magic attendance?

[kev p]

any idea what the attendance was at magic today? also roughly how many locals went? looked pretty empty to me, but prob fans in & out as their teams played, then went on the toon!

 

[Leyther_Matt]

35,104 which sounds very good although of course it’s the usual reality of there only ever being so many people in the ground at the same time 

[Dunbar]

Very respectable number that.

[Whippet13]

That is very decent, 25k tomorrow hopefully, 60k overall would be pretty good considering the circumstances this year. 

[Liverpool Rover]

I’ve seen some clips from the Saints Catalans game and there looked to be a decent crowd there.

[17 stone giant]

2 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

35,104 which sounds very good although of course it’s the usual reality of there only ever being so many people in the ground at the same time 

With that in mind, is it really necessary to always go to St James Park? I understand the desire to promote RL in Newcastle, but wouldn't it be better to take the event around the country? There's plenty of 30000 plus stadiums that I'd have thought would be ample. It wouldn't look so empty in those.

[M j M]

50 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

With that in mind, is it really necessary to always go to St James Park? I understand the desire to promote RL in Newcastle, but wouldn't it be better to take the event around the country? There's plenty of 30000 plus stadiums that I'd have thought would be ample. It wouldn't look so empty in those.

This is a lucrative event for the bidding cities so to a degree it's a case of following the money. Although that said, when Liverpool outbid Newcastle that time it wasn't so well received.

[Newcastle Thunder]

Don’t fix what isn’t broken

That was attempted in 2019 and look what happened 

Newcastle just works 

[gingerjon]

6 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:

With that in mind, is it really necessary to always go to St James Park? I understand the desire to promote RL in Newcastle, but wouldn't it be better to take the event around the country? There's plenty of 30000 plus stadiums that I'd have thought would be ample. It wouldn't look so empty in those.

I think you need a 45,000+ stadium to make it comfortable for people to move around and watch what they want to watch - which is the whole point of Magic.

35,000 on the gate is pretty decent. Be nice to stick with it in Newcastle again next year.

[JohnM]

So often, our sport has been criticised for chopping and changing stuff. Stability, predictability and incremental change  is the name of the game as far as I am concerned. Keep it at Newcastle and build it , improve it year on year.

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

Good numbers- I'd guess based on tickets sold with a few no shows if I'm being honest- but encouraging given circumstances 

[Just Browny]

Easy to say 'move it around the country', but how many cities have both:

- 'draw' for visitors wanting a nice weekend and enough infrastructure to accommodate 25k+ incoming fans (sorry Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Middlesbrough)

- a large, modern stadium with sufficient comfort to make sitting there for a full day not complete misery for anyone over 5ft6 (sorry Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol)

Being optimistic, I can maybe think of Sheffield, Derby and maybe Brighton (a long trek from heartlands) as decent contenders, besides those we've already had and London.

[Spidey]

15 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

35000 is decent in a 'could be worse' way. But it's not that different from the opening one in Cardiff in 2007, so it doesn't seem to be growing and I think that's a worry.

It's not a disastrous figure and in the current circumstances, definitely not bad. It's just that it is not growing as hoped. 

You expected it to grow this year? 

[Spidey]

2 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

I'd have expected it to grow since 2007.....which I actually implied in the post.

This year could have then been seen as a good result in isolation if it had grown to, say, crowds of 45k per day (only  something like a 1000 increase every year....not unachievable) pre C19.

 

The general trend is growth overall. Bigger crowds at Newcastle v Cardiff. 

[Northern Eel]

I don’t know how many people had to cancel their tickets due to the rearranged dates, but I know a fair few of them who are involved in the community game, where that wasn’t possible this time round. Equally, there’s plenty of folk who are just not ready to return to sports grounds quite yet. 
 

35k is a very respectable figure in the circumstances. 

[M j M]

Very solid figure. I see it's got the usual death riders grasping for negatives.

[Just Browny]

I could make the case for a multi-venue weekend, e.g.

Saturday (Ashton Gate, Bristol)

- Wigan v Salford

- Warrington v Saints

(Montpellier)

- Toulouse v Catalans

Sunday (Pride Park, Derby / Bramall Lane, Sheffield)

- Hull v Cas

- Leeds v Hudds

- Hull KR v Wakefield

[Leyther_Matt]

Anybody who is suggesting Derby needs to stop drinking. Right now. Grim city. Grim pubs. Grim stadium. And that’s coming from someone who has lived in Leigh their entire life.*

*Currently travelling by train to Newcastle having driven all of 14 minutes from home, and that included a Maccies detour

[The Rocket]

It`s not going backwards and that`s the main thing.

The results should ensure the same crowd turns up next year and a few more. The golden point drop goals should make great promo material next year, ' Magic on Magic weekend".

[Spidey]

23 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

Seriously? By how much in 14 years?

Cardiff Average 61k ish

Newcastle Average 66.5K ish

+9% Growth

[Scubby]

If Toulouse get into SL, Magic should be 2 separate Saturdays in the Year. 1x Newcastle and 1x France.

For the SL clubs going to France, 2 of them can play Toulouse and Catalans the following week (and maybe the other 2 the week before) so fans can make it a holiday. Toulouse v Catalans headlines the French Magic and it can be held at a large 40-50k venue.

It is obvious that Saturday always out performs Sunday in a 2-day magic weekend which shows there isn't a glut of neutrals or fans staying the whole weekend. Newcastle could then go all out to try and get 45k+ for that Saturday.

Mix the teams around so they can experience both over the years.

[Spidey]

3 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

That's just one place though and won't represent the overall picture. MM was set up initially to help grow the game in Wales. The idea of moving it around was to generate similar interest elsewhere. I'm not sure it has 

That’s a wider debate. This was about attendances

[Tommygilf]

11 minutes ago, Scubby said:

If Toulouse get into SL, Magic should be 2 separate Saturdays in the Year. 1x Newcastle and 1x France.

For the SL clubs going to France, 2 of them can play Toulouse and Catalans the following week (and maybe the other 2 the week before) so fans can make it a holiday. Toulouse v Catalans headlines the French Magic and it can be held at a large 40-50k venue.

It is obvious that Saturday always out performs Sunday in a 2-day magic weekend which shows there isn't a glut of neutrals or fans staying the whole weekend. Newcastle could then go all out to try and get 45k+ for that Saturday.

Mix the teams around so they can experience both over the years.

I like that. Pre covid Leeds were due to play Catalans in a double header with Toulouse in Toulouse and we were really looking forward to it.

Only a bank holiday could make the Sunday a better attended event in the UK I'd think.

[Mr Plow]

25 minutes ago, Scubby said:

If Toulouse get into SL, Magic should be 2 separate Saturdays in the Year. 1x Newcastle and 1x France.

For the SL clubs going to France, 2 of them can play Toulouse and Catalans the following week (and maybe the other 2 the week before) so fans can make it a holiday. Toulouse v Catalans headlines the French Magic and it can be held at a large 40-50k venue.

It is obvious that Saturday always out performs Sunday in a 2-day magic weekend which shows there isn't a glut of neutrals or fans staying the whole weekend. Newcastle could then go all out to try and get 45k+ for that Saturday.

Mix the teams around so they can experience both over the years.

How do you get more neutrals to stay in the ground? We need to make SL more high profile and get people who don’t necessarily watch RL to come because it’s an event. The RU World Cup played 3 games in Newcastle and got 50k+ for each game. 
 

I think having 2 venues could be a good idea. Maybe have it on a bank holiday with Newcastle on Saturday and France for example on the Sunday 

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, Mr Plow said:

How do you get more neutrals to stay in the ground? We need to make SL more high profile and get people who don’t necessarily watch RL to come because it’s an event. The RU World Cup played 3 games in Newcastle and got 50k+ for each game. 
 

I think having 2 venues could be a good idea. Maybe have it on a bank holiday with Newcastle on Saturday and France for example on the Sunday 

Tbf I think this is where 9s could work better. You can see your team, multiple times through the day at different points, against differential opponents. Much more chance of people coming in and staying for the majority of the day rather than the exodus' we see at some points.

That point also applies to the weekend as a whole come to think of it.