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?

That is perhaps the worst comeback from a troll that I have seen in my life.

We all know this mans a prat, can I even call him a man?

Anyhow, the best way to stick it up kn*bs like this is to take it to them, get to London and fill stadiums. Less than half full in Edinburgh or Cardiff simply feeds them

It will be a building site if either West Ham or Spurs get their way.

If Spurs had their way i'd agree but i've been listening to the debates on LBC etc and reading the local papers, West Hams bid was to keep the stadium how it is, with it being a multi purpose stadium.

West Ham if i recall have been given the green light.

London would be great, but no way can you risk it in Feb with no roof. Neither will you get a pitch, as has meen mentioned before.
Cardif is great for it.....especially with the roof. The fans will be the deciding factor.....if they turn up then it will continue.

As for the comments about London being full of rude cockneys and dirty....I suggest the poster takes a walk around any major city in the world...maybe with the exception of Vancouver...they are all dirty and all have rude people in them.....but with the chip that size on your shoulder, maybe you should just stay in your pit village. I would also like to see a list of the Senior RU clubs in London that make it a hotbed......wendyball is the ONLY game in town


London is the multicultural capital of europe, where in most cases, people get on with each other regardless of creed or code, skin tone or political belief....it is a great place to love just so long as you are tollerant...something I doubt you are.

Stop being as bad pal, Pit stock through and through myself but a fan of promoting the game in London. RL in London suffered IMO during the years Wembley was being rebuilt. That has had an impact on the Quins. Time we started to catch up, using the magic weekend, agreed, in summer

Good for you. As for promoting the game in London, I would expect Harlequins RL to do that first before I planned a summer festival of RL in the capital. Until last week, they had failed to carry out anything of note in "marketing" since 2005......the reason the club have an average of 3.500 going into their 31st season, or 6th as QRL has SFA to do with Wembley being rebuilt and more to do with the fact that 99% of the population of Richmond and Twickenham not knowing they exist, let alone the greater poulation.
As for the pit village comment...it was off the cuff and uncalled for....but at least I didn'r generalise like the anti-london poster did, otherwise I would have called you all Monkey Hangers

No, they will be removing the top (temporary tier) and making a few other changes to reduce capacity while keeping the track.



Not if Orient have their way.