Magic Weekend becoming a Nines weekend

[Tommygilf]

I don't see why it has to be a choice between the two.

For those saying a pre season nines would be out of the question due to the weather I'd say it should be taken to the south of France. Perhaps the big stadium in Toulouse. Obviously no one can guarantee the weather (as demonstrated by the recent Carcassonne v Lezignan game), but as part of a holiday its got lots of appeal.

[Rob]

What is the weather like in the south of France in February?

[Yakstorm]

As already said multiple times on this thread, the Magic Weekend is one of the few 'marquee' events in the Rugby League calendar.

Sky loves it, so much so it's part of the TV contract; stadiums/councils love it, hence why Cardiff, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Manchester have all bidded for it; and finally fans keep turning up to it with crowds growing for the event.

Despite it not being everyone's cup of tea, it plays an important role in the regular RL season.

For me, the RFL should consider Nines as an extra event in the calendar. Considering the number of 'pointless' regular season fixtures in there now, converting one weekend to a Nines competition would be a good move.

Pick a 30K-40K venue, have 8x pools of 3 (24x teams) and have a policy where either teams need to have X number name players or they can bring in former players like at the Auckland Nines.

With all the SL and the Championship clubs together, there is a big market to sell to, even before you look at neutrals.

Play it mid-season, after all we already have weekends off during the season and rig it with some traditional match ups which no longer happen like Bradford v Leeds.

[SteveT]

What is the weather like in the south of France in February?

Having watched Fax at Limoux a few years back in the cup I can safely say it was absolutely bitter.

[C H Calthrop]

Well based purely on TV coverage alone you are both wrong. IT has even been broadcast on a FTA channel by sky. Added to this, MW gets more more coverage than regular SL weekends do and then there are also the extra articles due to it being held  in a non-traditional location in a large venue. So the "general level of coverage is zero" is completely ignoring clear evidence to the contrary.

There aren't extra articles, the trend is for MW articles, the round gets a blanket coverage approach under umbrella headings. I don't believe the FTA channel coverage is every year, I can recall it happening once and the background to RL coverage is generally zero so any illusory elevated levels of publicity are seen in that context.

[Odsal Outlaw]

There's some fair points about the positive impact Magic has in its current format, as much as it's not my cup of tea.

Maybe the solution is that Magic needs to not be an 'extra' league fixture and should be part of a regular home/away programme - teams will have to give up a game every other year. Then use the 'extra' weekend for a 9's tournament. Same weeks in the season and an extra event to sell which as someone posted above could be the one event that we can genuinely market to 20+ clubs fans.

[londonrlfan]

Magic Weekend is one of the RFL's better ideas, another big event to add to the calendar and crowds have been good in Newcastle. Why change it to something that's a bit of fun and nothing serious?

[paulwalker71]

I think a good solution to this would be to combine the desire for more Internationals with the desire for a 9's competition.

 

Would it be possible to set aside a summer weekend where we play against France (with a training camp in the South of France starting the previous Monday, so the coach gets a full week with the squad)

 

On the same weekend, have a 9s completion. 16 teams (all SL clubs plus 4 others). Put it out to tender to find a host city who is prepared to market it properly, and see if we can get it on Channel 5 or BT Sport to break the Sky/BBC monopoly. 

 

OK, some of the SL clubs will be missing a couple of their star players, but the likes of Wigan and Warrington - with 3-4  people in the England squad - would still be able to field a really credible side. That's the beauty of only needing nine players! (a squad of 12-13 I assume, but still...)

[Guest]

Magic Weekend is one of the RFL's better ideas, another big event to add to the calendar and crowds have been good in Newcastle. Why change it to something that's a bit of fun and nothing serious?

Exactly. 9's for me is nothing more than a carnival event with nothing more than a end of season/pre-season feel to it. We don't have the weather for it in the UK if it's held pre-season or end of season. Plus magic weekend has league points on offer.

I honestly believe that the magic weekend held in Newcastle can achieve 90,000 and possibly even 100,000 over the 2 days if it's marketed and promoted properly. I have family in Newcastle and travel to the area quite often and during the run up to both MW held in Newcastle I saw little to no advertising in the city. Especially at central station and on the metro. I'd also target newcastle's large student population and ideally I'd try and play an England international against either Australia or NZ at St.james park and build MW up off the back of a high profile England test with the Geordie public.

[Thunder fan]

Rugby league is growing alot in Newcastle, thunders crowds are up improving each season.

[nonbelievers]

There aren't extra articles, the trend is for MW articles, the round gets a blanket coverage approach under umbrella headings. I don't believe the FTA channel coverage is every year, I can recall it happening once and the background to RL coverage is generally zero so any illusory elevated levels of publicity are seen in that context.

 

So, even a minuscule amount of additional coverage isn't welcomed by you, but dismissed as "a nothing"?

 

I despair of RL fans who believe and expect the media and therefore the public to flock to RL in huge numbers. These are the same fans who genuinely believe that all it will take is someone watching one game of RL and they'll become hooked......we get 2,500,000 tuning in to the BBC to watch England Internationals, yet only 55,000 to attend a regular round of SL........why aren't the 2,445,000 who watched on TV not packing out SL stadiums?

 

The Auckland 9's in its infancy and if it still packs out Eden Park in a few years then maybe it's something SL should look at, bu Magic Weeend is one of the few things that the RFL have got right and it should remain as is!

[Colin James]

Why would we waste time promoting a different sport? That's essentially what 9s is. Unless you think 13 is too many and RL is better that way?

A novelty tournament with reserve teams won't do us any favours, Clubs would use it as a week off for their first team.

[nonbelievers]

Why would we waste time promoting a different sport? That's essentially what 9s is. Unless you think 13 is too many and RL is better that way?

A novelty tournament with reserve teams won't do us any favours, Clubs would use it as a week off for their first team.

The NRL 9's has a $2.8 million prize pool and the organisers have it written into the contract that the sides must bring their star players....If there were 1.4 million sterling up for grabs, I doubt any club would do anything other than try to win it.....

[Wellsy4HullFC]

Rugby league is growing alot in Newcastle, thunders crowds are up improving each season.

What are the numbers, out of interest?

[Yakstorm]

Why would we waste time promoting a different sport? That's essentially what 9s is. Unless you think 13 is too many and RL is better that way?

A novelty tournament with reserve teams won't do us any favours, Clubs would use it as a week off for their first team.

It's no different than T20 to ODI cricket or Futsal to Soccer. Why wouldn't we consider running such a 'novelty' tournament if arguably we could draw 50-60K over two days, gain up 16hrs worth of broadcast time and have cities bid for a tournament, which as you said, would be mainly reserve players?

We want events where we can still generate interest without having to always wheel out our best players and before you say 'people won't turn up', how many 'name' players take part in the Union 7s? Even in the Auckland 9s, there is only a scatteringof marquees, half of which are retired players.

[bazzzz65]

I ve attended every Magic weekend but I wouldn't t go to a 9s tournament. Neither would any of the people I have gone with. I don t see why any body thinks 9s is better than a full round of proper matches.

[paulwalker71]

I ve attended every Magic weekend but I wouldn't t go to a 9s tournament. Neither would any of the people I have gone with. I don t see why any body thinks 9s is better than a full round of proper matches.

 

 

Again, why do they need to be alternatives?

 

It's a bit like suggesting that Cricket would replace Test matches with a 20/20 competition. People would, quite rightly, be aghast.

 

Taking Cricket as the example, the 20/20 and Big Bash competitions have succeeded in attracting a whole new audience to the game. Why not do the same with Rugby League?

 

The World 7s circuit in Rugby Union is another example of how you can have a different style of competition running alongside the more traditional offering.

[bazzzz65]

Again, why do they need to be alternatives?

 

It's a bit like suggesting that Cricket would replace Test matches with a 20/20 competition. People would, quite rightly, be aghast.

 

Taking Cricket as the example, the 20/20 and Big Bash competitions have succeeded in attracting a whole new audience to the game. Why not do the same with Rugby League?

 

The World 7s circuit in Rugby Union is another example of how you can have a different style of competition running alongside the more traditional offering.

Fair enough if it is an alternative but the subject of this thread is the Magic becoming a nines tournament.

[damp squib]

I ve attended every Magic weekend but I wouldn't t go to a 9s tournament. Neither would any of the people I have gone with. I don t see why any body thinks 9s is better than a full round of proper matches.

 

It depends on what it's for. I think Magic was first introduced as an expansion tool but honestly six full matches over two days to people who haven't seen the sport before and don't know the teams is a hard sell. 9s is more accessible and can be made into more of a casual, festival type event.

 

On the other hand Magic is now arguably not an expansion tool any more and is more a celebration for SL club fans which has it's own merits.

[redjonn]

I'm not sure where I stand regarding Magic weekend, and using same concept but for a 9's competition.  I like the idea of replicating the interest in that other code's 7's competitions that their are multiples of.

 

What always lingers in my mind about Magic is that here we talk about using it to gain more interest in people attending RL, when even the majority of the RL only watch their own club and not the other games. I would be more on side with Magic if the majority watched all games - that is each game was played in front of 40,000 or more. As distinct from an empty stadium for most games... no matter how hard some fans try to generate some noise.

[Dave T]

I'm not sure where I stand regarding Magic weekend, and using same concept but for a 9's competition.  I like the idea of replicating the interest in that other code's 7's competitions that their are multiples of.

 

What always lingers in my mind about Magic is that here we talk about using it to gain more interest in people attending RL, when even the majority of the RL only watch their own club and not the other games. I would be more on side with Magic if the majority watched all games - that is each game was played in front of 40,000 or more. As distinct from an empty stadium for most games... no matter how hard some fans try to generate some noise.

I think this point is overstated. Of course there are some fans who only watch their own, but at times there are probably over 30k in the ground, certainly on the Saturday at Newcastle, or in MCFC where the bottom two tiers were nearly full.

 

I'd suggest the majority of people who go watch at least two of the three games.

[jim_57]

I like the idea of a SL 9's weekend mid season, would have to be at the expense/restructure of the regular season you would think and would depend entirely on the sponsorship & interest being there. The RFL (if they're not already) should be putting such an event out to tender, of the clubs can benifit financially from it, they'll be in, no doubt.

Would also give another event to spread the game, with a carnival like atnosphere appealing to neutral fans. Could look at places like London, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, Toulouse etc in 30-50k stadiums, maybe doubled with internationals on the Friday where possible.