesn't stop people making this argument so they can brand the idea as a failure.

It may have been a throwaway line in a press release, but it was never the intention to use Magic Weekend to expand the game. The intention of Magic Weekend is to make money.

The RFL sells the concept to local tourist authorities (Visit Wales paid the RFL £1m for the first one, IIRC). Since then, we've had tourist boards / local authorities in Edinburgh, Newcastle-Gateshead and Manchester all paying to support Magic Weekend.

I get that the typical tight- RL fan objects to the game being played anywhere beyond the boundaries of their bus pass, but we really shouldn't be paying too much attention to those kinds of people.

2000+ Widnes fans going, just sold out of all day and weekend passes for the gallowgate end. Haven’t got a clue how we’ve sold that many but looking forward to it as always.

Saturday is usually the better day. We(Widnes) always seem to get a game then, not complaining but it is a strange one to be matched up against Saints. Try fest for everyone to watch before two great games to finish the day.

First time since they had it at Etihad im going and first time for the full weekend.going up on the friday and weather forecast is good too. looking forward to saturday especially, sod all you miseries

Where have you got 2k Widnes fans from?

Regards

King James

Went to the shop before, day allocation of 400 sold out. Then a second lot of 500 sold out. The third allocation was apparently another 500 and that was excluding the weekend passes we’ve told. Only from what the shop staff were saying.

Could be well off the mark but we’ve always took a decent following to Magic weekend in the past without setting the league on fire.

The town of Widnes, I guess.

Regards

King Budgie

Yeah, but you can't blame 'em for getting out of Cas for a little while.

It's good to see they're still committed to the cause, especially after last seasons debacle.

At least they've got an easy fixture, based on the majority of recent results against Leeds.

It should be league position:
1v2
3v4
5v6
7v8

In the words of Stevi; “it’s as simple as that”

The games would all have an element of doubt and probably some really good clashes. Saints v Widnes is going to be a terrible advert for the game just like the Easter Monday farce. 50-12 is my prediction

So the week before MW, you tell the fans that we might be playing on Saturday or Sunday because we're not sure what position in the table we will be.

You could either base it off of the prior year's final standings, or simply have a cutoff point after several rounds of the current season and use the standings as they are at that moment in time.
Either way you will get teams more evenly matched than what we have now.

They did actually do it this way for at least one year. Not sure why they didn't stick with it, maybe the gates were down as a result.

You've just answered your own question…… it doesn't work.

All lower tier stands except the East and sold out for Saturday now. But they are keeping quiet about Sunday, think we will see a big difference between the two days sadly