This weekend in Newcastle saw what was, potentially, the last Magic Weekend, should the IMG proposals be implemented in full. IMG would like to replace the weekend with ‘something else’ as yet unspecified, and it appears that the British rugby league public voted with their feet as they supported the event and by all accounts had a fabulous weekend.

There was a combined attendance of 36,943 on the Saturday and 26,426 on the Sunday for a total of 63,369 for the event as a whole, bolstering the local economy as they basked in decent weather and enjoyed more than the odd shock result.

It was the best combined attendance at a Magic weekend since 2018 and demonstrates the popularity of an event which many people are now arguing should remain a part of the calendar. Events have taken place in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester,  Liverpool and Newcastle with the majority of those who have a expressed a view, preferring venues in city centres with all the facilities that you could want on the doorstep. The least popular was Liverpool, but everyone we questioned was very complimentary about Newcastle and Cardiff.

Attendances since the first Magic Weekend at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff have been as follows;

2023 – Newcastle - 63,369

2022 – Newcastle – 62,154

2021 – Newcastle – 60,866

2020 – Event Cancelled Due to Covid

2019 – Liverpool – 56,869

2018 – Newcastle – 64,319

2017 – Newcastle – 65,407

2016 – Newcastle – 68,276

2015 – Newcastle – 67,841

2014 – Manchester – 64,552

2013 – Manchester – 62,042

2012 – Manchester – 63,716

2011 – Cardiff – 60,214

2010 – Edinburgh – 52,043

2009 – Edinburgh – 59,749

2008 – Cardiff – 63,144

2007 – Cardiff – 58,831

The 2023 event was the best attended since Newcastle in 2018 and was up 1,200 on the event last year. It was the seventh best attendance in the sixteen years that the event had run and just under five thousand below the best recorded aggregate crowd in Newcastle in 2016.

The organisers must be as delighted with the event as those who made the trip to the north east, only time will tell if it is the last such event, or whether it will get a reprieve in 2024.