City of Manchester stadium to host magic weekend

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/rugby_league/3922773/Magic-Weekend-to-take-place-at-Manchester-City.html
Not sure i would have held it there, but fans should really turn up in big numbers for this one.

Where would you have held it?

I personally think it's a fantastic place to hold it. I really think it's a cracking stadium which is prime for holding both rugby codes in it but with the right size to be a success.

It's about time that the RFL held it in a more suitable stadium. Murrayfield and the Millennium Stadium were bad places to hold the weekend and with the lower capacity stadium of City's ground and closer proximity to the clubs it should be more of a success.

I also think it's the right place to hold it, for a few reasons.

The capacity is 47/48000 which is about right for this, and will hopefully have less empty seats on tv.

The transport links to Manchester are fantastic, With the stadium about 20 mins walk from picadilly and the road/motorway links it's far eaier to get to thanCardiff or Edinbrugh. And that includes London thats about 3 hrs away by train.

With that in mind i think we may sell alot more day tickets.

In fact the only problem i have is that i think this would be a fantastic opening weekend (like last season), What better way to start than local derbies, 1st game of the season where everything is fresh and new. Puting it in June may affect crowd numbers if sides are doing rubbish.

I think its a great place to hold , the crowds should be a lot better . I agree with tiger a lot more people will go on the day .
The thing that stopped me going everytime over the last few years was getting the time off work ...needing days off around the game days , i would be able to be home the same day now its in Manchester .

By having the Magic weekend in Manchester at least Rugby League fans will not have any excuses not to attend as they have been given plenty of notice when it is so they can book the weekend off from work if they are rosster to work that very weekend.

Its my birthday weekend aswell

KingKenny7Heaven wrote:Its my birthday weekend aswell

You'll have a good weekend then.

Hmmmm…good idea this.

Might organise a few mates and head along seeing it’s fairly local!

Has it been announced if it's derbys again or just random games ?

What exactly is the point of any Magic Weekend if it's held where all the fans are, surely it's about spreading the gospel?
Murrayfield and the Millenium stadium were desyined to fail as they aren't just outside the RL heartlands, but are both relatively small cities with very lttle interest in RL and are also quite difficult for most RL fans to get to.

I've said it for 5 years now and no-one seems to listen, but I still maintain that the only sensible options are London or Barcelona.
Only around 45,000 turned up to watch the international double header at Wembley, but I'd expect a lot more for both days of a Magic Weekend and if not Wembley how about the Olympic stadium for 2013?
I'd also try the Olympic stadium in Barcelona for the weekend, with a 55,000 capacity and sensible marketing for those of us over here as well as the locals, I'd expect a reasonably full ground.

Play the weekend somewhere where there are a lot of people and the chance of a few localish fans and you might get decent crowds, that's why Cardiff and Edinburgh were never good ideas, but isn't hosting the weekend slap bang in the middle of Lancashire and Yorkshire just as stupid and pointless, even if for different reasons?

the North is the home land of rugby league i think you will get fans from non super league teams going to the games , London wouldn't be bad but cant see many fans paying to go to Barcelona . Just my opinion but i couldn't justify the cost .