The reason the RFL can't turn it round now is because of the fans negativity which stemmed from the decision to take the event to Murrayfield.

I'm struggling to find any negative reports from people who actually went, other than a couple from fans who went solely for their club's matches and were left annoyed by poor performances. Everyone I have spoken to and virtually on the forum absolutely loved the event. Myself included.

I didnt decide to go because of the poor reports to be honest Matty. I'd probably give it a go if I could afford it, theres just too many more things in RL that im more interested in going to. I'd rather spend my money on a trip to Catalan and the rest of the away games that dont take up so much time and money overall. If the event was closer to home and just £12.50 a ticket wild horses couldnt keep me away, I worked till 12pm on Saturday also.

I just dont have the luxory of being able to afford a day/weekend at Cardiff aswell as saving up for a trip to Catalan, most away matches, both finals (i usually go despite who's playing) along with paying for my nephew aswell and my lad turns 3 in March so going to start bringing him to a few matches.

Maybe a better thing for the RFL to do would be to hold it closer to the heartlands of Rugby League, because lets face it, we're going nowhere fast in Cardiff & Scotland, the locals just dont care.

I also dont get this looking down on other fans because they dont go to every single game and every single event, its just snobbery.

People have different lifestyles and other things going on in their lives, RL is not the be all and end all.

i like that........make it a festival.........at COM or OT at end of footy season..when its a bit warmer.

I share your views completely.

I am certain that most people complaining about empty seats etc. were sat at home watching on tv.

With all 14 teams playing and everyone on here claiming to LOVE RL, we shouldn't be able to get tickets. Rugby League fans are pathetic, how often do we listen to people on here saying RU is crap RL is the greatest game of all and yet they don't attend. I have been to 4 magic weekends only missing the first one and I have loved every single one.

I challenge any true rugby league fan to attend and not enjoy themselves.

I am sick of the RFL as much as anyone over some of the decisions they make but when it comes to this weekend they got everything right and still people sit at home and complain.

What exactly do the people who were sat at home complaing want?

Things to do for next season:

Move the event to May Bank Holiday, allows people to stay for the weekend without having to book time off work. In addition you would hope it would be warmer and giving that Accomodation in the near vicinity of Cardiff is scarce and pricey, then May would allow people to stay via other methods such as local campsites.

I would increase all SL Clubs Season Tickets by £5, with the MM event becoming included in the price of your season tickets.

Greater incentives for Group Travellers such as subsidised travel and accomodation.

Beer Tents & BBQ's with reasonable prices.
Complimentary goodies for kids inside the stadium (flags, drinks...etc).
Free tickets to Cardiff (and other South Wales) kids, school groups, rugby clubs..etc.

I don't think i'd like it closer to home, purely because if it was in Manchester there isn't that many people gonna go for the weekend like myself. Trying different venues is a good idea though, myself personally i'd like to try Newcastle.

That was a stupid idea agreed. (It also didn't help we played Huddersfield, not Saints).
It would be a bit like having the Grand Final at Old Trafford from 1998 to 1992 and then moving it to Newcastle in 1993 before switching it back. If there's one thing we've learned is that RL fans don't like change.

I don't think they could have given away more free tat inside the stadium if they had tried. The ball boys were juniors from Neath-Port Talbot Steelers and I think Bridgend Blue Bulls too. It's hardly realistic to expect the RFL to subsidise your travel costs, and the ticket prices were dirt cheap anyway for what was on offer.

The only valid point there would be moving it back to May. But when it was previously held in May the stay-at-home moaners were clamouring for a big event to start the season. I guess that's what the RFL get for listening to such idiots.

there lies your answer..........SITTING AT HOME WATCHING ON TV

choice...........fork out a small fortune that you can hardly afford, or watch on telly and save your money for other games??

im with Barry Mac, whos post magic weekends made Eddie choke.........he said people couldnt be expected to dig into their pockets to travel to south wales....he said have it in the north west.................which imo is a cracking idea.

heres another..........start the season with a bang.......all games played over 2 days, IN THE NORTH WEST..........1 stadium saturday, 1 sunday........all games televised.
more chance of getting the big stadiums if they ony have 3 or 4 games played.

as an aside............crowds were sparce, mostly die hard rugby leage fand from the north west.............how many WELSH FANS??????????????............not many.
proves wales dont deserve the attention ..........either move it north, or scrap it

I fully understand, I have kids too and make sacrifices during the season where I have too, normally Sunday away games over in Yorkshire. In addition I have yet to see Wigan in France, simply cannot afford the weekend away (still hoping one year we will play in the kids summer holidays, thus allowing me to build a two weeks France holiday around the game)!! I didn't go to Murrayfield last season, due to the fact it was Huddersfield not Saints so decided to watch it on SKY, moving it to Murrayfield last season, plus having fixtures pulled out of a hat was a disaster).

In addition, this years mistake for me was having it in February not the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Good point about season tickets, I said that before but got laughed at.

I also think some sort of reward should be given to thhe club who sells the most tickets, if we were going to be really radical the why not a extra point in the table? Probably a bit too radical but you see what I'm getting at.

Rugby League fans don't like change and I would keep the event in Cardiff and keep trying to develop RL in that area.

Give free tickets away for fun within Wales especially at schools, colleges and rugby clubs! Also there is a huge univercity, free tickets for all students. The RFL won't be losing out by doing this because these are just extra fans to spread the game.

The RFL already give a free ticket for the first round of the challenge cup, why not just do it for the magic weekend!

I am not willing to give up on the conept, it is the best the RFL have ever come up with and it would be one of the greatest events in british and maybe even world sport if the stadium was full.

I am just praying RU don't copy and make it more succesful.

Fair enough, although quoting my post would suggest othewise. I can see why those who attended get frustrated with those slagging it off. I really enjoyed it last year, and the fact we can have 14 sets of supporters together with no issues should be celebrated. But as I said before, I think we need to step back and see what the aim is. If it's for fans then play it a football ground in the north (after the football season), if the aim is expansion then that's good, aa a sport we need to look ahead. But market the thing to death, give thousands of tickets to schools/local teams and make sure that the biggest rugby union competition of the year isn't on at the same time.

I know people claim that "real fans" will travel, but compare home games to away games and you can see that the closer a game is the more will attend. However this also shows that comparing attendances to regular weekly rounds is ridiculous and irrelevant. The magic weekend format is a great idea, it shouldn't be considered a failure because x amount don't go, but it should be called a success because y amount do go. I just think it could be adapted to improve it, rather than be written off as a failure. People who are defending it should be less precious, not everyone who didn't go wants to all over the idea

im with you here.........was the random draw that threw up awful games that made that a disaster............on the other hand.........why should saints have to play us 3 times..its not fair on them

At the end of the day, at the moment Rugby League as a sport doesnt have a strong enough fan base for something like this to be a success.

Yeah Wigan and Leeds have massive home fan bases. Warrington, Hull and St Helens is ok. The rest of Super Leagues is pretty poor for anybodys standards. No matter what the RFL do they are not going to fill an 80k stadium two days in a row for 7 matches. Its only something that would work where fans are crazy like in America with the superbowl. It wouldnt work in football because the fans are thugs. It wouldnt work in RU because the fans would get bored, its never going to be a massive success.

The RFL would make more money just having one extra fixture of Derbys, at seperate, normal RL stadiums. Im not saying thats what they should do (there is no point) but as Wigan/Leeds Andy has already said, the attendance is less than normal for an average weekly round, and as Katrina pointed out, most of the '60k' that attended the matches will have had weekend tickets and gone on both days so the real amount of people that actually attended is alot less than that!

We have International players complaining to the press that its hard for England players to perform at the end of the season after such a long gruelling hard season - so why are we making them play an extra match?

There are soooooooooo many reasons for this event to be scrapped, and so little for it to carry on going, its getting worse and worse every year.

Reasons for it to carry on:
1.The RFL will have made well over £1 million from this event.
2.Everyone who went loved it.

What are the reasons for it to be scrapped?

As I came out of the ground after the Wire game, they were stamping your hand to allow re-entry, loads of Wire fans refused the offer. I spoke to a few and they said they were here for the match and were buggering off home. I'd say that around 30% of the Wire fans were in attendance for the Wigan-Saints match.

Read my posts and you will see.

The fact that you can only come up with a massive 2 reasons for it to carry on says it all. I dont know how much money they made because I dont work for the accounts department for the RFL (im assuming you do) but i know that everyone who went did not love it. A group of my mates went and said it was a waste of time, im sure theres more also.

I'd say the complete opposite was true. What other major(ish) sport has completely changed the time of year it is played and also completely changed the way it decides it's champions, and have both embraced by it's core support over the last 10-15 years? The one thing RL fans can't be accused of is resistance to change.

Maybe those who think it's a crap idea that has run it's time fail to see what Nigel Wood on another freebie actually brings to the sport?

Are you just talking from gate receipts there, or other sources of income?
As I sat in the stadium yesterday I discussed the very same thing that we can't have made much profit from the event.

Bearing in mind Stadium hire, stewarding costs, advertising...etc?

Quote ="19 Leagues"Read my posts and you will see. The fact that you can only come up with a massive 2 reasons for it to carry on says it all. I dont know how much money they made because I dont work for the accounts department for the RFL (im assuming you do) but i know that everyone who went did not love it. A group of my mates went and said it was a waste of time, im sure theres more also.'" See how many negative posts about it you can find on these forums. In fact don't even bother, just read this post from a Leigh fan of all people: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=482295&p=15839605#p15839605 If your mates didn't like it then that's a shame. They don't have to go again if they don't want to. Doesn't mean the RFL should scrap the whole event. Give me one good reason why it should be scrapped.

Quote ="19 Leagues"Read my posts and you will see. The fact that you can only come up with a massive 2 reasons for it to carry on says it all. I dont know how much money they made because I dont work for the accounts department for the RFL (im assuming you do) but i know that everyone who went did not love it. A group of my mates went and said it was a waste of time, im sure theres more also.'" See how many negative posts about it you can find on these forums. In fact don't even bother, just read this post from a Leigh fan of all people: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=482295&p=15839605#p15839605 If your mates didn't like it then that's a shame. They don't have to go again if they don't want to. Doesn't mean the RFL should scrap the whole event. Give me one good reason why it should be scrapped.

Bearing in mind that they are all paid for by the Welsh tourist board, who also pay the RFL £500k to host the event? Did you really think the RFL would just do this for the sake of it?

Maybe I should have said swap and change.
Imagine the RFL switching to summer for a few years, then winter for a couple before back to summer? I would like to see average attendances over the 95/96/97 periods for all clubs as no doubt we would have had the tradionalists grumbling. I know ours dropped but that could have been the hangover effect of the dominant period.

Regards the Grand Final, support increased from 43k to 70k gradually over a number of years, helped I would imagine by the fact that supporters were getting used to the format and the fact it remained at Old Trafford on a Saturday in October.

That's a nice sweetner then.




Maybe the RFL of the past. I've been to internationals at a third full Twickenham before for instance.