Is in Manchester, great move by the RFL.

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I think a topic has already been started about this so this will no doubt get merged... but yep, i agree. A postive move imo and im looking forward to it.

Did this a few weeks ago. Some support it but a lot think fans will just go home after their team has played. A lot don't think the fixtures are fair either.

I still don't think the fixtures are fair. But the fact that the rfl have taken note that not everyone is willing/able to travel and spend a fortune going to Cardiff/Edinburgh for a league game and moved it a bit closer to home is atleast an improvement.

I don't think this is going to work aswell as it did in Cardiff. OK fans have less distance to travel but I think fans will leave after their team has played. What happens if Wigan play Saints, which could attract around 20,000 and chances are either a Leeds/Bradford derby or Hull KR/Hull FC derby could be on the same day. If it isn't a Warrington/Widnes derby could still attract a lot of fans.

I'd stay for all the games on the day Wigan play but I'd be less inclined to stop overnight and I think other fans will feel like this.

I would certainly go for the full day Wigan are playing but I'd have to see what teams are playing on the other day to consider going.

Will ONLY go for Wigan match now it's local.

Scrap it if it's not somewhere requiring a weekend away and captured fans

I went to cardiff last year for the weekend and only watched wigan. People will watch other matches if they really want to

It's a totally flawed concept. You will ALWAYS get a fair percentage of spectators who attend their own clubs game only, which means the games are invariably going to be played in a half full stadium (at best). Thats before the introduction of inequality in the fixture lists. If anything it will be even worse played so close to the heartlands as it's possible to watch a game and be home almost in time for the next one.

Whenever I went to cardiff, I never once watched a match on the seperate day. I went to the Wigan game and i think i vaguely remember watching the hull derby too which was before wigan and saints (not that i remember much of it...) and if I go to manchester I'd imagine I would do the same. If theres a match I fancy before or after Wigan then ill stay for that.




Why does it being local have any bearing on whether you want to watch a particular match before or after the Wigan game?

The whole reason for the weekend was to spread the game, now its at Manchester it's time to scrap it as it leaves an unfair outlook on the fixture list. Wigan play Saints three times whilst Wire usually draw Hudds/Salford and the current champions Leeds play the duffers from Bradford.

Agreed.

One side, usually Wire, get the easy draw and an easy 2 points. What's the betting they get Widnes this year ?

This has just made me bloody miserable!
All it means is another long journey to get to a game. I get enough of that for every home game. At least Cardiff was an easy fixture for me to get to - thanks for the incentive not to go, RFL.
Besides, Cardiff is a nice place - I'm not sure I feel the same way about Manchester.

I've been to them all and enjoyed every one. The problem with Murrayfield was that it was too bloody cold, and it was the same in Cardiff last year. As for only watching your own team, it's an opportunity for RL to showcase our game and get a full house for both days (which we were never ever going to get in Cardiff).

The fact it's local (well closer anyway - local for me) may mean some people will leave after their team's match, but then there may be more people there in the first place, so those effects may cancel out. I guess the only way to find out is to try it, which is exactly what they're doing. No surprise that plenty in our RL "community" are having a good old moan about it



The only issue I can see is that even though it's in the best stadium in the world (as far as I'm concerned) there isn't the range of pubs around like there is in Cardiff. There's Mary D's (for the brave), the new Summerbee outside bar, and the bars in the stadium, and that's pretty much it. It's a fair old walk into town. Maybe that'll mean everyone's closer together and there'll be a better atmosphere though, we'll see.

If this event does not get 45,000 on both days then the RFL should just drop it.

We need the likes of Wigan, Warrington, St Helens and Leeds to take as many fans as possible with them being 4 of our biggest clubs and all being pretty close to Manchester. Hopefully Salford will pack out a section but I can't see it.

Finally, use common sense and sell-out the bottom two tiers before opening the top tier.

I'm just wondering if Des Drummond has still got his pub in Moss Side. Flak jackets optional.

At Cardiff I'm a captive audience. I've made a big effort to go so I want my moneysworth. In Manchester I won't care & the partner certainly won't stand for 'oh there nothing better to do and we've come all this way'.

Each to their own

Don't know. Moss Side is a long way from Clayton though, so I don't think many will be walking that route!

That may have been the idea for the first couple of years, but I think it's an opportunity for the game to make some money.

Swings and roundabouts - My opinion is totally opposite of yours. Since the Magic Weekends' concept started I have been for the full weekend every year and always had a great time. I don't want to spend the weekend in Manchester, 20 mins from my house. I think the scheduling has been poor too to put this on a non bank holiday weekend; putting people off further staying for the weekend IMO.





Hammer, Nail, Hit Matthew!!!!

The concept was always to take SL and indeed RL on the road but being smack bang in the heartlands seems a bit silly tbh.

I thought it was going to be on the extended bank hol for the jubilee? Fair enough it's not as good for a weekend away but enough was enough with regards to huge half-empty stadia.

I don't see it that way. It is in Manchester, not a RL area. If we can strengthen the game and the awareness of it in a place like Manchester then it would be a huge bonus.

Expansion does not have to be a 4 hour drive.

.......Have you considered Manchester to an outsider may be seen as the M62 Corridor?

Scraping the barrel if you think Manchester is expansion, no really

Hopefully numbers of tickets sold will increase with it being nearer to home for most RL fans. There obviously will be some who will go for their club's match and go. The RFL and SL as organisers just have to provide incentive for people to stick around even if they are not sitting inside the stadium for all games. Creating an RL village outside the ground to create more of a festival type event would surely help. Didn't they have local amateur sides playing extra games on training pitches at Murrayfield? Sure I remember seeing a feature on that on the SLS. Maybe a nines tournament or a touch rugby tournament. Like Wigan do for the community day each season. Give people something to stick around for and make RL's presence obvious to people passing by.

Holding it in Manchester also means it will be practically on the doorstep of the BBC sport department. If ever there was a chance to showcase the sport to them then this would be it. OK so they can't show live games from the event but it being at such close proximity to them means that they can be shown the ins and outs of the event, can be introduced to local pro, semi-pro and amateur clubs in the build up to the event and can actually be encouraged to produce plenty of preview material without them having to go to too much effort to get to the clubs or players involved. We could also show the BBC (and be able to talk up) a well attended showcase event for our sport. This could be used to improve RL's reputation and the working relationship between the RFL and BBC and to get us taken much more seriously in future.

Or we could all just whinge about not being able to stay in a hotel in a different part of the country.