Magic Weekend of Illusion

I don’t mean to be negative, and this is my first negative / controversial article, but what exactly is the point of the Magic Weekend?  I don’t agree with where the so called “Magic Weekend” was held this year and the extra fixture it creates.

Let me start with the first point, the location.  Last year (2012), this year (2013), and next year (2014), the location of the Magic Weekend is Manchester City Football Clubs home ground, The Etihad Stadium, in east Manchester.  I haven’t got anything against Man City, in fact Wigan Athletic beat them 1 - 0 in the FA Cup Final in May 2012, I have got an issue with the location of the Magic Weekend being in Manchester.  Manchester, the north-west of England, which is already saturated with a number of Rugby League clubs.  Manchester, the north-west of England, which is within the heartlands of Rugby League.

When the Magic Weekend was first created back in 2007 the concept was to promote rugby league to a wider audience, to brand new fans, thus making more people interested in the sport, grow the audience of the greatest game of all and create rugby league clubs away from the M62 corridor.  

Therefore in 2007 Millennium Magic (as it was called then) was held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.  Millennium Magic was also held in Cardiff in 2008.  In 2009 and 2010 the weekend was rebranded the Magic Weekend as the event moved to Edinburgh and was held at Murrayfield.  Murrayfield should hold a place in every Wigan Warriors fans heart as it as here where in 2002 Wigan Warriors beat St Helens 21 - 12 in the final of the Challenge Cup!  In 2011 the weekend moved back to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

In the 5 years from the initial idea in 2007 to holding the weekend in Manchester in 2012 I believe that the RFL have lost focus in the concept and now just stage the event purely to make money.  Don’t get me wrong I know that money makes the world go round but when did sport become business?  The RFL shouldn’t be concerned with turning a profit, they should just be concerned with breaking even.  Where does the profit go?  I certainly don’t think it gets ploughed back into the game, it probably makes fat cats get even fatter.

My opinion is that the weekend should be held away from the heartlands, to revert back to the original concept of introducing rugby league to brand new fans.  I would love to see the weekend being held in Newcastle for example.  St James Park holds 52,387 and it is in the middle of the city centre.  The north-east hasn’t got a team in the Super League, rugby league isn’t very well known over there but I’m sure that the Geordies would go mad for the game.  To me the Magic Weekend should be all about promoting rugby league in new areas to new fans.

If the statistics are anything to go by the fans currently don’t want the concept either in its present state.  On Day 1 the attendance was 30,793.  The corresponding fixtures produced an attendance of 41,286 and that’s including a London Broncos home game.  On Day 2 the attendance was 32,953.  The corresponding fixtures produced an attendance of 28,702 which is higher but how many of the fans had purchased a weekend ticket and how many fans had purchased a ticket who had never seen a rugby league game before?  My guess is that most of the day 2 fans had also attended on day 1 and 99.9% of them had seen a rugby league game before.  I would love to see the number of individual ticket sales instead of just seeing the total attendance figure of 63,746.  I’m sure it would paint a very different picture.

My other bug bear in that the Magic Weekend creates another fixture in an already crowded fixture list.  I believe that rugby league players in this country already play too many rugby league games and they also play more games than their NRL cousins.  I know that they all full time athletes and this is their job but in how many other jobs are there collisions to the equational of a car crash every 10 seconds?

The Magic Weekend fixture should be part of the regular 26 weekly rounds.  I don’t think that there should be an extra fixture created just for it.  I love watching Wigan Warriors play, and 9 times out of 10 beating, St Helens but in recent years we have had to play them up to 5 times a season and even to the most die hard of fan that tens to drum down the only official derby in the world of sport, apart from the Epson derby of course.

I know that people will complain and say that it will be unfair to half of the super league teams that their side will lose a home game.  But it will only be every other season, the other half of the super league teams will also lose a fixture the alternative season so I’m sure we can all argue on that.  More so when Wigan Warriors lose a home game for the Magic Weekend then the season ticket price would be cheaper, bonus!  Or another idea would be to include the Magic Weekend fixture as part of the season ticket, and thus getting into St James Park for free, belting!

Why do Championship rugby league sides miss out on the Magic Weekend?  I don’t think that’s fair.  If the Magic Weekend concept is to showcase the sport to a wider audience then I think it should also include the Championship sides.  I went to watch Leigh Centurions play on day 2 of the Magic Weekend, I’m not two faced, and I didn’t think that it was very fair for the club and their fans for them to be playing on the same day.  What if their fans wanted to go to day 2 of the Magic Weekend?  Then they would of had to of chosen between their own club and the concept.  I certainly would of known where my priorities lie.

As the Magic Weekend is normally played over a Bank Holiday weekend then I don’t think it would be a problem for the RFL to include the Championship sides.  They could play the 14 rugby league games, which includes the Championship club games, over 3 days.  5 games on the Saturday, 5 games on the Sunday, and 4 games on the Bank Holiday Monday, thus allowing fans to get back home for work the next day.

Until the RFL revert back to the original concept of the Magic Weekend which is to promote the sport to a wider audience by moving it out of the rugby league heartlands and it stops becoming a money making exercise by being an extra fixture in the super league diary then I’m afraid I’m out.

#AgainstModernRugbyLeague