Magic Weekend here to stay, says rugby league commercial chief

Reports of the imminent demise of Super League’s Magic Weekend are wide of the mark and the annual two-day showcase is braced to push new boundaries, according to the managing director of Rugby League Commercial, Rhodri Jones.

Nottingham, Dublin and Paris are among a number of prospective future host cities identified by Jones following a relatively successful first staging at Elland Road in Leeds this weekend.

The future of Magic Weekend, which kicked off in Cardiff in 2007 and has also been staged in Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle, was thrown into doubt when the sport signed a ‘strategic partnership’ with sports media giants IMG in 2022.

Despite fears it would ultimately fall foul of IMG’s desire to axe the unloved ‘loop fixtures’ from a congested schedule, Jones confirmed the event – which features all 12 top-flight clubs in action over two days – is here to stay.

Jones told the PA news agency: “Magic Weekend is in the calendar for next year. There’s a bit of work to do on where and what time, but we are having some live conversations with destination venues.

“We have developed a good relationship with Leeds United and we have a long-standing relationship with Newcastle that is still ongoing.

“Nottingham is a possibility through Nottingham Forest, we’ve had conversations with Cardiff, we’re looking at Dublin and potentially, in the longer term, Paris. We’ve got to keep evolving and being innovative.”

The decision to move the event to Elland Road this year was met with widespread criticism from supporters, who saw it as an uninspiring alternative to St James’s Park in Newcastle, which had staged the event in all but two of the last eight years but was unavailable for 2024.

But while the final cumulative attendance was expected to be significantly down on previous years, Jones expressed optimism about the opening day, whose total of around 30,000 compared favourably with past iterations.

“When we announced that we were coming to Elland Road there were plenty who said it was going to be a disaster and the worst Magic Weekend in history,” added Jones.

“I think we’ve proved a few doubters wrong, and having 30,000 in yesterday was a positive Magic Weekend day for us and compared favourably against all of the other Magic Weekend days we’ve had.”

Jones conceded that questions still remain about the precise format of the competition, and whether it should remain as a regular round of the Super League season or a stand-alone event such as a nines competition.

But he is adamant IMG’s perceived disinterest in the format was misinterpreted and that the sport’s appointed power-brokers are fully on board with its future potential as a flagship weekend for the sport.

“When the announcement came out about the abolition of ‘loop’ fixtures, the assumption was that Magic Weekend was a part of that but IMG never said they wanted Magic Weekend to go – perhaps we weren’t explicit enough in getting that message across,” said Jones.

“IMG are three Magic Weekends in now and they can see it’s a good weekend. It provides us with broadcast and commercial content, ticket revenue opportunity and a peak in our season.

“Perhaps what we haven’t done over the last few years is maximise our opportunity. There are still things we can do improve its commerciality. But we’d have to find a really good replacement if we were going to change Magic Weekend.”