{"id":359236,"date":"2025-08-20T10:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T10:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359236\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T10:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T10:53:12","slug":"the-future-of-magic-weekend-laid-bare-as-potential-2026-destination-revealed-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/359236\/","title":{"rendered":"The future of Magic Weekend laid bare as potential 2026 destination revealed \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.totalrl.com\/the-future-of-magic-weekend-laid-bare-as-potential-2026-destination-revealed\/\" title=\"Permanent Link to The future of Magic Weekend laid bare as potential 2026 destination revealed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img width=\"675\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SW6_5222-675x360.jpg\" class=\"bestwp-post-thumbnail-single wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>THE Magic Weekend is currently \u201cunder review\u201d according to RL Commercial\u2019s managing director, Rhodri Jones.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the most popular events in the rugby league calendar, the Magic Weekend is being threatened by the decision by Super League clubs to expand to 14 teams.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because that move would see the removal of loop fixtures, of which Magic is currently one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d like to think it would be easier because we don\u2019t have to think about loop fixtures,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat said, depending on who comes up, if they are part of a groundshare stadium then that adds to the pool of teams already having a dual-use stadium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat means that certain times of the year \u2013 and especially in June and July \u2013 potentially half the league is unavailable to host home fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe won\u2019t avoid that challenge but what we do avoid is that congestion of loop fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have been discussions about Magic but no decision has been made about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly the ambition is to go to 14 teams and that removes the loop fixture sequence and Magic is a loop fixture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think we are in a position to go to seven clubs and ask them to give up a home game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMagic is under review and we are working behind the scenes to secure a venue that we might need, but at this moment in time it is under review.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the conversation we have had here internally with the strategic review group and with Sky as well and Sky have accepted that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones acknowledged that Newcastle remains a popular host for Magic Weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think attendance proves this year that Newcastle is a good home for it and it works. The challenge for us would be the date and where it sits on the calendar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJanuary through to the end of May next year will have Newcastle fixtures. It\u2019s about finding the right slot without clashing with Wembley at the end of May and Easter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Magic Weekend is currently \u201cunder review\u201d according to RL Commercial\u2019s managing director, Rhodri Jones. One of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-359236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115060723184499757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}