Yes he will. Every time he looks at his Brent Webb poster.

Brilliant idea bring it on!!

As someone outside of the heartlands, I would be interested in a double header - wouldn't go otherwise (it's so much faster and cheaper to watch on tv).

For me the north, south, cardiff and newcastle is all much of a mutchness and I think that W. midlands would be a flop (no interest at all in Cov or Brum), while E. midlands (Leicester) would be seen as an act of war.

Cardif whats the point they could not even half fill the Stadium with 12 teams there 4 going to be worse stupid idea an idea with is own intrest at hart.
If it is a 2 yorkshire team which it will it should played in yorkshire and if it is 2 Lancs or Cheshire team should play over there.
And if it is either Catalan Celtic or Quins they should play at a park feild then they might fill it.

City of Manchester Stadium would be ideal having re thought.

Like the idea of a double header for the semi finals, however at Cardiff is just silly - firstly, we already have MM, Wembley and Old Trafford, all of which I support BTW, but also the stadium would look empty and what is a long established Rugby League event (rather than a pioneering one like Magic)

Double header at some place like Galfarm is a good idea though.

Don't think this would work at all, especially with the decent opportunity of a national league side or two getting to the semi's. Dumb idea really

too small for 4 teams imo.
That's why I suggested City of Manchester. Think it's around 44,000

Good point, but there are 10 weeks between the quarters and the semis. That's plenty of time to save up money for the semi. And you can guarantee that people will find money for the final should their team get there. It's Wembley!


Questionnaires of fans opinions won't necessarily tell you what they will do. Fans are fickle and change their minds.


36,000 would be an excellent crowd! Better than MM and better than most combined semi-final attendances in the SL era. And to be fair, most semi-final crowds have been have empty anyway so it's not like it has affected them.


The cup final is played in expansion territory in front of a sell-out crowd every year. The games in Wales are pretty much what got interest going there (15,000 Welsh people at a cup final).
And what's the difference between the Magic Weekend and a DH cup-semi? Neither have sold out, both have more than one game and they will (most likely) both host SL clubs. They are the same sort of event, no?



The only wild-card. It's all on the BBC if it goes ahead or not if the RFL decide they want it.

Are you 10?! That has to be one of the most poorly constructed posts in the history of the internet!

Galpharm?! Are you for real?! 24,000 for TWO games of RL?!

I can understand everyone's choice of Eastlands, and that would be good. Not really expansion, but I reckon it would fill.

Hope not - Headingley would be my choice if Rovers got that far.

I like the idea of a double header, but not in Cardiff, it is too far to travel and with possible trips to France, London (league and cc final), edinburgh, bridgend to interest RL fans..I think people would give it a miss.

idea

Agreed.

Edinburgh, Wembley, Four Nations, Old Trafford, South of France and now (maybe) Cardiff, do the RFL think the average fan is loaded.

I don't think the RFL expects the average fan to travel to every game. They're obviously trying to expand their market.

I agree with him. I get to every SL game if I can and don't like missing games but these 400+ mile round trips are getting silly. I don't mind 1 or 2 a season.

I get to every game I can also, but at the end of the day the RFL are trying to spread the game. If they were bothered about how far fans had to travel, they'd keep it as a northern sport.

If the RFL had the chance to add franchises in Bristol, Leicester, Birmingham, Ireland, Scotland and another in France (hypothetical, just pretend they meet the criteria) do you think they will be bothered that northern fans won't travel to every game away as well?

Football fans don't find it silly and neither do RU fans. RL fans only find it silly 'cos they've had it so easy for the last 100 years. Time to get into the next century.

If it wasn't for the 'traditional' fans there would be less than 5,000 there and the RFL know this and rely on us turning up to make it work.

Surely after how the welsh tourist board let down the RFL they wouldnt take the games back for a few years.

City of Manchester stadium is a great idea, lots of space outside to create the 'festival' atmosphere, or as a change, Goodison Park?

I think they should wait until the draw is made for the Semis e.g. if it was Bradford v Leeds, Galpharm would be miles more suitable then Cardiff or Manchester. Likewise for us v Hull, Headingley would be perfect.

But how many traditional fans turn up to the semi-finals as neutrals?
If you offer so many events to the traditional fans in the heartlands, they'll pick and choose their games. They're trying to create a market outside of the heartlands.

The WTB offered the RFL money to stage a round of fixtures which enabled them to reduce their fixture list, hardly letting them down. Yeah, they didn't promote it as much as they said they would, which resulted in it getting moved due to a better offer, but they hardly let the RFL down in the bigger picture of things.

If the WTB offered money to the RFL again (not saying they will/are going to), then would you honestly turn it down? We'd be getting money instead of spending it on the facility. We'd be promoting RL in an expansion area. We'd have a big attractive facility that doesn't have a limit so can grow with the event. We can plan ahead instead of wait until the semi-draw. And we'd have a new event on the calendar.
If the combined crowd ended up being lower than in the heartlands for the first few years, they'd be making up for it from money paid by the WTB.