Yes it does & with the FAW looking at moving the Euro 2012 qualifiers (except for one) to smaller stadia then they'll be looking for new revenue streams.

If you had the WCC there, then one SL team wouldn't get a game.
Would be a good idea if the league had an odd number of teams, but a big no for the WCC if it was as it is now. Plus, you wouldn't be able to have it as the first game as it would interfere with the Aussie pre-season (which is why it has moved 3 weeks into the season).


Agreed.


As mentioned on another thread, this pitch is used for the teams to warm-up on as they can't use the main field.


I doubt it. I'd be happy with 60k over two days again.

If it goes back to the MS as well, I think they should close the top tier. Would look better to fill up the lower tiers.

Hopefully this will be the end of the Magic Weekend. After the novelyty and the concept of spreading the game to a wider audience had worn off, it had no other raison d'etre.

Poeple criticised it's marketing. Why? What else could it have been billed as?

- The -up-athon in Wales/Scotland
- The mega weekend where you get the grand sum of 2 competition points and naff all else other than bully tankereds and BFH
- Tumbleweed.....

The fact remains thast to have something at a big event, it must be worth something.

Branding the event 'a fun weekend' was all that remained to the organisers marketing team. T

The traditional big day out in RL has, and always will be Wembley and the one that matters is Old Trafford.

Fair point about the WCC. Thats not possible.

Surely they can find somewhere else to warm up! That is not a massive problem.

I wouldn't be happy with that. We get 80k fans for the CC final when only two teams are playing, we are capable of getting more when we have 14 teams.

I completely agree with only selling the top tier when the rest have sold-out.

I also think we should have allocated seating with your own fans to imrpove the atmosphere but have one whole side of the ground for people wanting a good view.

I hope they keep it going-Cardiff with derbies is the answer-The first 2 years were great

Scotland although enjoyable wasnt as good.

It's a pretty large problem! Teams need to warm up properly. Clubs will not go for it if their team is not able to adequately prepare for their first game of the season. Not only is it a risk to the performance of the team, but a risk to the players who could get injured. You'd massively underestimated its importance to pro-sports teams!

With the stadium being in the city centre, there is nowhere else they could warm-up within reasonable distance. The only solution would be to have them warm-up immediately after the previous game finishes, and delaying the kick off for each game to allow for this. How long is it between when a team first enters a field to warm-up and kick off? About 30-45 mins? Could make the event too long.

I'm pretty sure there is a tennis centre very nearby which could be used for warm-ups. For the sake of having a better event I think it's worth finding a way around the problem.

I certainly havn't underestimated the importance of warm-ups, I was a top swimmer before injury. I just originally had dismissed in my mind that they warmed up on this pitch and now would prefer a way around the problem.

You've Got Cardiff Arms Park next door & the Welsh Institute of sport & the indoor facilities at the Swalec Stadium ten minutes walk away.

Which is the pitch they used to warm up during the two times we've held it their

it does

i was watching some engineering show where they closed the roof.

not a bad idea re the champ. teams but does their season start the same time as the SL season.

What would be the point of the Championship clubs being involved ?

We would be expected to do what exactly , travel down to Cardiff to stand outside in the cold in Jan/Feb to watch our team while the SL fans are next door indoors watching their games ?

Do you honestly believe more than a 1,000 would make the trip ?

Some people on here need to start to actually use the grey matter between their ears before starting to type

Having it at the start of the season would be stupid. I for one certainly won't sit there for 6 hours one day and 8 the next. It would be watch Wire then home. Weather is a huge factor. The problem this year was that everybody buggered off after their game as it was freezing. Some saints fans watched their game in the pub opposite the gound this year as they simply couldn't stand it anymore. As starved of rugby I may be in Feb I doubt I could sit in there all day. For 2 days!!!

I dont get why everyone wants this beginning of season. the weather is likely to be lousy and players may not be 100% up to game speed at that point. Having it as Derbies is fine by me but it has to be one of the 2 league games not a 3rd game as that makes it unfair and just rotate who's home game it counts as every year.

… and there's no bank holiday weekend. So if the RFL did have it as a season opener, I'd bet anything you like these boards would be inundated with posts about how outrageous it was of the RFL expecting people to travel to Cardiff and back all in just two days

As I said , reading some of the stuff on here must be like evesdropping on a meeting up at red hall

Can teams practice taking bombs before a game in a tennis centre?


There's more to a warm-up than just warming up the muscles though. They need to warm up the mind, practice the main skills before the game, etc. They can't do that indoors. They need to be on a field, running at pads, doing ground work, taking kicks, etc.

I never mentioned it being indoors.

Not a problem because the Championship clubs would not be involved , so the venue next door could be used for the warm ups

The only retractable roof they have is over the seats at the end which move back to let the elements into the ground for the benefit of the pitch.

It's not a full roof like the Millenium Stadium for example.

6 hours sat in stadium in February ?No thanks,it's just tolerable to watch your own side whilst freezing your b*ll*cks off but im not freezing them off for anybody else.
Last bank holiday in May at Cardiff will do fine,after all,it is a summer sport.

Keep it in May, but bring back the derbys for me.

Don't want derbies, we have too many of them, lets just have a open draw. If not just scrap it, imbalances the fixture list thus making in unfair.

How on Earth is two derbies "too many"?!

And an open draw produced some pretty dull games for this year's Magic Weekend. They took the derbies away because there was too many. At the time they had four. They went from four to two. Why didn't they just go to three?!

If the RFL are to keep the Magic Weekend they should bring back the derby fixtures although if they scrapped it I wouldn't be fussed It be one less game.