Magic Weekend '˜here to stay' insists League's chief Draper

Since its inception in 2007, the annual event that incorporates a full round of top-flight fixtures over two consecutive days, has taken place in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Newcastle, often with mixed reviews.

One of the arguments, especially now the threat of relegation has returned, is the added game in a 23 regular campaign brings an unfair disadvantage to some.

Others will counter that players already play too many games without this auxiliary round.

Ahead of the 11th Magic starting tomorrow, at St James’ Park, home of Newcastle United Football Club, Draper said: “We’ve been doing a review of everything and there has been the odd view that the league should be 22 games and there’s the extra game.

“But if you sit down and look at it the clubs enjoy it, the fans enjoy it, the players love it so I think Magic Weekend is here to stay.

“We’ll always be looking at the venue and there’s certain views people have about whether it should be a Nines tournament, or slightly different and more integrated into other things.

“We chuck all those things into the melting pot and hopefully make the right decision.

“My view on Magic like a lot of other things in rugby league – if it ain’t broke why try to fix it?”

Given that mantra, then, you would imagine Draper’s disclosure in an interview earlier this week that the RFL would consider moving the Challenge Cup final away from Wembley was merely a ruse to improve its bargaining position with the national stadium when negotiations get underway later this summer.

It was certainly met with much ire and, many fans will hope, seems as likely as Magic taking place at Land’s End in 2018.

Where Magic will feature next year remains to be seen. Newcastle would love to have it for a fourth year running and, furthermore, will bid for it in 2019, too, despite already securing rugby union’s European Champions Cup final for May of that year.

“That would be putting the icing on the icing on the cake if we were to get both rugby league and rugby union’s major tournaments for 2019,” said their leader Nick Forbes. “We’ll be working on it and if at all possible we’d love to do it as Newcastle is a natural home of great sport.”

Given Magic is worth around £5m to the local economy it is no surprise. Draper is keeping an open mind.

“This is the 11th year of Magic and our number one and two in terms of crowds have both been the last few years (67,000 and 68,000 in Newcastle),” he said,

“We’re tracking again to be in the top two or three of all-time attendances which is good news. We review it year on year.

“This review will be slightly different as what we’re trying to do is have a longer-term event venue strategy in place.

“The good news for us is we now have the 2021 World Cup here, the Australians coming over in 2020, the Kiwis in 2018, so we have a bit of a run where we can have a look at our internationals, Magic Weekend and some of the other things as well.

“Newcastle will be in the mix but you always look at your heartlands – Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, who are obviously bidding for the Commonwealth Games and was a big success for the Four Nations.

“Then you look at London with new stadiums coming up there at Tottenham and Chelsea plus there’s Wembley, London Stadium as well as those outside the heartlands like Coventry and Newcastle, Cardiff and Scotland.

“We’re in a good place. We do tend to move Magic around every sort of two or three years but Newcastle has been a big success and we’ll be sitting down with the council to see where we go.”

There is, of course, talk of a return of licensing to Super League.

Draper insists they are not looking at that although he does add the caveat “certainly not for 18 anyway” which leaves everything open for 2019.

“My sense is 2018 won’t see any big changes in terms of league structure,” added the former Lawn Tennis Association chief executive, who took up his current role in December.

“We’re always looking to improve what we’ve got and give more time to make any bigger changes for 2019 if we want to make them. This Super League season has been fantastic – the best so far – and you can always look at refinements.

“Talking to clubs some think the League Leaders’ Shield should be at the end of Week 23 rather than Week 30 so we’ll look at that while in the first two seasons of Super 8s, the Middle 8s actually had more profile as the sixth, seventh and eighth-placed clubs their season was over.

“Having said that, this season could be very different; again you have to be careful as we’re always being innovative in rugby league and looking for change but also you have to have consistency and continuity as well.

“I don’t think there’ll be any big changes for next year.”