BY MARTYN SADLER
THE opening day of Magic Weekend at Elland Road could be heading for a sell-out this Saturday.
And that is hardly surprising, given that the second and third games of the day will be Wigan v St Helens and Leeds v Warrington respectively.
Those two games are surely enough to whet anyone’s appetite, especially after the Rhinos’ victory against Wigan on Saturday, which will surely have persuaded plenty of Leeds fans to buy tickets for Saturday’s games.
So I would be amazed if the attendance on that day isn’t very near to the stadium’s capacity, which is 37,890 for Leeds United home games, although the presence of a big screen may reduce that slightly.
But the attendance on the second day is likely to be much lower, possibly half of the Saturday attendance.
In my view the top clash of the weekend between Saints and Wigan should be the final game of Magic Weekend, with the six fixtures starting with the two weakest teams (London and Hull FC) and building to the climax of Wigan v Saints.
That would create a great impression, with the majority of the fans of other clubs staying for that game.
Instead, however, the final game of the weekend will be between Castleford and Huddersfield. With no disrespect to those two clubs, I can’t imagine there will be many people still in the stadium at 6.30pm on Sunday to watch that match, which will be a great shame for the players of both those clubs.
The thing that Magic Weekend has in its favour this year, after having been moved from early June last year to mid-August, is that several games are vital in the struggle for the play-offs.
Wigan-Saints, Leeds-Warrington, Leigh-Salford and Catalans-Hull KR all have plenty at stake and they could all be thrillers.
Only two games – London-Hull FC and Huddersfield-Castleford – will have no bearing on the play-offs.
So let’s hope that the tightness of the Super League table leads to two big attendances this weekend.
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