Catalans ask for Magic Weekend to be played in France

[Tommygilf]

7 minutes ago, Eddie said:

That was definitely the case until Wire rocked up in Perpignan this year. 

I know this will get some people frothing with anger but it would be great if the French top flight teams entered the Challenge Cup too (or maybe the 1895 cup), there would be some superb away fixtures - Avignon or Barrow anyone. 

I think there is scope to include Elite 1 in the Challenge Cup/1895 cup. IMO there is not enough interaction between the English and French clubs. Surely considering the weather etc a tour to the south of France in pre-season should be a no-brainer for some Full time clubs

It makes me so confused when teams go on pre-season camps to Lanzarote or wherever yet don't play a single game!

[Oliver Clothesoff]

11 minutes ago, Eddie said:

The majority of cost on an away trip is travel, food and drink; a £10 virtue signalling drop in ticket price won’t heavily reduce the cost of a day out any more than going for a few pre-match pints in wetherspoons instead of another pub would. 

Good job avoiding the bit where I said “free travel”. The two main costs in travelling to Football, the ticket prices and the coach travel, has been addressed by some Premier League clubs. 

[hunsletgreenandgold]

Everybody who backs this should be praying Toulouse get promoted - if not this season then next. 100% this could and should happen with Catalans v Toulouse as the centre piece, would be absolutely huge. 

[Eddie]

13 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Good job avoiding the bit where I said “free travel”. The two main costs in travelling to Football, the ticket prices and the coach travel, has been addressed by some Premier League clubs. 

How many free travel places are there really though, if Leeds take say 4,000 fans to Sheff Wed are there really 80 free coaches? Of course there aren’t. And do many sides offer many free coaches?

There may be a few but the vast majority of fans will be driving or getting the train, and the latter is what makes travel prohibitive (eg me and some mates looked at going to Newcastle away this season and making a weekend of it but it’s £120 return on the train from Norwich, or a 5 hour each way slog up the A17 and A1 - neither an attractive proposition). 

[Tommygilf]

20 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Good job avoiding the bit where I said “free travel”. The two main costs in travelling to Football, the ticket prices and the coach travel, has been addressed by some Premier League clubs. 

I'm genuinely intrigued here what free travel are you on about? Arsenal don't offer it and I've just checked for Sheffield United and theirs for Everton away is the same price as a match ticket effectively. 

[Adelaide Tiger]

1 hour ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

There are many reciprocal ticket prices freezes between sides in the Premier League and some clubs put on a certain number of free coaches for away games in the Premier League, thus heavily reducing the cost of attending football and it’s associated costs.   

?????????

Do me a favour and re-read my post.

[bazzzz65]

34 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I'm genuinely intrigued here what free travel are you on about? Arsenal don't offer it and I've just checked for Sheffield United and theirs for Everton away is the same price as a match ticket effectively. 

I follow Fulham and they offered free coach travel to a few away games  two seasons ago but not at all last season when we were in the Premier League ( and so far none this season).

[HarrogateKnights]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

I think there is scope to include Elite 1 in the Challenge Cup/1895 cup. IMO there is not enough interaction between the English and French clubs. Surely considering the weather etc a tour to the south of France in pre-season should be a no-brainer for some Full time clubs

It makes me so confused when teams go on pre-season camps to Lanzarote or wherever yet don't play a single game!

Totally agreed there, given the realistic distance between the 2, can be in RL heartlands (Toulouse, Perpignan etc) within 2 hours from the UK, with direct flights. If you are prepared to travel to Stansted you can travel to both for under £40 with no thrills/luggage. Which I did in April, to Toulouse and back in a day and stayed at the airport hotel in Stansted. I think club RL should be more integrated between France and England, pre/post-season tours, cup competitions and more clubs entering the league structure.

[RP London]

24 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I would love a magic weekend in france or Spain, not only for the spread of the game but the set up is entirely different on the continent compared to here in terms of stadia.

I'd wonder if magic as it is the format for it though. Perhaps a slightly elongated festival of Rugby League would work better and be more beneficial, giving the chance to chase the tourist pound and as such government funding and giving more of a boost to French RL

obviously you are working a bit of the cuff here but what would you have in a "festival of Rugby League"?

[RP London]

1 hour ago, HarrogateKnights said:

Totally agreed there, given the realistic distance between the 2, can be in RL heartlands (Toulouse, Perpignan etc) within 2 hours from the UK, with direct flights. If you are prepared to travel to Stansted you can travel to both for under £40 with no thrills/luggage. Which I did in April, to Toulouse and back in a day and stayed at the airport hotel in Stansted. I think club RL should be more integrated between France and England, pre/post-season tours, cup competitions and more clubs entering the league structure.

There is nothing to stop having a, for example, french pool and english pool and then at semi/quarters stage its straight knock out drawn out of a hat.. a little bit of travelling but not from the start so not for everyone.

[Davo5]

5 hours ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Trips to Perpignan, Toronto and a Magic Weekend in France within a nine month period in a predominantly working-class northern sport is farcical. 

You do realise it's not compulsory to make all the trips don't you ?

[Lowdesert]

GB stadium is around 13000.  I don’t see that being filled other than for Catalans game.  But, they could look at either EW for TO or Avignon.  

If it was TO, it would be a real opportunity to encourage Aerospace into the game and regenerate interest in the region.  Plus, there is an opportunity to temp the Agen area into RL.  Not sure both Clubs would benefit equally but imo that would be the place over GB or Avignon.

[Mattrhino]

6 hours ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Trips to Perpignan, Toronto and a Magic Weekend in France within a nine month period in a predominantly working-class northern sport is farcical. 

Yeah imaging all those super rich soccer fans having to travel to 6,7,8,9 whatever European games a season plus a lot that also go to away England games. 

[Denton Rovers RLFC]

6 hours ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Trips to Perpignan, Toronto and a Magic Weekend in France within a nine month period in a predominantly working-class northern sport is farcical. 

Oh bore off will you, how much does it cost more to go to South of France than a trip from Warrington to London or Hull or a weekend ###### up in Newcastle? The cost difference is less than a weeks beer money for some!

What about soccer, predominantly a working class sport yet followed by thousands of working class 'Northerners' throughout Europe and beyond, if you don't like it/can't afford it, don't go, but stop whining about something that actually would be beneficial for the sport and indeed a nice change from the usual humdrum!

[Manx RL]

1 hour ago, RP London said:

obviously you are working a bit of the cuff here but what would you have in a "festival of Rugby League"?

 

[RP London]

16 minutes ago, Manx RL said:

 

Down with that sort of thing!

[Eddie]

As people complain about the current Magic, the GF and CC final being too close together for people to be able to afford it, it would be good to have the South of France magic near the start of the season (March or April when it would still be nice and warm but not too hot to detract from the games). Then as the CC is moving to July and the GF staying in October it would be a nice spread of the big three events.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

37 minutes ago, Manx RL said:

 

 

20 minutes ago, RP London said:

Down with that sort of thing!

Careful now! 

[Rupert Prince]

7 hours ago, barnyia said:

I really don't like Beziers, worked around there for a few years ! It's supposed to be getting better though. Toulouse would be a good place, 

I went on the Canal du Midi once.  Beautiful.  Cant remember Bezier but went through it.

[Mr Plow]

8 hours ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Trips to Perpignan, Toronto and a Magic Weekend in France within a nine month period in a predominantly working-class northern sport is farcical. 

See a lot of ‘working class’ northern football fans travel the UK and Europe regularly tbf

[paulwalker71]

I might be missing something here, but isn't it the responsibility of a city to 'bid' for Magic, rather than - as the article suggests - a club 'asks' Super League to 'take' Magic to their area?

Surely, what Catalans need to do is find a city willing to host it, and put together a financial package with the local municipality, sponsors, businesses etc. Make a compelling bid and then it can be looked at...

[Denton Rovers RLFC]

6 hours ago, Eddie said:

Good idea, people don’t have to go (just like they don’t have to go to Toronto or Catalans away) but thousands would and if they held it somewhere where they already play RL (like Montpellier) it might get bigger crowds than at Anfield and get a lot of extra media attention in both countries, which would be a win. 

The Stade de la Mosson holds 32,500 so would be a perfect size, better than having 20,000 rattling round inside Anfield. 

Good comment. I'd actually spend a long weekend in France rather than go to Newcastle or Liverpool, in fact it's quicker for me to get to quite a few places in France than it is Newcastle. Montpelier is less than 2 hours from Gatwick, that's less than 4.5 total including train to Gatwick and getting their however long before boarding. By train (to Newcastle) it's still 4 hours for me and 5.5 by car.

[GUBRATS]

Toulouse would be ideal for a 1st French magic , then repeated every 5 or so years 

[Jack Russell]

Please take it back to nou camp. Us wiganers loved it. If it wasnt wigan cats played and it was another team there in the future I'd go. Magic there for me ticks all thr boxes. Make it happen rfl.

[owls]

quite like the idea of a French magic weekend,  a 2nd French team would go a long way to making it a success,