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.

I'm in the camp which says scrap it. The idea was to spread the gospel of RL and it doesn't seem to have worked. We tried it mid season and tried it as an opener at locations aimed at new audiences. Now we're in Manchester? It should have been north east for me? Maybe Newcastle and invite a Cumbrian side in some way.
The fixtures are seriously unfair but without the Wigan v saints game there would be less attraction to neutrals.

Scrap it!!!

any idea of dates for this anybody?

The extra bank holiday at the start of June. 2nd and 3rd I think.

Good move by the RFL. The Millennium Stadium was just full of Northerners anyway. Cardiff is bloody difficult to get to (and away from!), even if it is a beautiful city.

It makes much more sense to hold it in Manchester.

At the end of the day Cardiff and Murrayfield were mostly full of normal RL fans anyway. Bring it closer to home while getting more fans in AND expand into a city which does not see much RL. Of course Manchester is expansion, we are taking the game to a place where it is not seen as a big sport.

little birdie tells me weekend 26/27 May - I hope their wrong though as this is not a bank holiday weekend it the week after for the Jubilee

Waste of time having it in Manchester. On course for the lowest attendance yet.

Not sure on that logic. Not a great fan of the concept but it still may be the first one I go to due to proximity.

How do you know that?

I'm pretty sure the Eithad Stadiums capacity is lower than the calculated "average" attendance of previous years.

But they'll do a 'calculated' average for the Eithad too. If they get 45,000 on Saturday and 30,000 on Sunday, they'll announce a 75,000 crowd.

I think you need to put your foot down and not let 'the partner' determine what you watch

Rugby league is pretty much non-existant in manchester.

Apart from a few towns in lancashire and yorkshire, we arent a majority sport , even in the M62 corridor.

It'll get the best crowds to date by a way IMO so don't get your thinking on the 2nd point.

As for a waste of time? Everyone's opinions will differ on that score but I'm happy enough. It'll bring in revenue and exposure to the sport that a normal round wouldn't and whilst I backed and attended every magic event a lot of people don't and 'say' that due to the cost of travel and accommodation so there's no excuse on that front anymore.

Good post. Going round the various sites on RLfans the reaction has been very positive so far.

In all honesty she's doing me a favour. Will i really want to watch Hudds/Wire & Cas/Wakey again like last year?
As I say, that was only due to travelling all that way & wanting my money's worth.
They've lost this spectator I'm afraid

I can imagine I'm one of many who will hopefully be able to make it now it's a bit closer to home. So it's not gained a new audience in Wales... there's no welsh team in superleague anymore so what would be the point?.. I enjoyed the first few trips to Cardiff in the days where I was "wealthy" enough to be able to afford this weekend, the challenge cup weekend, a weekend in France, trips to London etc all in one season, but now I have to pick and choose, and going to Manchester won't really be much of a problem. I don't know why people are so dead set against Manchester. It's a great city Just like Cardiff and Edinburgh, It has bars just like any other city, It's got good enough transport in and out...with the added bonus that you can either stay over just like anywhere else.. but also be close enough to home if that's easier/more affordable. People just seem to be upset that they don't have to travel 200 miles

In all honesty I think people may be slowly giving up on the idea but I can't see the attendances being any worse than Cardiff or Edinburgh. But I do think this is the last chance the concept has, and if it doesn't catch on this year then maybe its about time they gave up.

One thing it will do is be a good indicator of how popular this event actually is and whether RL supporters have taken to the Magic weekend once and for all.

If the ticket take up is low, this event is dead on its backside.

is 26/27 may 2012...

maybe it'll attract fans like me who couldnt afford to travel hundreds of miles to watch a league game.

i'll definitely be going, and i doubt i'll be alone as a first time magic attendee.

the only ones who wont go are the bandwagoners who see it as a p!ss up event.

DW hosted a promo shoot for the Magic Weekend today

So we have an exclusive???????????? The magic weekend is at Wigan?