That would be class actually, and it'd be so easy to market the games as well, in the coming weeks everyone would be wondering who they'd play. Only difference it might make is people might not buy the tickets until they actually know who they are playing. Either way it would be better to market it that way than with some stupid video about mascots in cars wacky races style. Who on earth thought of that?! Idiots

I think if the Challenge Cup final was moved back to May we could then have the Magic Weekend on the August bank holiday (the date the CC final is now played). Having it near the end of the season would give clashes with contenders for places a more tangible bearing on the competition. If this was done then I think that ties of 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 4th, 5th v 6th, 7th v 8th, 9th v 10th, 11th v 12th, 13th v 14th based on the table the previous week would attract more sales. Despite being uncertain of who they would play fans of all clubs would know that their tie would have an effect on their final league position as they would be playing their immediate rivals in the table.

They do indeed have to do some savvy marketing. I think its a great idea the concept of a 4 pointer weekend but as mentioned in a later post the people doing the marketing are the same who came up with the wacky races idea. Don't know about you but I'd be anything but confident in their ability to sell it to the masses. The players need to be told to stop slagging stuff off in the press too.

You would have some idea who you were playing, in the last few weeks it would have been obvious that we have been playing Wire or Saints...

if this round of fixtures is to remain an extra fixture, why not have all fourteen captains on the field and the games are drawn on the saturday morning by the captains. you dont know who you are playing till the last minute. completely random, off the cuff, the fans wont know whos playing who. very little preparation time. would be easy to market, and would create some excite ment for the fans travelling not knowing what the weekend will bring. maybe a bit of a random idea but would be interesting.

or here's another idea, scrap the current system in terms of extra game for the league.
So we don't have an extra game end of.
but
This weekend (sat and sun) we have a sevens tournament with SL, NL1 and NL2 clubs competing. The games are short, are inclusive of every team and the fans.
It's an extra cup to brag about, 36 teams in a 2 day competition. Surely that would fill a stadium.

i like it

I like the idea of having it as a stand alone 7s cup but the only problem with having so many teams would be the number of games needed. Straight knock out would mean the fewest number of games

Preliminary round=4 games + 1st rnd=16 + 2nd rnd=8 + 3rd rnd=4 + SF=2 +Final. Meaning 35 games and I doubt that many would fit into two days.

With the SL clubs plus the two Championship Grand Finalists from the previous year it would be less unwieldy (1st Rnd=8games + 2nd rnd=4 + 2 SFs + final = 17 games in total) and easier to fit in to a weekend. It would also provide a reward for the two teams getting to Championship GF.

if you had the playing hours of 10 till 8 you can play 30 games at 3 games an hour or 20 games at 2 games an hour.

or just have SL, NL1 and top 6 of NL2 this would make 32 teams, this would mean 31 games in total. 16 one day 15 the next.

I don't want to sound too negative but I think that the idea of 10 hours of rugby on each day would be a bit too much, particularly for families with younger children. If it was to have so many teams (and thus games) then it would probably need to run onto the Bank Holiday Monday as well with maybe the last 3 rounds played on the monday.

i was just saying you could fit that in.

15 games at 3 an hour would be 5 hours which is reasonably

Ive suggested that idea before aswell, i reackon that would be good weekend and would attract a good crowd... i really wish we did have a 7's tournament. As you said, another cup to brag about



So thats 26,642 for the first day and 25,401 for the second day, so a total of 52,043. I think those numbers prove that the current set up is not working, either that or we really dont want it.

'RFL content with Magic Event'

More like RFL happy to remain in their own world.

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/10/05/02/RUGBYL_Magic.html[/url

Will they ever listen to the fans? The concept is a good one, but tweaks need to be made, ironically the best Magic Weekend was the first two, yet the ever tampering RFL couldn't just leave it be.

That will never change with a meddler like Wood in charge.

Did you actually write "[imeddler[/i" or did the word filter change it from a more accurate description?

Bring back the Lancashire and Yorkshire Cups with the finals being a double header. It wouldn't be a magic weekend but its a day out with 4 teams playing. Could even have a 'Other Counties'* Cup final too that day meaning 6 teams.


* 'Other Counties' Cup could involve, Barrow, Whitehaven, Workington, Gateshead, Harlequins, Skolars, Crusaders, South Wales, Catalans, Toulouse etc.

We need next year to play in a smaller stadium as its proving its the same fans ( like myself) going year in year out, that its not putting bums on seats what this was designed to do but with lewis/wood in charge of our game we will be back next year out of the heartland infront of 25k fans each day.I would if possible take it to the midlands villa/coventry big enough stadiums and wont look bad on tv if the ground is empty like this year when it did.

and who honestly wants to go to Birmingham or Coventry???

I'd go ya cheeky get



IMO though teams in the Midlands would be far more popular than anything Quins have ever done. Its easy to get to, 2 hours travelling max for fans of each team.

It wasnt a dig at Coventry, but it was at Birmingham, cant stand that place


My point is to have a weekend like this, you need to be able to sell the town/city its held in. It needs to be a good place for a weekend away, and i dont see either as popular destination. I would prefer a team in the Midlands than Quins aswell, i always thought it would be better to expand south gradually.

It did look a bit dire (attendance wise) on TV and that can't be good if the objective is to promote the game to new pastures.

I think the magic weekend concept is a good idea and is here to stay. That said we need to keep it away from Rugby Union stadiums, as it will never work in the Union heatlands.
Emirates in London would be ideal but you would never get a premiership groundsman or chairman agreeing to seven games on their pitch over two days.
Coventry not a bad idea but what is there in Coventry to attract people for the weekend.
Opening weekend of the season, too cold in my opinion.
Challenge Cup Magic Weekend does not give fans from all Super Leagues clubs the chance to get together.
My view is that we should keep the magic weekend, move it to the end of May, I like the idea of pairing up 1st v 2nd etc, which could be fixed 4 weeks in advance for marketing purposes. The venue should be Blackpool. Blackpool ticks all the boxes for me and we should fill the stadium and it would look great on the telly.

Blackpool is a good venue with one slight problem, the ground only holds around 16,000. We would sell it out but that wouldnt be such a great achievement....

Agree with you Bondi, but selling out 16,000 is better than the empty stadiums in Edinburgh & Cardiff and will give us a platform to move forward from.