RUGBY Football League officials say an aggregate attendance of 59,749 for the two-day Magic Weekend in Edinburgh justified the switch from Cardiff.
A total of 30,122 watched today’s four matches at Murrayfield and, with 29,627 in attendance on the opening day, the combined total is down on last year’s aggregate of 63,144 at the Millennium Stadium.
But the RFL are taking encouragement from the fact that crowds were up on the 58,831 that attended the first Millennium Magic in 2007 and say the figures are encouraging given the current credit crunch.
RFL chief executive Nigel Wood said: “Once again rugby league fans have turned out in force to support their game.
“The Magic Weekend is all about putting on a great showcase for supporters in a destination city and our partners in Scotland have been extremely supportive.
“Planning for next year’s Magic Weekend in Edinburgh will start straight away and the starting point will be to seek feedback from clubs and supporters so that in 2010 this event is even bigger and better.”
League officials are also encouraged by sales of 6,236 tickets locally.
Wood added: “Scotland’s performance in last year’s World Cup did a lot to raise awareness of rugby league in this country and the fact that more than 6,000 Scots have attended will add to the momentum.
“We are expanding our development team up here to turn the increased interest in the sport into more participants and, who knows, in years to come we may see a Scottish team playing in the Championship or Super League as a result of what we’ve started this year.”
Harlequins kicked off the weekend’s proceedings with a 24-16 win over Salford City Reds, that was followed Bradford Bulls 32-16 win over Wakefield Trinity and then Wigan pulled off a shock success against their bitter rivals St Helens by 38-12.
Yesterday’s programme saw the Giants’ 40-16 win over Celtic Crusaders followed by a 24-16 triumph for Hull over Castleford Tigers, Leeds cruised to a 36-16 victory against Catalans Dragons and Hull KR held on to beat Warrington Wolves 36-28.
