Murrayfield attendance

[OAMJSONA]

Rugby League at professional level is a Northern Sport and always will be ( and that goes for Les Catalans)

i have advocated for a long time we should have a stadium in the north big enough to hold challengecup final etc

Ok

i know you will say rugby could not afford it and i agree but we should try and come up with some better ideas than playing games in the heartlands of rugby union

59749 this year over 7 games is absolutley nothing attendance wise

[markill]

all the games weren't 'derbies' this year, that may have impacted upon desire to travel. plus the credit crunch hadn't bitten quite so hard yet this time last year. i think the games were quite good, and why should we moan, play saints at murrayfield every year i say!

[highland convert]

Once on the beb news weather I saw the Edinburgh Magic weekend mentioned. Next news it had disappeared. Other than that it was boycotted by them. If it is back next year I would suggest advertising on Clyde radio, Forth radio and possibly Kingdom radio (Fife) Most unless they have Sky (A lot up the main centres are cable) were unaware of what was happening. Local football derbies East and West has half the police in scotland attending. A packed stadium forecourt beer by the gallon and a couple of bobbies enjoying the weather. 14 teams half with bad blood derbies and no crowd trouble. Well there was one fella bancing his heart out and topping it off with a moonie but wat the heck. Welcome back any time, Jim

[cpwigan]

I believe we need to look at such events in different ways. I am not sure Scotland can ever support a professional RL club. I think Scotland as a country struggles to support professional sport full stop. In the main due to Geography.

However, that does not mean Scotland is not important. Scotland represents a substantial % of TV viewers and if they merely watch RL regularly on their TV that alone will make a huge difference to the revenue the sport can command be it from TV deals or Sponsorship.

Likewise we can say what we like but if RL can become bigger in London it will have a huge impact.

Sport and television is at a very precarious stage in its relationship at the moment. Setanta wobbling is not good for sport.

[trotski_tgwu]

I believe we need to look at such events in different ways. I am not sure Scotland can ever support a professional RL club. I think Scotland as a country struggles to support professional sport full stop. In the main due to Geography.

However, that does not mean Scotland is not important. Scotland represents a substantial % of TV viewers and if they merely watch RL regularly on their TV that alone will make a huge difference to the revenue the sport can command be it from TV deals or Sponsorship.

Likewise we can say what we like but if RL can become bigger in London it will have a huge impact.

Sport and television is at a very precarious stage in its relationship at the moment. Setanta wobbling is not good for sport.

Cp i have to disagree with your bit above in bold as the game of football the round one that is, is a major sport in scotland with masive fallowing in the scottish premier league. Next to that you have a big fallowing in union, so for RL to get a foothold it need more exspsure and i dont think the RL were good at adverticing the murryfield magic wk-end. AS HC said in another posting it should have been raised on the local radio stations service central scotland to give it more exposure.

Lets hope they learn from this year and do better next year for a bigger local attendance.

[cpwigan]

I believe we need to look at such events in different ways. I am not sure Scotland can ever support a professional RL club. I think Scotland as a country struggles to support professional sport full stop. In the main due to Geography.

However, that does not mean Scotland is not important. Scotland represents a substantial % of TV viewers and if they merely watch RL regularly on their TV that alone will make a huge difference to the revenue the sport can command be it from TV deals or Sponsorship.

Likewise we can say what we like but if RL can become bigger in London it will have a huge impact.

Sport and television is at a very precarious stage in its relationship at the moment. Setanta wobbling is not good for sport.

Cp i have to disagree with your bit above in bold as the game of football the round one that is, is a major sport in scotland with masive fallowing in the scottish premier league. Next to that you have a big fallowing in union, so for RL to get a foothold it need more exspsure and i dont think the RL were good at adverticing the murryfield magic wk-end. AS HC said in another posting it should have been raised on the local radio stations service central scotland to give it more exposure.

Lets hope they learn from this year and do better next year for a bigger local attendance.

You are right Trots. I just believe that RL will be lucky to ever have a professional club with decent attendances in Scotland. It is for me more feasable to have a large number of Scottish people who enjoy the game and want to watch it live on big occasions but primarily on TV.

I think population wise the 2 principal cities are big enough but as we will see in the next 10 years, I think Rangers and Celtic will both become part of a Premier League and pro football in Scotland bar the Old Firm will downscale. Similarly Scotland has struggled with professional Rugby Union and had to downscale.

It will take decades rather than 2 MM's before Scotland could manage a professional RL team IMO.

[GeoffN]

I'm in favour of expansion, and always have been - I like the idea of Quins, Cats and Celtic in SL. I do wonder, though, how much a Magic weekend helps that expansion.

[ste lord]

To those who went this year, was it a better venue than the Millenium Stadium? I went last year and although enjoyed the weekend in Cardiff, thought the Stadium was just too big and lacked atmosphere, and wasn't the spectacle it should have been, (not taking into account our shocking performance!!)

IMO the attendance over the 2 days was oor due to the matches and who was laying each other. The derbys will give people a reason to travel to the event.

I enjoyed the weekend, didn't go on the Sunday as we had a family day on our caravan site and a BBQ at night.

My only issue would be the distance from the ground to the city centre. We were droped off on the road outside the ground at walked towards the city centre. 1 hour later we had still not got to princess street. However we got there and had a meal etc then got a cab back to the stadium(much better idea ).

The benefits of Cardiff are that everything is within falling distance of the ground, but don't like the closed roof idea. Like most things it's swings and roundabouts.

Would like to got to Dublin in a coule of years if they try it over there!!!

[MrDave]

What the RFL should turn the 'Magic Weekend' into an 'On The Road Weekend'.

Each fixture is played at a different stadiums in Europe with the stadium selected on the fixture size so that the stadiums are actually filled to capacity and the 'locals' going actually get a proper rugby league atmosphere. It would also mean the RFL could spread rugby league to a lot more places in just one weekend.

Quick example:

Harlequins RL v Salford (Franklins Gardens, Northampton, England, 13,500)
Bradford Bulls v Wakefield Wildcats (Kingsholm Stadium, Gloucester, England, 16,500)
Wigan Warriors v St Helens (RDS Stadium, Dublin, Rep Ireland, 25,000)
Celtic Crusaders v Huddersfield (Racecourse Ground, Wrexham ,Wales, 15 891)
Castleford v Hull FC (Ravenhill Stadium, Belfast, N. Ireland, 12,300)
Catalans v Leeds (Camp d'Esports, Catalonia, Spain, 13,500)
Hull KR v Warrington (Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, 18,300)

[GeoffN]

What the RFL should turn the 'Magic Weekend' into an 'On The Road Weekend'.

Each fixture is played at a different stadiums in Europe with the stadium selected on the fixture size so that the stadiums are actually filled to capacity and the 'locals' going actually get a proper rugby league atmosphere. It would also mean the RFL could spread rugby league to a lot more places in just one weekend.

Quick example:

Harlequins RL v Salford (Franklins Gardens, Northampton, England, 13,500)
Bradford Bulls v Wakefield Wildcats (Kingsholm Stadium, Gloucester, England, 16,500)
Wigan Warriors v St Helens (RDS Stadium, Dublin, Rep Ireland, 25,000)
Celtic Crusaders v Huddersfield (Racecourse Ground, Wrexham ,Wales, 15 891)
Castleford v Hull FC (Ravenhill Stadium, Belfast, N. Ireland, 12,300)
Catalans v Leeds (Camp d'Esports, Catalonia, Spain, 13,500)
Hull KR v Warrington (Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, 18,300)

I like that idea!

I'd be well up for a trip to Dublin, too - I love the place!