Yeah went to the first two Cardiff ones.

At first I thought it was a great initiative, but it hasn't really moved on in 6 or so years, even moving it closer to the heartlands attendances haven't improved. My opinion of it has changed, I just don't see what its point is anymore. The overall attendance is lower than a normal SL round, I don't see how that is classed as a success.

The attendances haven't grown because in usual RFL fashion they've chopped and changed its location, time of year and format. Hopefully it'll stick in Manchester for a while now and be allowed to grow.

I dont have the facts but I would have guessed that far more people will have a stayed for the weekend in Cardiff than Manchester meaning that a greater number of individuals will have attended this year.

Its a great concept in my opinion and I cant understand why more people dont go. A similar event in rugby union would no doubt get 60k a day rather than for a weekend.

People have ago at the RFL and they have got a few things wrong in the past but this is something that they have got right although it could be better advertised.

From a Bulls perspective:

1 - The contrived extra fixture, between the team that finished 10th last year and the champions (is that fair?) gave us no points; our closest rivals for that 8th play-off place both picked up two points. Will that be the difference between a play-off spot and not at the end of the season?

2 - The game cost us 4 long-term injuries and a heart attack - that is five players unlikely to figure much if at all again this season, as well as a near-fatality.

I have always been bitterly opposed to contrived extra fixtures. This year, given the extremely precarious financial situation, this contrived extra fixture might just mean the end of our club. I detest the whole sodding thing.

...you missed out the bit about being bailed out by the RFL and swindling 500k out of RL fans.....but all the same, good post

Nothing to do with my post or the thread subject. Everything to do with showing what a nasty little piece of work you are.

Did I sink your Battleship

Would they be the same last season Champions that you were above in the table prior to kick off and had beaten at Easter?

1-0 to Conroy.

1. The imbalanced fixture list is one of the justifications for having play-offs.

2. Any game at any time can incur injuries - it's nothing more that coincidence that they occured at Magic. Nor is the weather.

3. The extra Magic fixture is an "earner" for clubs, so taking part has helped you, not hindered you.

And that is game set and match I think.

Basically what I was going to say. Where's the logic in "our club is skint, Magic could put us out of business" despite the fact that clubs make money from it?

May I also add that, in terms of the table, Leeds finished 5th. They were below you before the game, and you've already beaten them.

All in all, a completely unjustified whinge. Have you ever been?

One issue that they do need to address is how they deal with the situation where a club is unable to fulfill its fixtures, as is still a possibilty with the Bulls.

Results get wiped clean one would assume

That would leave Leeds with 24 fixtures, everyone else with 25.

Interesting to note that the magic weekend, hosted right in the heartlands, in a great stadium, with great transport links and fantastic weather couldn't get more than a handful of extra punters through the door compared to when it was held in Edinburgh.

Is Adeybull seriously attributing Purtell's heart attack to the Magic Weekend? Not only is that plainly ridiculous, it seems to make light of a very serious situation to push what can only conceivably be an existing prejudice against the event.

Anyone got a clue how the existence of an extra fixture is leading to the death of the Bulls? I've seen Adey fighting tooth and nail to back the official Bulls management line that their predicament is anyone's fault but their own, but that's eye-wateringly stupid.

But maybe there were more fans overall in total ie in Edinburgh did most people attend both days whereas this year the majority bought daily tickets?

The RFL would never let the Bulls go under.....they have too much of everyone elses money invested in them

This was my first Magic Weekend and I brought four extra people with me, only one of which is a regular to games, who all thoroughly enjoyed it.

I've seen the arguments for trying to create more competitive ties and that of course makes sense, however we have to ask ourselves is this for the existing fans or to try and lay a platform to help establish more media attention, new fans etc.?

Of course there is an element of both but for me it should be hyped up into something everybody will talk about. For me its going to be impossible to get people to spend over eight hours in one place buying overpriced food and drink and watching three/four consecutive games of RL so more should be focused on other events.

I didn't see too much of what was happening outside the stadium but more should be done. I feel having a stage set up with more local Manchester bands playing and maybe headlined by a quite well known band could be a concept the RFL can look into. More activities outside the stadium for families like bouncy castles et al and - if possible - areas to sit and eat/drink away from the stadium.

I realise this might sound odd to bring people to the stadium to just sit outside of it but for me it will interest the locals of Manchester more if there is other things on offer other than a sport they barely know anything about. If it was me, visiting a place where there was so much going on, I'd probably look into what it was all about a bit more and then watch a game of RL on the TV.

If SKY and the RFL are clever and do as they have done this weekend with competitive ties (and Salford playing at home) it may help bring them people into the stadium the next time around and introduce others to the jamboree of the day.

There was a big stage with bands playing because someone I know was singing on there also there was loads of bouncy castles and little fun games to play when I went for a walk around.

I was also impressed by the amount of food things there was all around the stadium.

So basically everything he said they should have was already there!

I'm of a different opinion when it comes to the food outlets. Yeah, there was plenty, but they were all the same. No variety at all. In Edinburgh, there was all sorts on offer: steak, ribs, Chinese, chippy, burgers, Indian, etc. You can't eat the same cr*p for 8 hours on two days.

Also, if you wanna keep the punters in and around the ground, there needs to be more places you can drink. There were only two bars outside the ground, and they were completely rammed (you had to queue to get in and then queue again to get a drink!). People were leaving the area to find better places for food and drink. If they want to stop people leaving after their game, they've got to offer more around the ground.

I think Edinburgh got this spot on. And Cardiff didn't need to due to its location in the city centre.

DEFINITELY better when it's further into the summer!

It doesn't make a huge difference crowd figure wise who had a weekend ticket and who had a day ticket.

It does mean the event is worth less to the local economy meaning a local authority would be less keen to pay us.

It does make a huge difference in terms of the number of individuals actually attending the event though (ie 60,000 different people over the two days rather than the same 30,000 on each day).

Indeed, as I said earlier it makes the event less attractive to prospective venue cities/towns as there is a cut in the number of beds, meals and beers sold due to day trippers.

I await next seasons WAFC attendance figures with baited breath