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.

I agree it would look alot better on TV than Cradiff or Edinburgh, but IMO that would be a backwards step and an admission that this concept isnt working. I would love it in Blackpool, im sure alot of fans would. But for me the stadium just isnt big enough, it has to be at least 25,000.

The problem with Blackpool is that you may end up with the situation in which 16000 tickets are sold for each day but only half that number end up in the ground for any one game as supporter fluctuate between the pubs and the games they choose to see. You end up with a half or 3/4 full stadium and regular supporters of the teams playing locked out, which seems madness to me.

This is why the whole concept is flawed in my opinion.Very few people want to sit in one place to watch four games - I don't even know of anyone who watched all four games on the saturday at home, you can have too much of a good thing and eight hours of back to back RL is just too much for most. So do we go for a big stadium to accomodate everyone, knowing full well that it will rarely be half full (at best) or do we have the situation described above?

The weekend is trying to be too many things and falling short on all fronts. When the concept was first announced I thought it could be a success but after four attempts, all the people I speak to have reservations of some sort. We need to get rid of the extra game for a start to make the regular competition even once again if we are to have any credibility outside of RL. Next we need to make the weekend actually mean something - Maybe take the quarter finals of the challenge cup on the road so that it is no longer an automatic right to SL clubs and clubs outside of the top tier can get a look in every once in a while. Two games a day will see more people in the ground for the entire event and still leave plenty of time for ripping it up in the pubs before and after.

RFL must pull rabbits out of the hat to save the Magic Weekend www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... urrayfield

RFL must pull rabbits out of the hat to save the Magic Weekend www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... urrayfield

It could give somebody top spot unfairly. If we were to finish 1st on the strength of playing Salford and you playing Hudds then that wouldn't be fair. 26 games...done.

Does anybody know what the attendances were?

A man with sense.

Get rid of the extra game and there is no need for play offs to decide the championship - which is another argument altogether! After 26 games, 13 home, 13 away, play each opponent twice, and the top team after 26 games are the best. But thats makes sense and Sky won't have their final.