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Magic Weekend in next 5-10 years?


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Large growth? Steady growth? Stagnating? Will it continue to tour around or will it stay at Newcastle as a permanent fixture?

 

We've tried it in the heartlands, in the North East in Scotland and Wales and as a season opener. It's been a mixed bag in terms of success.

 

This is one thing the RFL have stuck at for more that five minutes to be fair to them. Newcastle does seemed to have given it a bit of a perk in terms of interest but it still only just tipped the previous best figure as an aggregate. The difference last year seemed to be more people in the ground during less high profile games.

 

Not heard a massive buzz about it this year in terms of sales but Newcastle did enjoy hosting it last time and many fans like a city centre venue.

 

 

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If it keeps moving this in itself will motivate fans to go as its a new city to explore....

I was impressed with Nottingham when I was there...

What does forests ground hold?

But what is important is that the hosts actually want to host it and make a success of it!

I wouldn't be surprised if Anfield didnt host it at some point. ... clearly they are in dialogue with the RFL and if the final goes well who knows!

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I'd like to see us stick with Newcastle for the foreseeable future and try and lay some roots in the north east.

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Two grounds in Nottingham isn't there?

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I have really enjoyed attending Magic, but given the fixture congestion we now have, I might be persuaded to let it go for the sake of having a free weekend for Interntionals mid-season (if versus NZ). That said I wouldn't mind the season starting 1 week earlier.

If it is to be perservered with (as I suspect the RFL will) I would like to see expansion teams bid for it on a 2 year cycle. So currently in Newcastle. Have Newcastle play a League 1 game as an opener (Magic used to accomodate 7 games when SL was 14 teams), and for it to stay in Newcastle, Thunder have to evidence locals who 1)subsequently went to Thunder games and 2) kids who took up the game at Cramlington Rockets, for example.

If they don't hit targets, then it goes to Coventry, South Wales, Bristol (for Gloucestershire), Milton Keynes (for Hemel). Whilst Cov, Hemel or Bristol are smaller stadiums, c. 30k sell outs each day would be close to prior aggregates.

Alternatively, Magic could also be more strategically used in the fixture list. Move CCF back to May, and have Magic as the last game of the regular season. SuperPower Saturday where 6 clubs jostle for Super 8 advantage, and Survival Sunday where 6 clubs fight to stay out of the middle 8s. Or start the Super 8 phase with Super 8s and middle 8 games mingled together, to give the Super 8s a boost. Could be used to resolve some teams having 3 home games, some 4, or could be used to accentuate advantage gained in regular season (lower finishing teams lose a home game) or minimise Championships team inherent salary cap disadvantage (SL teams in middle 8s lose a home game). Latter would free up a week in schedule for international break.

Just some ideas, but at the moment, whilst I enjoy Magic it isn't quite meeting expansionist objectives or is sufficiently meaningful/ provides fair opposition to all.

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Personal preference would be for Magic to either culminate on the Sat night wth an England Test or be changed to a 9's Comp. Preferably the latter.

Also appreciate that clearly a decent number of fans like it as it is. In that case I think we should find a solution so that it's not an 'extra' game and forms part of a 'play each other twice/playoffs' model.

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Well, let's see if Newcastle Magic #2 shows growth. The feeling I got from this forum, general social media and the print/broadcast media was overwhelmingly positive*, so more people may be tempted to attend this year.

 

*discounting trolls (amateur and professional), plus those who can and will moan about anything, of course.

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BTW, here's a list of UK stadiums in descending order of capacity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stadiums_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_capacity

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
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Villa Park at 42k would be good. Birmingham has great transport links to North and South, they managed more than one sellout at RUWC, have plenty of hotels and are used to staging events in city (NEC, NIA etc). Although not sure of the legacy options there I guess. And I don't like Magic (but do love RL!)

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Harry Jepson Winners 2008

RLC Midlands Premier Champions 2006 & 2008

East Midlands Challenge Cup Winners 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008

Rotterdam International 9's Cup Winners 2005

RLC North Midlands Champions 2003 & 2004

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Dublin's Aviva Stadium (Landsdowne Road) strikes me as a venue that has potential.

Just over 50,000 capacity, in a highly (and cheaply) accessible city (my recent flights on a long weekend were £22 out and £10 back from leeds bradford), it is also a really good stadium to watch rugby in.

Dublin itself is a very accomodating city with excellent (if somewhat expensive) nightlife with a vast array of traditional pubs. It is also importantly a capital city and in terms of expanding RL into ireland Magic could be timed to mean it did not conflict with irish RU, football or GAA games/finals/internationals making it a premier event in the region.

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Well, let's see if Newcastle Magic #2 shows growth. The feeling I got from this forum, general social media and the print/broadcast media was overwhelmingly positive*, so more people may be tempted to attend this year.

*discounting trolls (amateur and professional), plus those who can and will moan about anything, of course.

interestingly with just a few weeks to go i havent seen a single press release or focused campaign for Magic. Dunno if this is cos Solly has gone.

Search google for ticket sales and you get articles over 12m old.

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I like the "nomadic" quality of Magic. Moving it around is key to us growing as a sport and surely it can't be too much longer until it's held in London?

Olympic Park Magic, perhaps?

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Olympic Park is probably more likely but I like the idea of Stanford Bridge which does have some RL history. It is also very well placed to enjoy the London experience. Sadly the pub next to the ground which had all those NRL shirts on the wall has now been renovated I think.

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interestingly with just a few weeks to go i havent seen a single press release or focused campaign for Magic. Dunno if this is cos Solly has gone.

Search google for ticket sales and you get articles over 12m old.

We won a peoples award from a freesheet last year...... No need to advertise now as the Geordie's will fill the place on their own. I suspect we will see an increase in attendance this year.....if not, we will move again.
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Olympic Park is probably more likely but I like the idea of Stanford Bridge which does have some RL history. It is also very well placed to enjoy the London experience. Sadly the pub next to the ground which had all those NRL shirts on the wall has now been renovated I think.

 

Major renovation and expansion work will be starting there soon too, which I guess would (i) put it out of action for this sort of thing for a while but (ii) make it an even more interesting option a few years down the line.

 

PS I'd like to see it as a 9s comp too.

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Large growth? Steady growth? Stagnating? Will it continue to tour around or will it stay at Newcastle as a permanent fixture?

 

We've tried it in the heartlands, in the North East in Scotland and Wales and as a season opener. It's been a mixed bag in terms of success.

 

 

Originally "success" was to use it to promote the games growth. In Wales wasn't it designed to boost Celtic Crusaders and welsh RL? Wasn't it used in Scotland to help promote a fledgling amateur game in which the odd true scot was starting to get to play for the great grandfather qualified "national" side?

 

On that measure it has sadly failed it's purpose.

 

The return to the M62 for the event was almost an admission there was nowhere left to promote the game, and so it stayed as a day out, and that's fine as long as it turns a profit, but since the change to the fixture lists it may have become one game too many for tired and injured players.

 

The appearance of an ambitious £Millionaire at Gateshead, moving the club to Newcastle of course gave the  game a new purpose, but as we see in the league tables Thunder are hardly racing up the leagues, but as there's nowhere else to go (except for Toulouse or Toronto perhaps) then the Thunder get themselves another massive promotional event.

 

Me? I'd hold it at Odsal every year and use the profits to rebuild the stadium steadily towards it being the games very own "Wembley of the north" and rent it back to Mr. Green at peppercorn rates. Come on you Bulls!  

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Dublin is a good idea, but I'd like to see a League 1 team in place so any momentum could be built on. Maybe it could be used to build some appetite. But there definitely needs to be plans for legacy before we expect fans to start booking flights.

Not sure about London. It already has Challenge Cup and England games. Broncos and Skolars should

Leverage those. Latter does with Friday Night Lights but seems more about capitalizing on traveling fans than attracting new, but admittedly I don't know that much about it.

I can't see the point of including an England game. Do players swap their club shirts for an England one and run out knackered? England games and Magic should be standalone sellouts on their own

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We won a peoples award from a freesheet last year...... No need to advertise now as the Geordie's will fill the place on their own. I suspect we will see an increase in attendance this year.....if not, we will move again.

I hope you are right regarding the increase, and I agree with the principle of keeping moving, surely the case study from Newcastle would be pretty compelling for new partners now!

 

I do wonder why we are not telling people about great ticket sales though. If I recall correctly we even had the odd area starting to sell out by now.

 

I'm unlikely to be able to make it, but I would encourage anybody to make the trip if they didn't last year, 2015 was a brilliant event in a great stadium in a very enjoyable city.

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