And roll on the floor in a dive Ronaldo would have been proud of

I think that given the current economic climate the crowd figures are on a par with Cardiff. I could only go for the Saturday but I think it is a brilliant concept. All the fans mixing together without a hint of trouble, you can dip in and out of games (sure it is a 10 minute bus ride into town rather that a 3 minute walk at Cardiff). Hotels exepensive? I paid £36 to sat at Herriot Watt Uni conference centre bed and breakfast and a £5 (plus taxes) each way flight - where there is a will there is a way.

Location: OK so I love Edinburgh as a city and know the centre of it arguably better than the centre of London, but I do think it’s a great place for this event, should it be the sort of thing you want to go to. We stayed in a small, but very nice and value for money flat right in the centre, which for three people was cheaper than hotelling it unless you wanted to go for the very cheap end of the market, which for three nights we didn’t.

As mentioned before, the stadium is ten minutes on the bus from the city centre, half an hour walk if you feel like that.

The pubs are great, Rose Street has more than enough to last a weekend and I like the Grass Market too. The locals are also great, although did seem to be somewhat outnumbered by RL fans at some points.

Re how well known the event was, agree it could have been better advertised, but the people working in the caf we had breakfast in on Saturday morning knew all about it, as did ‘some’ we spoke to in shops, but certainly room for improvement.

Someone questions Wire V Hull KR. We had only planned to go on Saturday, but what we had planned for Sunday didn’t quite work out, so decided to go back, simply to see the final game as we thought it had the makings of a good one, what with HKR aiming to be 1 point off Saints, and Wire on something of a revival. The HKR fans were a lot of fun to be amongst, something it’s unlikely I’d get the chance to do at another time in the season. I think the fixture plan is fine, and actually wasn’t that fussed about seeing Wigan V Saints again, although it was funny watching Saints look as interested as the quotes from some of their players suggested they were. Wakey V Bulls was a good game too, would have liked to see Hull V Cas, confess I wasn’t that interested in the other two.

For other venue options, in the Guardian today it said that Newcastle sent a representitive this weekend, so St. James’ Park might be a contender, I think Newcastle would be another great option in the future.

We’ve already talked about going back next year. I went to Cardiff last year and had a much better time this year, admittedly the Quins result had a good part to play in my mood.

Must admit I felt similar. I had a great long weekend, but only saw our game, for which the atmosphere was strangely anti-climactic after last week's win at Headingley, with around 15,000(?) in a vast stadium and probably only 10% or so actively supporting one of the two sides involved. If Wigan v Saints had been immediately afterwards I'd have stayed for that, but none of the other fixtures really appealed. I wanted to do other sightseeing/touristy stuff during the daytimes and check out the pubs in the evenings, all of which I enjoyed. The rugby almost seemed to get in the way!

It was good chatting to supporters of other teams, but I'm still a bit vague about the whole concept of the Magic Weekend. Having it in Cardiff appeared to be a part of fast-tracking a Welsh club into SL. So now it's switched to Edinburgh does that mean Scotland is targeted as an expansion area? Apart from being a bit of a jolly for supporters I'm not sure what useful purpose it serves. There are too many showpieces creeping into the calendar and ultimately there going to devalue each other. I feel the Challenge Cup Final has especially suffered in this respect.

I also thought the event was better with the derby matches as in the first two seasons.

weekly gates on average are up or equal to last year so the economic climate i do believe
so gate for the wekend at edinburgh 6000 down on Cardiff last year is not equal to cardiff!!!
Hope they dont take it to Dublin, coz its bloody expensive over there

POD agree with you mate, just watching the game on sky + seems to be very little noise in the staduim, and not many folk in there
Still do not see what they are wanting to achieve, especially if the event was not advertised in the city at all!!!
As for watching nuetral games, we already have the challenge cup and the grand final i dont give a damn about watching wakey, r wire

Totally agree with this. And that is very sad. I'd be interested to see if all of the Quins fans that attended this "show piece" will be at Wembley. Additionally, I wonder if any will bother going to Away matches?

I'll certainly be going back next year, great stadium, city, people and everything else. Actually think the stadium is one of the best, the view from virtually anywhere is great.

Really don't think there's too many RL events throughout the season and can't see them devaluing each other, it makes things exciting and interesting!

So the domestic game can't support more than two big events during the year?

Says a lot about the supporters of RL if that is true.

My first year this year, booked it up pretty late, but so glad I did it, the weekend is absoloutely brilliant!

I caught some part of every game and I even transformed into a Dragons fan on sunday, thanks to some very nice people from Avignon providing me with accomodation and a very fetching beret.

I've told my little brother he is coming up there next year, I'm definitely going to book it up as early as possible next year, and I recomend anyone who hasn't tried it yet to give it a chance, it is well worth the effort.

I thought the city was pretty well prepared for us and most pubs were showing the games and the local radio was updating the locals on scores from each game, but I don't think locals were given enough notice about what the event is, I spoke to several locals who thought we were playing a round-robin or knockout tournament, and it was news to them when I explained it was a whole round of league fixtures at the same stadium.

Hopefully this means next year some more Scots will get in, but 6,236 tickets sold to Scottish residents is fantastic.

Well done the Quins again on another victory, 5th in the table with a game in hand is a good position to be in, and well done/thanks to all other Quins fans at Murrayfield, you all made it a great weekend for me.

The RFL were issuing Spin before they announced 6,000 down on last year in Cardiff.

I have nothing against The Magic Weekend, and about it moving around the country, but, I would keep it away from Wembley as that would devalue away from The Challenge Cup.

Still feel it should have remained at Cardiff this year!

Seems Newcastle are interested?

Pod was sat on his own in the south stand. There's plenty of atmosphere when your sat with the fans. They signed a two year comntract at Edinburgh and I can't wait to go back. I also agree that they could look to scale back the size of the stadium or increase the value of the game- make it a derby and make it worth 4 points. Either way this is the best event on the RL calender and long may it continue.

The match: Not pretty but we won, may have been helped by a couple of dodgy (non) calls but after 12 years of seeing us screwed over I can live with that. Very strange watching a game without being able to shout sing and cheer but hopefully the voice will be fully recovered for the next game.

The atmosphere: The cluster of Quins fans made a good fist of it but in a mostly empty stadium it was never going to be great. The only time anyone neutral cheered was when Salford scored - I guess they don't all hate Leeds after all. Still don't understand why they open the upper levels at these things, would have been far better to put everyone down below. Even for the "big" games on Saturday the place was still mostly empty.

The venue: Liked it. Helped that the sun shone and made the village a pleasant place to be. Plenty of pubs and restaurants near the ground so nobody could complain about a lack of places to go. City centre was also a pleasant place to be and made it possible to do something other than drink if you wanted to. Personally I preferred it to Cardiff.

The Publicity: Others have stated that just about every city centre pub knew about the game and the (Scottish) Sunday Mail had an 8 page centre spread on the event. That said, with a 10k run and some seemingly important scottish soccer being played it was clear where the priorities laid for the locals.

Next Year: Yeah I'd be happy to go back there and I'd recommend it to others. Two years is long enough as these things can tend to get stale and its nice to explore somewhere else. Newcastle? Bring it on, gotta be worth a visit just for that amazing building.

Will certainly "bother" to go to away matches, like have been doing so for the past 3/4 years. Wembley, no, leeds festival the same weekend, sorry.

Wembley has been mentioned on this thread a couple of times as a possible venue, which I think would be a terrible idea. They would need to do something about that pitch for a start, an article I read on Friday gave some technical stuff about why turf (which Wembley apparently is) is significantly worse than seed (murryfield) for supporting two days of at least three RL games per day.

February, May, August and October for "showpiece" events is spread out enough, Leeds (world club), Edinburgh (or Cardiff, Newcastle or where ever), Wembley and Manchester are spread around the country enough. Personally I can't afford to go to all, so Magic Weekend wins simply because I can garantee to see Quins play, in addition to seeing other teams.

ok couple of things that have been mntioned on here
WHY would they make this a 4 point game!!! lets shoot that one down straight away
As for the domestic game not supporting several big events during the year, well if make every event a big event then they all ebcome the norm
Would be interested to see how the numbers through the gate at edinburgh compaire to the gates through clubs on a normal week

Edinburgh for 2 years!!! well apparently Cardiff was 3 years and look what happened there
It is a difficult decision, 20000 in a 60000 odd seat stadium!! (if thats the capacity) or go for a smaller stadium that looks fuller

Obviously the RFL and SL like the idea, but i do think the promotion is poor for the whole thing, so hey
lets see how i feel next year about going

Here you go:
Warrington v HKR (200icon_cool.gif 9,095
Catalan v Leeds (200icon_cool.gif 9,880
Hudds v Celtic (2009) 6,407
FC v Castleford (200icon_cool.gif 12,681
Wigan V Saints (2009) 22,332
Salford v Quins (2009) 3,367
Wakey v Bradford (2009) 6,516

so, if these games had been played at the home team venue instead of jockland we would have had 70,278 over the weekend........10k short for MM isn't a bad result IMO, but I do agree that it could and should be marketed in a more efficient way

Agree with most of this (although I know next year there is still 0 chance of me attending).

With regards to the stadium, the concept wouldn't really work in a stadium that wasn't over half empty due to the fact people enjoy moving around etc.

There was room for (a lot more) but you are generally right, if it was in a close to full stadium it wouldn't be comfortable to be in all day.

Couldn't get to Murrayfield after having done (and enjoyed)the 2 cardiffs - maybe next year. Shame about the gates being down, obviously a bit of belt tightening going on, and (almost) no derby games but RFL must be a bit disappointed as 14 teams taking part this year not just 12. Interesting to see 6,000 tickets sold to locals - would there have been more sold at Cardiff now Celtic are in SL, obviously with the right amount of promotion? I know the RFL fell out of love with the Millenium Stadium / Cardiff but it struck me as being odd to move from Wales with a Welsh team (and local appeal?) playing the opening game on day 2.

If they're looking to move the Magic weekend in a year or 2 then Toon gets my vote. Great city, great locals -was up there on a work/ secondment thing during the footie world cup a few years back, great time!Could coincide with a return to SL of Gateshead?

Quote ="Bronco1979"February, May, August and October for "showpiece" events is spread out enough, Leeds (world club), Edinburgh (or Cardiff, Newcastle or where ever), Wembley and Manchester are spread around the country enough. Personally I can't afford to go to all, so Magic Weekend wins simply because I can garantee to see Quins play, in addition to seeing other teams.'" This is really what I was getting at when I spoke of too many showpieces earlier. Don't forget too that only three years ago most supporters only had one long trip that involved seeing their own team, i.e. away to us (alright it may have been away to us twice for a few teams due to the quirk of the exta rounds in the fixture list) but now they've got their own team's trips to London, South Wales, France and Edinburgh to consider before they think about funding a trip to Wembley for the cup final, in which their own team probably won't be taking part. Personally I think I'd rather have seen one big match in a full stadium in Edinburgh even if it didn't involve my club, but I suspect I'm in the minority and most will prefer the guarantee of seeing their own team plus the opportunity to see up to six other matches. I'll still go again next year, when it seems likely we'll revert to playing Catalans: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 221869.ece

Quote ="Bronco1979"February, May, August and October for "showpiece" events is spread out enough, Leeds (world club), Edinburgh (or Cardiff, Newcastle or where ever), Wembley and Manchester are spread around the country enough. Personally I can't afford to go to all, so Magic Weekend wins simply because I can garantee to see Quins play, in addition to seeing other teams.'" This is really what I was getting at when I spoke of too many showpieces earlier. Don't forget too that only three years ago most supporters only had one long trip that involved seeing their own team, i.e. away to us (alright it may have been away to us twice for a few teams due to the quirk of the exta rounds in the fixture list) but now they've got their own team's trips to London, South Wales, France and Edinburgh to consider before they think about funding a trip to Wembley for the cup final, in which their own team probably won't be taking part. Personally I think I'd rather have seen one big match in a full stadium in Edinburgh even if it didn't involve my club, but I suspect I'm in the minority and most will prefer the guarantee of seeing their own team plus the opportunity to see up to six other matches. I'll still go again next year, when it seems likely we'll revert to playing Catalans: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 221869.ece

Same. Thats the reason why I can't wait for Wembley, regardless of who is playing. A far better day out watching a competitive game of RL with the so called "rugby league family" as everyone else seems to crave. People are actually @rsed about the result rather than just being on a jolly watching what is essentially 7 friendlies.

One of the many reasons I didn't go was because it seems pointless doing the weekend somewhere where ultimately there's little hope of League making an impact. Can we honestly see Glasgow or Edinburgh getting into Super League any time soon?

The whole raison d'etre of having it in Cardiff the last two years was as a way of promoting the game in wales with a view to giving Celtic an SL franchise. Stimulating local interest. Murrayfield doesn't fill that criteria, and interestingly enough I was at the Rose Bowl yesterday and overheard some people sat behind me talking about it and they were all utterly perplexed at a whole weekend being spent in Edinburgh.

The game can make an impact without having a Superleague team sprout up mate, Edinburgh are not that far away from a Championship level side and a small boost in interest would see the Scottish league take off.



The people of Hampshire spend their entire lives utterly perplexed.

I think it works, if i go next year, which i probably will ill probably just go for one day. 7 games is a bit of a marathon, i only watched 6. 60k fans all together in one city? I met leeds fans, fax fans, salford fans etc. and it was a really good atmosphere all weekend. But more importantly it brings in money to SL to keep a weekend free for an international break (which is massively important for the development of the sport) and it raises awareness (it does, loads of locals were very aware of it and interested in it all) in another city/region/country. What constitutes a success? 60k over a weekend does and its a really good occasion.