But success for London and Catalan doesn't come at the expense of 12 other clubs. I want all clubs to have good crowds. Anyway, the Magic weekend was previously held in Wales and Scotland, not London and France so I'm not sure what it has to do with them.

Hire another stadium and make the Quarter finals a day event, let sky and bbc show them at the same time.

Too many events and you'll start to dilute the effectiveness of them

They were just part of the point I put across about Super League not being multicultural enough for them. I would never wish that London and Catalan had bad crowds and Catalan have great crowds at the minute I think. I hope that one day there will be enough teams with good crowds in Europe to form a league similar to the Magners league that Union has.

It's a scrumdiddlyumptious televisual feast that allows one a perfect excuse to veg out on the sofa over the bank holiday eating copious amounts of pistachio nuts and bowls of strawberries drenched in carnation milk with a sprinkling of Tate & Lyle's finest.

It's a bit like watching too much porn though. After the fourth match it gets a "bit samey" and you long for something out of the ordinary to pop up on screen. Move over Sylvia Saint, hello Steve Ganson. What a "cock-up".

For the neutral it's a great weekend. Long may it continue.

Absolutely spot on... Even winning a league game at an event like this means more somehow... Look how we celebrated....

[urlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La8xSRfRwC8[/url

Now... If this is how we enjoy a late winning try at an event like this... Imagine how we are going to be if we actually win something.

Using the Magic Weekend for expansion was never going to have anything other than very limited short-term impact in the local areas. A few hundred locals might attend, but otherwise you just have 50-60k fans travelling in, drinking in local establishments and staying in local hotels, watching the games behind closed doors and travelling home again. Good for the local economy but little else.

Hosting the Magic as a festival of RL is a much better idea. I thought it was fantastic. Nothing I could fault about it, even the weather turned out again. The food & drink prices are normal for a sporting stadium or similar big event and as much as some might complain it's not like they were a surprise.

The banter in the crowd was good-natured and friendly - in fact I didn't witness any tension at all. Considering many people drank all day, that's a credit to every fan that attended. For me the atmosphere was far friendlier and without the underlying tension of the Grand Final, in fact I'd be happy for the GF to be moved there, even with a slightly lower attendance.

And another note, I thought the minute's silence for Lee Rigby was very touching. The spontaneous round of applause and well observed silence was moving.

Well done all concerned. (except Ganson

)

Small note to those saying the crowds haven't grown with the move to Etihad, perhaps you haven't noticed but a lot of the country are on their uppers...lets wait a couple of years till the current mob if unelected posh boys have finished dicking us then see how it gets on

The magic weekend is a superb event for the fans and it is an excellent carnival-style atmosphere with the fans of all 14 teams mingling in the bars and in the ground. My only reservations with it in it's current state is what it actually acheives in terms of the league table. The fixtures were much less mis-matched this season than when it has been kept as derby games but I still don't really like a fixture calendar that involves playing one team 3 times. Two double-headers for the CCQFs could work, although you lose 6 sets of participating fans.

In terms of venue I don't think we can really do much better than the Etihad tbh. Even aside from the extra travelling involved, the fact was the Millennium and Murrayfield, both with a capacity ~70k, were simply far too big for this purpose. I understand the argument that it was originally designed as a tool for expansion and it's more of a weekend away if you have to travel far but it looked a bit of a joke on TV when there were always at least 40/50 thousand empty seats. Manchester is still a great city and worth stopping over even if you don't have to travel the length of the country to get there.

The RFL have played about with the venue, the fixtures and the weekend which it is held. For me they now have 2 out of 3 of these spot on. They need to give it time to grow properly. Either look at ways to make the fixtures more "worthwhile" or just leave it as it is and attendances should increase year on year.

This could work for either the Challenge Cup and/or the early play off games.

The problem with doing it for the playoff games is that it means teams lose the home advantage. I'm all for it for the Cup quarter finals though.

I've been to all the Magic Weekend's not in Cardiff and loved them all. For me Manchester works better than Edinburgh, there's plenty to do not too far from the ground, those who want to do it in a day can do without too much time/cost and if you want to stay over there's plenty of choice.

Maybe mess about with the fixtures a little bit but even then not too much, they were much more competitive on paper this year than last and for most teams are one of their bigger games in a year.

I think the event could really boom with the proposed mid season split.

I would like to see the event take over the city though - some free events in the city centre - like when the athletics do the city games.

Even if its tug of war , the fastest man event , junior coaching clinics, trophy pics or just getting the oval ball into peoples hands etc.

This is great. Chuffed for you, if the Magic weekend does anything itll be for you boys and girls.

When I was studying in Sheffield a lot of my friends were actually from Manchester including my housemates. I was quite surprised to find that the locals in Sheffield knew more about Rugby League than the ones from Manchester who didn't even know that there are two separate codes and that Salford City Reds exist. I tried to convert them in my three years at university but it never worked. A few friends are based in Manchester again and some worked at last weekends event and saw some of the matches and they loved it. It's things like this which is why Manchester Magic is vital, for the most part people in and around the city don't know what a fantastic and value for money for sport they have in the region.

I didn't see the point. I understood the original idea of trying to get the Welsh and later the Scottish interested but moving to Manchester seemed like a crazy idea.

I went this year and have to say what a fantastic day out. If possible nest year I'll be going to both days and would appeal to anyone who hasn't gone to give it a go. The concept of unreserved seating in the lower tear meaning we could go in and out and sit where we liked. The bits and bins going on outside the stadium were good fun. The conga started by the Bradford fans was brilliant. It was simple a fantastic day out with a brilliant friendly atmosphere.

Yes , almost by accident , it works , so leave it alone , just ' feed ' it to help it grow , and look elswhere to ' expand '

The CC quarters for expansion (not too far) i reckon fans would stay too (winners anyway).

One after another then have the draw for the semi on the pitch.
The game is a one off knockout and would attract the fans, you'd even have a championship team in this years.

No magic weekend for championship, smaller venue say like Wigan or Bolton?

Wonder if Championship Magic could be an option in 2015 with the new Manchester City Training Complex currently being built next door (should be finished by 2015):





Pretty exciting stuff there really. With this new facility being built, it really gives us a chance to have a huge festival for the whole of rugby league. The reserve stadium holds 7-8,000 I read, which I guess would be ideal.

How good would it be if they organised Legends Masters games (or touch/tag like they've had once on the TV), wheelchair tournaments, women's RL, etc. around the stadium in the mornings; Championship Magic at the reserve ground and SL Magic at the Etihad; allow caravans/campervans to stay in the car parks for the weekend; put on an evening RL party at one of the indoor arenas (like a club)...

Now THAT would be a festival of rugby league!

Swinton should move to that stadium ^

Both Challenge Cup semi-finals at Arsenal-Emirates on the same Saturday? Handy for locals & Kings Cross/Euston stations.

I'd be up for that. I've always said the semis should be a double header.
If you have a main camera at each side of the ground and switch it when game 1 has finished and game 2 starts, hopefully you'll minimise the number of empty seats on display from the losing side in game 1 as well. I'd imagine the winners of game 1 would want to stay to see who they'll face down the road at Wembley as well.

It's 8 miles from Swinton. Are you meaning temporarily?

What happened to Swinton getting land to build their own ground?

I think its great I just wish fans would stick around for more than one game.

Some do, i watch all the games on the day Wire play, just don't devote the time to the next day, no matter who is on.