yeh I'd go, either that or elland rd, leeds a great city, nice and central, and would make last game on a sunday not to bad

Elland road??? no thanks, seats so cramped together your knees are tucked upto your chin! plus its hardly a neutral venue (unless the whinos get relegated)

newcastle is perfect, ticks off the vast majority of things needed for fans

Please not Elland Road. It's an awful ground, I'm only short yet I struggled to sit in the seats for the International a few years ago. Also, it isn't that close to the City Centre and certainly not within the walking distance that St James's Park is.

How about Nottinghams city ground, prefer Manchester to Newcastle, sick off trying to ram RL down citys that aint interested. I only suggest Notts because that would be handy for me. Would be nice to have a magic weekend in a city that would actually get behind it, lets face it 70,000 over 2 days, is still pretty poor

Newcastle will do for me. The Etihad is a fantastic stadium but it isn't as close to the facilities as SJP. I hope we can get the bank holiday weekend next year too.

One other plus - they seems to have relaxed the stupid "no food if you haven't bought it in the stadium" thing as well

Yeh agree about location off the Etihad , and also the bank holiday would be much better

Nottingham would be perfect, great transportation links and within the city itself, central so for folks further South it's not so much of a journey and actually closer than Newcastle for everyone in the heartland areas with about 1.5 hours by car from Hull and to the furthest West St.helens plus just over an hour from central Leeds. By comparison newcastle is an extra hours drive.
BUT, it only has a capacity of just over 30k

Aggregate attendances only went up by 400 on last years total and 68,000 for 6 games is not that great considering the average attendances for the games in regular season. Making it easier/shorter distance for ALL fans from all parts of the country to get to the stadium should be high on the list of priorities.
There was actually a co-offer of the Kcom/KC lightstream being used next year as part of the 2017 CoC but it was deemed not sufficient for the numbers attending on any one day.

My choice would be Hillsborough, still central and still closer for all fans from all clubs plus closer for fans in the Southern parts too.

If that was against the Aussies when we got hammered I was there sat in the Geldard Rd end, the seating was that cramped up at half time we went for a pint and stopped in the bar and watched the second half on the telly.

That made zero sense.

You suggest Nottingham (a non-RL city).

Then say you'd prefer Manchester (a non-RL city) over Newcastle (a non-RL city) because you're sick of trying to ram RL down cities that ain't interested (despite the fact Newcastle actually has a pro team and has the two highest attendances in the history of the whole concept).

Then you go back to suggesting Nottingham because it's close to you.

Then go on to say about it being nice having it in a city that gets behind it (despite Newcastle being the highest attended of the lot and 70,000 barrier not even being broken yet but complaining it's poor).

Basically... You're gonna moan regardless for no coherent reason!

Haha relax, I said nottingham because I spend half my life in the city, not because its a rl city. I prefer manchester to newcastle , given a choice between them. And 70, 000 regardless of a record attendance , is still poor for 12 teams. I wasnt really moaning was I, just giving my thoughts and suggested an alternative like leeds, dont really know elland rd that well and by the sounds of it the stadiums not up to much! Fine. Not sure what your post was about. But you sound a right........ =#FF0000Less of the insults please. Karen.

Ps, I like magic weekend by the way, first one ive missed

You certainly wasn't on your own. My best friend is much taller than me and was in so much pain and discomfort that she did exactly the same. Awful, awful ground.

Problem with old those old grounds like elland road is that they were built for terracing of course and had to have seats retrofitted in after the regulations were brought in after Hillsborough. Going to the four nations final but have heard the seats are similar there as well.

Although they have less character and tend to be built more out of the way, new stadiums are the ones that offer the most comfort and to that end I haven't heard many people suggesting the Olympic, magic would get so much exposure if it was held in London.

Some seats in Anfield are bad, but as far as I know they are refitting the seats in the main stand as part of the work to add another tier, so that might make things better.

I agree that the Olympic Stadium would be worth a go, and the ground has treat transport links. But you'd probably need to do it at the expense of playing an international there, as I don't think the RL fans would go for three London trips in one year.

was talking about this with a mate of mine the other day. I said it would be either France or the Midlands. wouldn't surprise me if it was Ireland though....

Depending how well the Coventry double header for the four nations goes, I could see them giving that a go. Stick with Newcastle next year, then take it somewhere else IMO.

Don't think the leg room was that great where we were sat at St James' still got grazed shins from the seat in front after Shauly and Mini scored



That said I thought Newcastle was good and as others have said it's better for facilities being close by than the Etihad. Liverpool might be another option when they've finished their ground.

You said you were sick of trying to ram RL down the throat of cities that ain't interested... But you suggested Nottingham... and then Manchester.
That doesn't make sense. Why suggest those cities if you're sick of RL being shoved down their throats? I just think so many people needlessly bash expansion without actually thinking about it, and in this case you've done it and immediately contradicted yourself.


It isn't great, but you've made it sound like it was poor because of where it was and that the city of Newcastle doesn't get behind it. It ignores the fact that it was the best ever attended, and that it was better than your other choice, Manchester, who you would apparently think would get a bigger crowd despite having three attempts and none of them topping the lowest effort in Newcastle.

What makes you think they'll get behind it more than Newcastle?


You were though, really. You've said that they should stop ramming RL down cities that ain't interested; that 70,000 is poor and that you wish they'd take it to a city that gets behind it.

It's pretty disparaging of the effort in Newcastle to get the biggest ever Magic Weekend crowds.


If we go by your criteria of not ramming it into cities that ain't interested, and that 70,000 is poor over 2 days, that leaves us with Elland Road which isn't really fit for purpose (and which you'd have to sell out pretty much both days to beat the record).

What I'm basically saying is you haven't thought. If you had, you'd realise that 70,000 is a good attendance for the event and that you'd have to go to a new city to RL in order to beat it.


I'm just fed up of people complaining about events without actually thinking about the reasons they're complaining for. It doesn't help at all. The complaints you've had are completely contradictory to your suggestions of Nottingham and Manchester to boot. I'd worry more about what that makes you sound like before telling me what I sound like. I'm just trying to tell you why it doesn't make sense.

Surely having it somewhere more central makes it more appealing for pretty much everyone no? I didn't go, I honestly couldn't face 10 hours in the car either side of 3 games. If fans from every club had roughly an hour less drive for each journey there and back with say only an hour for some of the Leeds/Wakey/Cas fans and 1.5 hours approx for FC/KR/Saints/Pies/Warry/Widnes then surely that is going to far easier and less costly and as I said far easier for fans in the South to get to.

Or are the majority just bothered about the pish up they can have in places like Newcastle?

I think one of the "benefits" of it being further are that more people will stay over for the full weekend, thus going to both days. If they stay over, it helps the local economy more, and then the tourist board of the area are more likely to shell money out for the event.

If it's local, a lot if fans will likely just go for the day and spend less. There were probably more fans in total at Newcastle and Manchester, but less will have watched both days like in Cardiff and Edinburgh.

What are your thoughts on playing KR every year at magic?

Personally I'dp like to see Fc v Rhinos next year.

Leeds will be off to the big bash in Blackpool!

Should be changed as all the other derbies have slowly been dropped. Not fair that Hull and Rovers have the extra pressure that a derby brings.

Why not play 1 v 2 , 3 v 4 and so on based on the previous years league standings

They did, until it came to us...the lure of the Hull Derby as opposed to Hull v Catalan & Wakey v KR was simply too much.