' No business in going to ' ?

, if you are going to have a 7 match festival in February , you don't have much option really



As for the cost , once again , that is just an option that people have to make a decision on

Ok the RFL has financial business into going to Cardiff. It’ll probably only run for years because the tourist board will pay for it due to the amount of money rugby league fans bring into Cardiff.



Behind the scenes the Millennium Magic is doing well. But up front it looks like a failure due to the empty seats and I’m afraid that is what judges success and failure in most people’s eyes.



Either way I think I’ve said all that I need to say on this thread and I hope those who went had a good weekend.

I'd agree but in the main that's because they now have a stronger brand and offer an 'exclusive and the place to be' event for them, this in itself is a clever marketing PR excercise.



Their international game goes one step further in that tickets are more scarce so people have a higher percieved value on the event ensuring impulse buying. The RFL tries this all the time - only everyone knows there is loads of tickets still available so what's the point.

Absolutely totally agree with you - dont blame the RFL blame the people who choose not to come as :



1, its too expensive - rubbish, it cost me and my 15 year old less than £20 between us for 4 games - what other event offers that kind of value.



2, its too far away - it is if you only go down to watch your own team then bugger off home, which , as a fan of RL in general i will never understand - you've paid for 4 (or 3) games so watch them. if you book a cheap hotel or guest house you can have a great weekend away.



3, wrong time of year - when is the right time of year then cos even in May people complained !



To me having this in the heartlands takes away a huge part of the MM experience. we see the same towns/cities week in week out , going to somewhere like Cardiff gives people a day/weekend out that they can look forward to rather than treking back down the M62 like they will do regularly anyway.

in my opinion it is a wonderful event and to remove it from the calendar or move it to the heartlands would be a huge mistake as it takes away that little bit of something different where every fan of every club can have a 'day out' .

Yes Id agree , but it is RU international aspect that has built this brand and place to be mentality , we quite simply don't have it , and I doubt we ever will , the same concept applies to lower tier pro RL , our brands ( although known about by the people of our towns ) has little value



Will it ever change ? Perhaps , in a few decades if we are lucky , not be a problem for me though

That aspect is not a negative, what is a negative is the fact it's not grown the sport. We're still flatcappers because we have no vision. You have to be business minded to succeed, not sentimental. The magic weekend is a marketing concept aimed at bringing in new fans and thus growing the greatest game, it's potential hasn't been maximised.



We have the product, but no one knows about it. Scully summed it up Thurs night on BBC 5 Live when suggesting RU had a magnificent event, great atmosphere etc etc...and then they kicked off.

How do you think RU got to that stage? Do you think it would have happened if, instead of attending, their fans had sat at home and moaned about how it was a waste of time and effort?

The MM was a marketing concept aimed at bringing in new fans , is it now , or has that changed ?



Scully is wrong , people do know we have a product , the vast majority of sports fans ( those that are likely to attend a live sporting event ) do know about RL and the events we have , they just don't see them as interesting because they lack ' value '

RU had to start somewhere, they didn't grow the international game on luck alone. It can be done, We just need vision and business acumen at the top of the RFL - South Sydney have both these attributes in Crowe and Holmes a Court. Maurice Lindsay had Vision, sadly no business sense

They got people off their ass and into the stadium rather than moaning about people who moan.

RU for over a century had very little real club competition , the International part of the game was the be all and end all , it still is , we however wanted more than that we were competitive , we needed ' real ' sport every week , that need is what has made the difference between the codes now , it isn't going to change in a hurry

The top tier holds 33,000 and wasn't even open so the bottom 2 tiers gave a capacity of 41,500 so 30,000 + makes them around 75% full !!