Murrayfield Magic is on, but will it be Murrayfield Madness?

For once in a controversial announcement by the RFL, I will happily sit on the bench before attacking the governing body. The Magic Weekend, as the RFL have dubbed the one off round of matches staged in one city, will move to Edinburgh for 2009 and will be staged at Murrayfield Stadium. In addition, the RFL have promised some mouth watering incentives to draw the fans to the Scottish capital.

Firstly, there will be a reduction in the cost of tickets for season ticket holders of all fourteen Super League clubs next year. In the past, clubs have done this internally and as a separate scheme not involving the RFL. I know for a fact Warrington offered half price tickets to those with club season tickets. Next year however, it seems the RFL will adopt a similar scheme and manage that themselves.

Secondly, they have announced that a fan zone will be created somewhere outside the stadium where fans can mingle and enjoy the atmosphere. This is on top of a range of activities that were present at Cardiff, both this year and in 2007.

But as someone who was dead set against the idea of leaving Cardiff, why have I changed my mind? Well, if it’s true about the organisations in Cardiff not giving the event enough support, then the RFL have every right to take it elsewhere. This year, it did seem there was a reduction in the amount of advertising and awareness that the Welsh public were given compared to the year previously. There is no point in the RFL flogging a dead horse is the stadium is not going to be full of thousands of Welsh fans. Plus there is the application of Celtic to be aware of. Allowing fans to travel to the south of Wales twice in one season is pushing the boat out a little. (Mind you, so is two trips to the south of France.) Fans will want to go elsewhere, so for us on the west side of the Pennines, we now face going on the M6 in the opposite direction. Added to the fact Edinburgh is the second biggest city in the UK, it should make for a more wonderful experience for rugby league fans. So why am I still sitting on the fence about the move?

Personally, I will go wherever the RFL take this Magic Weekend. Whether its Cardiff, Edinburgh, Dublin or Timbuktu, I will be there. I am also concerned about the quality of rugby that will be played at an open air stadium.

With Cardiff, the RFL had the luxury of closing the roof of the stadium if the weather was likely to be bad. With Murrayfield, there is no such roof and even the best of grounds men will struggle to prepare a pitch for seven games of rugby league within two days. If the weather is as bad as it can be in Edinburgh, then the pitch will take a beating and the final game of the festival is likely to be a mud bath. Something professionals are not at all used to. Therefore these games will be won in the forwards. There will be no room for sides to play extreme attacking rugby like Saints, Leeds and Warrington have started to do of late. This in turn, will turn away possible new supporters to the right code of rugby living in Scotland as the game will look like a poor version of rugby union, which RL is not.

So now it’s a case of wait and see. Will Edinburgh stand and deliver? Or will it fall and embarrass itself like a Scotsman’s kilt? Roll on the beginning of May.