Magic Weekend organisers in St James' Park admission with future plans outlined

[josie andrews]

The event has controversially been moved to Leeds United's Elland Road next year.

Magic Weekend organisers are hoping to re-engage with Newcastle United about taking the event back to St James' Park after admitting they didn't want to move it away from the event's popular home.

Leeds United's Elland Road will host the 2024 event after logistical issues prevented an agreement being reached to keep it in the North East. The announcement was met with an overwhelmingly negative response, with supporters threatening not to attend as a result.

There are fears a poor turnout could result in this year's event being the last amid ongoing talk of a new event that could be added to rugby league's calendar. It's been insisted that the new concept wouldn't necessarily be a replacement for Magic Weekend.

When asked about the decision to take the weekend to Leeds, Rugby League Commercial's Managing Director, Rhodri Jones said: "We wanted to stay at Newcastle; it wasn't an option.

"Then, having evaluated all the other viable options we had, we landed on Elland Road. In terms of the future, it's an ongoing conversation. At this moment in time, as you'd expect me to say, we're going to focus on this one and make sure it's the best that it can be.

"But also, at the same time, it enables us to re-engage with Newcastle and other venues knowing we've got one in the calendar, but it also gives Elland Road an opportunity to stake a claim. If it flies and it's a success, who is to say we won't stay at Elland Road? They are very keen to have it and secure us going there, I think they will do a really good job for us

"We've been pleasantly surprised at the 24-hour ticket sales number having read some of the criticism that we got when we made that announcement. But we made that decision. I don't think Elland Road would mind me saying it, but our preference was to stay at Newcastle

Jones refused to provide any insights on the new concept that is being drawn up, but admitted it could be implemented into the calendar for the 2025 season.

"They (IMG) presented to us six months worth of work around a new concept event to look at for 2024," he said. "At the time, we hadn't confirmed the broadcast deal; a couple of clubs were part of that consultation, but we put it back on the shelf as we said we needed to sort out the broadcast deal first, which meant we were doing Magic again

"It's something we'll start to look at in the first quarter of this year ahead of the 2025 calendar, which will include the number of fixtures and the validity of Magic. All of it is in the mix.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... es-9043997

[Ipinwigan]

Let's hope they see sense and take it back to Newcastle.
For the first time, excluding Liverpool, I won't be attending and we usually do the full weekend.