What is Magic About Next Weekend? 12 Teams. 6 Matches. 2 days. 1 Iconic Stadium. There’s less than a week to go until Rugby League’s biggest festival heads to Anfield and the City of Liverpool. The 2019 Super League Dacia Magic Weekend will see all 12 of Super League’s teams descend on the city for the first ever Magic Weekend to be held in Liverpool. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

What is Magic About Next Weekend? 12 Teams. 6 Matches. 2 days. 1 Iconic Stadium. There’s less than a week to go until Rugby League’s biggest festival heads to Anfield and the City of Liverpool. The 2019 Super League Dacia Magic Weekend will see all 12 of Super League’s teams descend on the city for the first ever Magic Weekend to be held in Liverpool. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Which new ground would you like the Magic Weekend to go next year. ??

Aston Villa, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, Sunderland

Lets go with the Nou Camp

Better than any of the suggestions there. Who the hell wants to have a weekend in Coventry?

Unless the sport is going to be a bit daring, Newcastle or Cardiff for me.

To answer the OP, maybe the venue of the team that won the 2nd place trophy in the PL.

Is Ireland at all realistic ? Dublin ?

Being a diehard Evertonian I wasn't exactly doing cartwheels when I found out magic was taking place across the park this year but as long as Saints are there I'm there no matter what stadium we're playing in.

I think magic could be moved to the Midlands next year and Aston Villa's ground would be a good shout. But it's a bit out the way and to some it seems what pubs are in the vicinity of the stadium is more important than the rugby or the stadium itself.

Parroting a suggestion from somewhere else (Facebook or Reddit, can't remember)

Magic Weekend + Summer Bash in Nottingham. 1 at each ground.

I'm surprised the RFU don't just front up the money and send it to Baku.

Before they move the venue again, SL need to review what the event is for.

Are they trying to attract new fans? Are they giving existing fans a weekend out? At the moment its a muddle and we're not doing a great job at getting either of those markets in the ground.

They also havent worked out what the best fixture format is. Derby's generate the biggest crowds but you run the risk of oversaturating those games by having them several times a year.

Picking 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 4th seems the fairest but you always get some teams slipping down the ranking nearer the event, such as Wigan are Chamoions on paper but only 8th right now. These games also dont seem to bring in the crowds, Leeds - London for example is a relegatioj 4 pointer and closely matched, but it hasnt got the Leeds fans queuing up to buy tickets.

As always the Marketing starts too late and has too little budget, to crack a City like Liverpool would take months of effort a few social media posts to existing Rugby League fans isnt anywhere near enough.

It needs to be used as part of a consistent strategy to expand the game.

I was always disappointed by the lack of integration between the Magic Weekend and the Newcastle club. It’s a perfect opportunity to get new people interested in the sport whilst also pointing them toward regular RL on their doorstep.

So wherever it goes it needs to be for 5 years minimum and tie in with a local club that the RFL actively helps promote.

A scattergun, roving, 1 year here, 1 year there approach will do very little in my opinion.

Was discussing this yesterday with a lad in work. Nottingham was his suggestion and a bl00dy good one at that. Good transport links, less than a couple of hours for pretty much any RL fan (bar Catalans) and cracking nightlife. The City Ground holds just over 30k so should be sufficient to cover both days as we rarely get much over 30k either day IIRC (happy to be put straight on that tho!).

Pretty much all of the above. It all seems muddled and unclear.

I went to the RU Euro cup final a couple of weeks back at Newcastle and the contrast between that and Magic Weekend couldn't have been much greater - there was a decent looking fan park down on the riverside and a big firework show late Sat night. In contrast what have we got lined up for this weekend?

If its anything like other SLE events, that tossbag from Rugby AM yelling at people from the back of a trailor.

comes down to money

whoever pays the most gets magic weekend

must have been liverpool council this time

england played their recently and marwan koukash has ideas of a liverpool club forming so some root laid maybe!

Sadly I fear that is true, but doesn't fill you with any confidence that SL actually have a plan...should be a great weekend out and a real advert for our game, but it feels stale and completely lacking in ideas.

I can't stand Liverpool FC but a Wakefield fan mocking another team for lack of trophies?

Priceless.

What is the purpose of Magic weekend? Surely until that's understood we cant decide (you would think).

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/ ... ague-games hopefully these guys will get a warm welcome.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/ ... ague-games hopefully these guys will get a warm welcome.

30k there today, 9k down on Saturday last year. Didnt look any better or worse on TV as Anfield has more upper tiers than St James' park...but 9k is a massive drop and had Catalan, Hull and either Wigan or Wire been at home today for a normal fixture they'd have got about 30k so you have to wonder what the point is

30k for a Saturday seemed low too me. Anfield is closer for the m62 'heartlands' clubs yet the crowd hasn't gone up.

I think the real question should be has magic weekend had its time now? Maybe the fans are now just tired of it and after so many just aren't interested in this concept anymore. Personally I think we need change. I would keep the weekend but go with a 9's tournament. Try something different and new as the current format has become tired and old.

I think they need to advertise what is available to do other than the games. There aren’t that many people who want to sit through 3 games back to back. There needs to be stuff around the ground to keep people there. The clubs need to be brought into it more. The 6 clubs that aren’t playing that day should make players available for various fan zone activities. There should be club merchandise available etc. Ticketing for other RL events and England games. Sign people up for Our League (which desperately needs refreshing).
Have a competition whereby you select a Magic Weekend fantasy team, the top 5 teams win some prizes etc.
Stuff to fill some time in for people and keep them interested.

I was somewhat reluctantly persuaded to go to the F1 last year and was amazed at the amount of stuff around the track to go and see. Watching the race was only a part of the whole experience, we need to do the same with Magic Weekend.

30000 does not seem to out of step.

Alot will depend on the attendance tomorrow. Recently Saturday has been the bigger day, but if that trend is changed then this weekend will be equivalent to any other magic weekend.

The first Newcastle event holds the record so far I believe.

Aggregate attendance 67,788,
single-day crowd of 40,871

So a big Sunday crowd would push that number.

The difference between Liverpool and Newcastle maybe that because it is close why would fans buy a weekend ticket. Wigan and Warrington fans would be home earlier than if they had played a home game due to the earlier kick off.

So it may lose the fans who may have made a weekend of it.

I thought that the idea of magic was to promote rugby league in new areas hence Cardiff Edinburgh and Newcastle. If that is the idea the size of the crowd although important is not the be all and end all it is the new fans who are converted that counts. Taking it to Liverpool and Manchester is absolutely pointless as only die hard fans attend. But maybe the current SL management are only interested in the money they get from the host city

I think that is accurate.

A reasonable number of fans just prevents it being an embarrassment.

The lack of a strategy is just scary.