Magic Weekend

Well that's another Magic Weekend done, I write this as someone living in Newcastle who supports Thunder.

Magic Friday

Ok, I know this is an unofficial thing but I was there and it's always great to see the various rugby league shirts turning up at Thunder and Friday was no different. Thunder and Workington worked together so that there was a cash incentive for any tickets that Workington sold directly, it really is great to see clubs doing this as it does benefit everyone!

Newcastle Thunder v Workington Town on Friday night.

As I've already written, Workington were good value for their victory Grant Reid and Jamie Doran coming off the bench for Workington had a big impact. For those of us who watch Thunder every week, it was frustrating as we know we didn't see the best of what we can do. But that's not to take anything away from Workington at all.

Saturday

Saturday morning for me started at Leazes Parkrun which was adopted as the Magic Weekend takeover. I volunteer down at Leazes when I can and was lucky enough that Saturday coincided with my 100th volunteer at Parkrun, all of which have been at Leazes. It was great to see shirts from Hull KR, Halifax, Leigh, South Sydney and no doubt others along with my token Thunder shirt as I handed out finish tokens. If as it looks likely Magic returns to Newcastle next year It'd be great to see this event grow and get more people down and more shirts there. Imagine if we could get Kevin Sinfield to Leazes Parkrun, it'd be epic!

Prior to Leigh taking on Catalans on Saturday.

To the main event now, for me personally I enjoyed it. I watched all three games on Saturday from the Leazes Stand and there was a good atmosphere at our end. You could hear the Leigh fans in the Gallowgate during the first game, Salford fans were really good and loud as they congregated towards the back of the lower tier and then the Leeds fans who were the fans of the weekend turned up. They were loud and proud, including some good natured chanting with the Salford fans, it made for a good atmosphere at our end. Also a big shout out to the LDSL teams including our very own Newcastle Thunder who really added to the event.

The sun shone and the alcohol definitely flowed but it still made for a good family atmosphere. Think some people probably were feeling the cold by the end of the day though as shorts were a very brave choice!

Sunday

Sunday was a bit more relaxed for me, I'm running the Leeds Rob Burrow Mararthon this Sunday so had my last long run to do. I got to the ground just after kick off of Huddersfield v Hull and there was already a healthy contingent of Wakefield fans in place. There was a lot there on the Saturday, fair play to them! Huddersfield took the energy out of the Hull fans who were no doubt disappointed to see their team lose to a team who hadn't won this season.

Huddersfield taking on Hull.

I stayed on for the Wigan v Warrington game, the majority of the Wigan fans were in the other corner of Leazes to me but them and their drummer made a decent noise. Warrington could've taken the game to golden point but couldn't manage that. I didn't stop for the Wakefield game, by that point i was rugby league'd out for the weekend, but did watch it when I got home....

The good

I'd said in my pre-weekend blog that I wanted to see the rugby league family turn up in numbers and be the great ambassadors for our sport that they can be. I wasn't let down on that front at all, from a selfish Thunder perspective I hope some of your enthusiasm has rubbed off on the north east public and they might consider giving Thunder a go.

This includes the great family atmosphere inside the stadium.

Rhodri Jones from Rugby League Commercial announced that 8-10,000 tickets had been snapped up by locals to the north east, that's a good for me but does link in elsewhere later on in this blog.

Although not necessarily my thing, the Snapchat filter was a good way of engaging with the crowd.

The LDSL teams got a great reaction from the crowd, that was great to see.

I know Salford are going through a really tough time at the moment, when their players came to the Leazes Stand at the end of the match to clap their fans they were greeted by a standing ovation from the whole stand, that was really great to see. I hope Salford can sort themselves out.

Everyone is friendly, I had good chats with various people through the weekend and interactions through my X account too. Including a conversation with a Warrington supporter at Parkrun on Saturday morning and good natured chats through the weekend.

Having Magic on a Bank Holiday weekend really helped the Sunday attendance taking it to a record of 32,862 and a weekend total of 64,156. But with this good I'll discuss the work on later on.

I liked the celebration idea but think the players at times weren't really sure what to do. It can come back next year though.

The bad

Now I'm not old by any stretch at 37 but I couldn't get on board with the two guys trying to pump up the crowd at various points during the weekend, there seemed to be a disconnect. The efforts of the sing along on both days was bad. I don't know where they got the North and South Stand from when they were calling their ends but that along with a lack of connection made it dire.

I know this isn't the organisers fault and will be the same for football at St James Park, but the stadium PA in The Leazes was terrible. At times you couldn't make out what was being said.

A lack of local media interest, there was nothing in The Chronicle all weekend until the attendance was out on Sunday late afternoon. Sam Luckley, a Geordie scoring in front of The Gallowgate End and doing an Alan Shearer celebration should've been their image of the weekend!

The improvements

As above, the people trying to get the crowd involved need to connect, that's definitely something to look at for next year.

With the warm up area being in Leazes Park, could there be a way of having a fan zone around the warm up area? I know they want people in the ground but this could be a great addition and it could be open to anyone to watch the teams warm up and let the teams taste some of the magic atmosphere sooner.

This has worked in rugby union but could the referee's not be mic'd up to the stadium for the bigger events, there's that many stoppages for try awards and captains challenge etc that this can bring the game to the fans more. It was a bit of a frustration on Saturday that there was a stoppage and the length of time it was taking.

I hope we are back in Newcastle next year as it looks to be, I get we have to wait for Premier League fixtures to be announced etc. 8-10,000 sales from the north east is great, but it can be so much better with strong marketing. It always seems to happen that Magic rolls into town on a Monday for a photo shoot etc and then people find out about it. Speak to major employers, my wife works for the NHS and they'd had nothing through. I'm in Local Government and again nothing. Get into businesses and speak to people and more people will come.

The legacy

One thing I'm asking myself is what is the legacy that Magic Weekend wants to leave in the north east?

8-10,000 sales locally is great but what do The RFL and Super League set out to achieve as a legacy of the weekend in the north east, it's too good an opportunity just to say "See you next year." In my opinion there was a big opportunity missed after the World Cup game against Samoa too. I know there's GDPR etc but the biggest impact would be to promote Newcastle Thunder to those who attended and work with the community game as well to sign post to where the game can be played and watched. This could lead to more supporters and volunteers involved in the game refereeing or coaching.

The barriers

This is something I'm trying to work out and again it comes to this 8-10,000 figure. I'd love to understand the barriers that transfer from those people who attended at the weekend to how they can be turned into rugby league fans hopefully taking more of an interest in Newcastle Thunder.

Questions I'm asking myself, do they know Thunder exist? Is Blaydon used as an issue as not central enough? Does the Newcastle name put people from outside of Newcastle off? Are they just not interested in rugby league beyond a big occasion?

If you're reading this and you're from the north east but don't want to follow Thunder, I'd be really keen to read your comments. As having Magic is great but there's so much untapped potential that understanding barriers helps to grow the game in the region.

Likewise from anyone reading this, let me know your thoughts on the weekend including any improvements that you'd like to see. I'm really keen to engage with people through this so feel free to add me on any of my socials too and if anyone has anything they'd like covered then let me know too.

I'm already looking forward to Magic 2026!