Day One of Magic Weekend records amazing attendance

Magic Weekend is finally upon us and Day One has been brilliant.

Salford Red Devils and Hull KR produced a classic clash, Catalans Dragons stunned Wigan Warriors and right now Leeds Rhinos and Castleford Tigers are engaged in a tight affair.

For much of this year it has been questioned whether the 2023 Magic Weekend will be the last event of its kind.

The fans have certainly had their say on whether it should say.

A huge 36,943 fans were in attendance today with 17,000 in for the first game of the day.

There is still hope for the with recent reports that the Magic Weekend could stay at least for 2024.

Last week, Sky Sports reporter Kyle Walker has stated that it is unclear now if this will be the last Magic Weekend suggesting that there is a chance it could continue into 2024.

“The Magic Weekend is just days away but even with it so close the future of the event is still unclear,” Walker said.

“It still isn’t certain whether or not this will be the last event of its kind.”

There has been talk that IMG are wanting to get rid of the Magic Weekend but according to an update from RL Commercial at the start of the season, this had yet been rubber-stamped.

They stated: “It’s part of the loop fixtures, the view is that loop fixtures are disappearing. That was part of the recommendations but they’re not rubber-stamped immediately so we’re going through the process of looking at the calendar in totality.

“That’s including the Challenge Cup, including new events, which was something that IMG had as part of the recommendations. So it might not be Magic, it might be the new event, Magic might be the new event for example but a different type of Magic. It’s all on the table at the moment.”

Naturally the loss of Loop fixtures and the Magic Weekend could see clubs miss out on revenue: “Rather than looking at that in isolation if we look at the whole calendar, then looking at the Challenge Cup and it’s format, in totality it might not necessarily mean that the clubs lose the two home games that they currently get with loop fixtures.