Jon Wilkin questions Super League over Magic Weekend ambition and suggests fix for 2025

Super League saw Magic Weekend conclude on Sunday with a dismal attendance recorded but the event was hailed a success by Rugby League Commercial chief Rhodri Jones, prompting Sky Sports’ Jon Wilkin to question if the event actually has enough ambition.

Jones cited the crowd of over 50,000 as a success, in spite of the fact that the combined attendance over the two days marked the second-lowest during the event’s 17-year history. In fact, the Sunday attendance of just over 22,000 marked the lowest-ever total for a Sunday.

Despite those worrying figures, Jones explained to Sky Sports: “We’ve had a successful weekend. We’ve had over 50,000 people here. We had 30,000 in here yesterday. We had 20,000 in for the first game, which we think is a record for the first game of the weekend, so we’ve certainly hit metrics in terms of attendance.”

He also spoke on the commercial success as he confirmed that the weekend was profitable, claiming: “Commercially, ticket revenue-wise, hospitality sales, we’ve done well.”

One thing that seems to have gone amiss is how the average fan feels, with many slamming the event, and Jon Wilkin picked up on that in his response to Jones’ comments.

How can Super League make Magic Weekend better for the fans?

Jones had detailed the success of Magic Weekend to Jenna Brooks but when the cameras moved back to the studio for Jon Wilkin’s verdict, he queried if RL Commercial were even gauging ‘success’ in the right way.

“As a fan of the game and knowing people who come to the Magic weekend, what is absolutely integral to this working is a reason to keep fans in the stadium,” Wilkin explained on Sky Sports.

“All of what Rodri said about the viable business decisions is commercial. The fact Elland Road was cheaper, ticket prices were cheaper, and we’ve made a commercial gain on this event, but the fan experience has to be paramount to this. It is something that we can make really special by developing the fan experience.”

He then outlined two key elements that need to improve for the 2025 version of Magic Weekend if Super League fans are to be placed as the focus for how to gauge success.

Jones had confirmed that Magic will happen in 2025 but a location is undetermined and that’s something Wilkin has argued must be chosen carefully.

“Part of that (fan experience) is the geography. It has to be in a city where the stadium has a proximity to the local amenities and the establishments and the hotels and all of the restaurants and bars which people love to go to. It has to be close to that.

“Second of all, within the stadium itself, I just think we really need to work on what the fan experience is, because we had a bit of a brass band. Yeah, there are fantastic initiatives going on, but it just needs to be a bit more for me.

“It just felt like we just put it on in Leeds this year, and I just, does that lack ambition? I don’t know. I know they’ve worked incredibly hard, but to get all these games on, we know how difficult it is but is it the best it could possibly be? No.”