I like the magic weekend never had a bad one even after we got battered by saints and i am looking forward to a day boozing with rugby fans in Manchester followed by some rugby at night.

Went to the mIllenium stadium and i quite enjoyed the whole day as the stadium and the area lends itself to rugby and you could go in and out of the stadium as and when you wanted.

However the games are come across as meaningless and for me thats the crux of it all.

Why not solve the whole stadium availability issue and play all 4 CC quarter final games there instead !

Or all of the 5th round ties, so there's lots of varying teams there playing!



As Bilko said on Twitter, 10 matches in 2 seasons with another possible (likely) one or two against them in the playoffs. Way too much. But then the clubs did apparently vote for how the MM was to be structured and they preferred it to be a derby.

London v Catalans is an historic occasion after all.

Its a Biggun !

I don't think the only issue is people not going. You could sell 48,000 tickets for each day of MM this year and the games will still be played in front of banks of empty seats because fans will always pick and choose the games they wish to attend. Some can only make their own teams games and might have other plans for other parts of the day and some just aren't interested or don't have the attention span to take in a full day of back to back matches.
Add to that, the fact that it artificially skews the leagues standings (Warrington highly likely to be the main beneficiaries once again) and you are left with a flawed concept. The RL have been flogging this dead horse for five years now but the end result to the casual viewer is a game played out in front of a half full stadium at best. You only need 10% of the spectators from other teams matches not to bother watching any other game and the result is <50% of capacity for each game even if all tickets are sold (which they never are anyway).

Please expand.

I choose my games carefully and use the money i have to attend the games that really matter, attending the CC game is where i will choose to spend my money.

I've been to Murrayfield and Cardiff. Thought both were poor. I don't rate the magic concept. It means we have to play Saints, AGAIN! Whilst Leeds play a poor Bradford side and Wire play a poor Widnes side. Get rid!!

The Magic weekend is a complete waste of both time and money in my opinion, additionally the method of using predominantly derby matches in an attempt to boost crowd & viewing figures has an effect on league positions.

For example, Wigan play Saints whilst Warrington get Widnes ... how is that fair?

Get rid, keep the league season to 1 home, 1 away against the other 13 teams.

That's as long as we're allowed to play at home of course

I must saw the RFL/Man City must be praised for advertising the Magic Weekend at last nights game which must have been saw by Millions of people in this country, i know we arnt going to sell out on that advert alone but tell people an event is on and they mite turn up.

ask him if he went to wembley last year? pot kettle black methinks!

How will they get the stadium ready for the Sunday games ????

why does that not suprise me?

Its very fair based on the fact that Wigan beat Saints and lost to Widnes this season!

Odem definitely went to Wembley last year as he was sat infront of me.

My point is that the fans moaning about empty seats are often the ones sat at home.

I have been to every single magic weekend since 2008 and have loved every single one. 3 or 4 games each time for less than £20. What Rugby League fan wouldn't want that?

Rugby league fans are the ones holding rugby league back, but they would rather blame it on the choice of stadium, the fixtures, the RFL or anything else they can to justify something being a failure. The fact of the matter is, this wouldn't be a failure if rugby league fans bought the tickets for a sport event which is the best value for money in this country.

I actually couldn't believe my eyes when I got back from the England game at Wembley to see a thread on the VT to see hundreds of fans on here moaning that the whole top tier was closed! I bet there was people spending £30 in a pub for a night out moaning about the empty seats when they could have been there themselves as well!

Fans on here seem to think the RU marketing team is some sort of magic group... actually they just have a target audience who are willing to buy into the events they put on. RL fans don't.

Go back to 2007 when the magic weekend was first announced. Most on here thought it was an awesome idea, that was untill they saw all the empty seats and thought it looked bad for the sport.

My personal recommendation for the magic weekend is to give it to the championship 1 clubs, I bet they would buy into the concept for a big day out. Have it a reasonable stadium in a town/city centre and it will bring more relative success than the super league version.

Been to all the Magic weekends and loved them all except Cardiff last year . Pissing of rain and freezing cold , no before / after matches atmosphere on the main streets of Cardiff. Everybody either sat in one pub , went back to their hotels or just went home.
Just the excuse for the non believers to knock the concept .

I blame Jamie Peacock .

Good post Odem!

I have enjoyed the MM events and i like a weekend away socialising and watching RL, its great value for money and its dissapointing it has not caught the imaginations of more fans. If you cannot afford to go don't go; if its not "your thing" don't go, but don't treat those that do and support the concept as mugs; we have not swapped our cows for magic beans we have paid for and enjoyed what we love RL.

Whether its a poor idea or not, a day or rugby and large amounts of ale and banter = a good day out every time I've been.. Gets you out the house for a bit doesn't it?

You make some fair points but as frustrating as it is for you that some people choose not to attend you also need to appreciate that some people also have other commitments that are more important than a game of rugby with little at stake.

Personally i feel that more supporters would attend if more was at stake.

He was right that we need something big to start off the season to be fair. But IMO, it should be the challenge cup.

We could see some great upsets in awful weather when the super league teams are not quite up to scratch yet.

Play two rounds of the challenge cup before the first super league game, with the WCC breaking up the two weekends.

The play the rest of the rounds at REGULAR SLOTS untill May when the final should be held.

Whilst I don't hold the RFL responsible for the current shambles of where a particular match shall or shall not be held. I do think we need to compress the CC into a more watcherable period for the casual watcher of the game. Or provide some event to advertise the game in it's best light on TV.

Union give back to back weekends with the 6 nations that people buy into whether they watch union or not.
Wimbledon for Tennis
World Championships for Snooker
Same for darts

We are spread far too thin for the casual watcher to come back for more.

My comment is more geared towards a close entertaining game of rugby. I'm sure if that was a success then the crowds would increase in the cup. RL fans have been starved of any action for months so they are more likely to spend money on a mis-match at the start of the season than they are in the middle of the season when they get used to watching the best players every week.

This is also how I think it should be structured, though I don't like the WCC in February.

I don't think you should have a cup game as the first game of the season. It devalues the competition imo.

Since when was round 15 the beginning of the season for magic weekend though?! IMO have the magic weekend but actually play it at the beginning of the season and not half way though!

I agree that the CC should be earlier in the year instead of dragging it out over months...