I totally agree.

I also reckon the RFL have made a total balls of the promotion of this event. i do business with a bloke in Cardiff who is a mad Welsh RU fan, and he knew nothing whatsoever of this event, and neither did his mates.

It's all well and good making TV ads and showing them on Granada and Yorkshire - preaching to the converted won't make a scrap of difference. RL Fans are aware that Magic Weekend is happening and will make the decision to go based on whether or not they fancy it. We don't need fancy advertising to influence us.

What you need is to promote the event in the area it's being staged in - and with the Welsh loving rugby of either code, and with places like Bath and Bristol within p155ing distance, why not put the advertising money into those areas? At least then you stand a chance of getting people coming last minute, IN ADDITION to Yorkshiremen who have to plan it all in advance.

Quote ="manly4ever"icon_wink.gif Well that's where I think It should be headed next.Get more people in London exposed to RL and help boost the profile of the Harlequins,they need it. Don't you think? 2 days @ Wembley probably would attract more fans to the game,then what they normally get in wales or scotland.'" These might be able to help. www.tarpaulinsdirect.co.uk Then we can pull it over the roof at Wembley. Leave London for the Cup final. Cardiff is the only place it "can" be played in Feb. Its cold outside ok not for one game but the poor buggers who go and watch all the games in the day. (Like it should be) And no football club either close or in season will allow this to be played. I'm waiting for the day after Wigan first home game to hear the media talk about the mess of the DW pitch is shocking at the moment.

Quote ="manly4ever"icon_wink.gif Well that's where I think It should be headed next.Get more people in London exposed to RL and help boost the profile of the Harlequins,they need it. Don't you think? 2 days @ Wembley probably would attract more fans to the game,then what they normally get in wales or scotland.'" These might be able to help. www.tarpaulinsdirect.co.uk Then we can pull it over the roof at Wembley. Leave London for the Cup final. Cardiff is the only place it "can" be played in Feb. Its cold outside ok not for one game but the poor buggers who go and watch all the games in the day. (Like it should be) And no football club either close or in season will allow this to be played. I'm waiting for the day after Wigan first home game to hear the media talk about the mess of the DW pitch is shocking at the moment.

oh well ive got my hotel booked for next year for Cardiff because i hoping it is. had a brilliant time when i went a few years back but its a bit to chilly to camp for me in Feb.
I personally think no matter where it is its the people that go the make the weekend its the same at every rugby game the fans make the attmospher not the location. If ya sing loud enough your having a good time

St James' Park?

FFS, what part of no football club will allow 7 games in 2 days on their pitch no matter if it is in the off season or not, are you having trouble with?

Do you know what date it will be next year, cos I wanna book already. The manager at the wetherspoons said he had been told it was to be in Cardiff for 3 years. Have they released the dates for next years event?

i would play it the last weekend in may, the bank holiday weekend. most football clubs would be happy to let us use the ground because of off season revenue. also we could use 30-40,000 seater grounds which would look a lot better than a 1/4 full cardiff.
nottingham maybe, leicester?

Amazingly insular Northern attitude you have there. Quite simply the reason why northerners get a bad name. You have clearly never spent any time outside of your little world in the north. You will certainly hardly ever find a cockney in London anymore and certainly not in North London. As for English Rugby Union heartland you are closer to that in Cardiff than in London. How many London Rugby Union clubs are there. Thats London not the south east by the way.
London is one sport and one sport only. FOOTBALL. Every other sport is battling for the crumbs, including Harlequins and RL.
The sport loving fans in London have respect for the sport of RL as was shown by the interest that was apparent in the early 90s. Its the total lack of marketing of the sport which has been its undoing in London. Or the right type of marketing at the wrong time. For example last week for two days the Metro newspaper had 2 4 1 vouchers for this weeks match at the Stoop Quins v Crusaders. Last week ffs. Nothing so far this week. Someone might have seen the voucher last week and will probably have forgotten about it now.
I personally think MM in London would be far more beneficial for the sport and put it in the shop window in London and just might attract people to the Stoop. What are they hoping to attract in Cardiff in the long term?
The Challenge Cup Final does not do that as the stands are full of ardent RL fans and equally thats not advertised in London either. MM might work even better if there wasn't a full programme of RL going on elsewhere. You need the amateur clubs to be free and teams making weekends of it like Wembley. You might also see NL supporters supporting it instead of Northen Rail Cup matches.

no i dont know the dates yet just booked a few weekends in feb just in case can cancel without charge so hopfully will pay off because we left it to late this year to get a city hotel. they will probaly change the month and place knowing my luck lol

Yea clearly


I've lived in London - worst place I have ever lived. Dirty awful place, and the rudest people in the country
I have lived in Cardiff - Fantastic place. Fantastic people.

You might want to find out who you are insulting before doing so. As for insular northerner, I think you will find that most people in London have no clue what happens outside the M25 and some of it are proud of it! I go to London when I have to and never enjoy it.

Anywhere where I get abuse for wearing a rugby league shirt by a shandy drinking rah rah fan is not somewhere I want to be. Stick with Cardiff, you can have an intelligent conversation with them and there is always the common ground, our mutal contempt for English RU.

The Metro ad was ran again this week too apparently, Graham.

I have doubts that any PL football club would allow their pitch to be used for two days even in off season. Newcastle is a good shout but I cant see them allowing it.

Cardiff is a great venue, I would just move it to May or june and have the weekender as a summer event!!

If during your stay in London you refered to people as "COCKneys" to quote you (something which in that maner is probably quite insulting and almost could be deemed as a racist type of comment) is it any wonder people were rude to you. Or maybe in your little world its fine for you to be rude and insulting but not for others.
As for London being a dirty awful place you could find examples of that in every major city in the world including Cardiff. So a generalistion is not the best way to add to an arguement.
I have worn RL shirts in London just about every day for over 20 years now. Never ever have I been abused. I have had banter in the same way I would with other Rugby League supporters. Never abuse. But maybe that comes back to you being rude and insulting as I stated earlier. Equally if you start from a point of "contempt" for a sport then you are hardly likley to find anything but contempt from those who have an opposite point of view.
In 20 years I have found the population of London to be a great ethnic mix of nationalities. The British (those born in GB) population in London is also a fantastic mix of all areas of GB all willing to learn from others. Those that are not prepared to do that tend to be the ones who disappear back to where they came from having never had the ability to fit in. Maybe....just maybe......

Have it at the Olympic Stadium 2013 [uIN SUMMER [/u
Reasons for

1) The travel links will be fantastic
2) Develops the game that is already developing at quite a rate down here (May help Quins gates)
3) Easier for the French to come over
4) Big new stadium, will attract people who want to experience the whole new site.
5) On the (lazy) media's doorstep
6) Plenty of hotels and other things to do
7) It's an easy sell for sponsors
icon_cool.gif It's the tourist hotspot of the UK



Lived here 10 years, i can count the 'Cockneys' i've met on one hand.

I've met a handful of union fans (there are all mainly in the South West/East of London) trust me it's just Football here

Good post, i, to a large degree, concur with that.

Got to agree with that summary, London has it all, and like it or not has a great history of Rugby League, be it the Challenge Cup Final, International games, and World Cup Finals.

Also if theres anywhere we need to promote the game, surely its got to be London?

Of course i'm only a simple flat cap Cas fan, so I do apologise for backing such an idea

You're clearly confused. Either a Flatcapper or a Cas fan. Not both.

Newcastle in May would be good, city centre venue and eighth best party city in the world!
They are certainly looking for more ways to attract people to the area, the pilot to keep the town open after 5pm every day has been very successful apparently. Get on to Gateshead/Newcastle council to make a bid
Not as if the owner of Newcastle United is adverse to some extra cash either
Friday night game at gateshead stadium to start the weekend, hopefully some cash to rebuild the Thunder and grow local interest, we already get the SLS on BBC NE&Cumbria
Good train links to Yorks and Lancs
Stadium is big enough and if football groundsman cant get their pitch to recover from May to August then they should be fired! RL groundsman manage fine while there are games being played
Rugby Union are going to hold a world cup game there apparently so let's get in first

See, I made the distinction, subtle but it was there



In all seriousness, the point of the Magic weekend has got to be to spread the gospel of RL.

London has got to be a must...surley

I can be as 'surley' as you like.

Holding the Magic Weekend in London is the worst idea since Clive Benson and Rupert Hedges invented an ashtray to be fitted onto the handlebars of a motorbike

Enlighten us to your reasoning behind that in the medium of 'intelligent discussion'.

According to Stephen Jones of The Sunday Times (twice voted Sports Journalist of the Year by the Sports Journalist Association!) we might as well abandon efforts to spread the League game anywhere as it'll all be in vain ... The following is a piece taken from his 'Rolling Maul' blog on February 10th:

'Millennium tragic

Anyone know what day it is on Saturday? Didn’t think so. Well, the so-called Super League of rugby league starts with every club engaged in two days of action at the Millennium Stadium.
The number of last-minute adverts in local newspapers and number of silly, stunted media 'events' confirms the observation of a friend at the Millennium Stadium that sales have been “tough".
It is not so long ago, chiefly when ex-Union players were giving the code some publicity, that many people were aware of rugby league, when it started and what was happening. These days, it all seems faded and shrouded in mist. Gone. I am sure things are different in pockets of the north-west of England and Yorkshire, but not elsewhere.
Why? It may have something to do with the fact that recent results in the code’s miniscule international game have shown that the Super League is anything but super in its attempts to produce a non-embarrassing England side.
Or is it something more significant? Is it the long and slow slide out of the public eye and even into oblivion? Rugby league points to a growth of park-pitch sport in its portfolio. But as a national game and a professional game, in terms of standards and awareness, is it on the way out entirely?'

Well here are your 'intelligent' points.

1) The travel links will be fantastic
2) Develops the game that is already developing at quite a rate down here (May help Quins gates)
3) Easier for the French to come over
4) Big new stadium, will attract people who want to experience the whole new site.
5) On the (lazy) media's doorstep
6) Plenty of hotels and other things to do
7) It's an easy sell for sponsors


It's the tourist hotspot of the UK

I really can't be bothered to disagree with them all individually but I suggest you reread through them yourself and then hopefully you will see why you were being silly for typing them out in the first place.

No, i want you to counter them, or is this beyond you ?
In fact why am i even bothering with a WUM/Troll account.

Eh? You for real?