: Mon May 04, 2009 6:21 pm  

Resut aside(journey backs always longer after defeat), Cardiff gets the nod.

No problem with the locals in either place, both as friendly as each other, and both stadiums were great.
Cardiff wins it for me due to closeness of stadium to city centre.Edinburgh also seemed drab, but maybe i'm uncultured!Beware if we go to Dublin, Lansdowne is a long way out.

Remind me next time to buy the cheaper tickets as you could sit where you liked(it was a bargain anyway, so no real complaints there).

: Mon May 04, 2009 6:47 pm  

2 completely different weekends, and we loved them both.

Oh, and the wire turnout was huge again.

: Mon May 04, 2009 7:06 pm  

Cardiff for me.

It's more of a central location, better atmosphere and it's a little cheaper (food and drink) although the activities around the stadium at Edinburgh were very good indeed.

Wherever we go in the future Cheggers needs to be banned from attending.

: Mon May 04, 2009 7:34 pm  

what about a new poll
What NEW venue would you like to see the weekend at

Here's some ideas

The Emirates:- The London game needs help what better than all the teams playing in the capital.
The press are more likely to help out when it's on their door.

The Millennium Stadium:- (not new i know) again helps out the Welsh game With a new team [Celtic] they would benefit more than Scotland who have no team

Stade Vélodrome 60,031 [Marseille]
or
Stade Gerland 43,051 [Lyon] :-
South of France, helps promote the french game and great for a nice weekend away and it's nice and hot.

What you think? anymore ideas ?

: Mon May 04, 2009 7:40 pm  

Inside Knowledge wrote:

Cardiff for me.

It's more of a central location, better atmosphere and it's a little cheaper (food and drink) although the activities around the stadium at Edinburgh were very good indeed.

Wherever we go in the future Cheggers needs to be banned from attending.

Problem is Murryfield were ready for us Edinburgh wasnt, the marathon was the priority.

As mentioned by many no one knew about it at all , Edinburgh I am afraid can absorb 60,000 fans in a day let alone over a weekend.

I had a feeling it would be like this as I worked in Edinburgh for 2 years and know what it is like , if you know the city no better place to enjoy yourself for the weekend ,

however with kids in tow it is a struggle unlike a smaller city where the event would take over the place for the weekend.

RFL for me screwed up big style here with very little promotion locally.

The manager of the program selling team told me they are 20% down from Cardiff on numbers , the match program i will get to later !!!!!!

To ensure a future for such an event is find a smaller city

: Mon May 04, 2009 7:49 pm  

Edinburgh by far for me.

Some people baffle me with their ability to find fault in absolutely anything. I thought Cardiff was excellent, but the stadium complex at Murrayfield was far better for me.

To pick up on a few comments from this thread:

There were loads of Scottish accents in the ground, and plenty of Scotland Union shirts around. The RFL say over 6k local tickets were sold. Wherever we were people seemed to know about the event too.

There were certain parts of the town where the pubs were full of Rugby fans, but the town is much bigger than Cardiff, so the spreading out of fans will always happen.

The weather was glorious, but Gateaux makes a good point that had the weather been like today, the event could be a washout. It's a difficult one though, becasue being able to sit in the sun made the matches a lot better experience than Cardiff, rather than sitting in a cold concrete stadium with a roof on.

As for the original poster, saying there was nothing for kids, well, I'm not sure what planet he is on. Did you go to the fanzone? There were loads of stalls for kids, as well as huge fields for people to play on. The RFL also had the Mascot games on in between games, and then there's the actual games too! - I'm not sure what else you would want from the event.

As for people moaning about not having ID and not being able to be served, well that's your fault.

I thought the public transport was generally very good, although it was slightly frustrating that the Park and Ride schemes went to an off peak schedule at night, when most people were using it.

: Mon May 04, 2009 7:53 pm  

I thought that the Murrayfield Stadium was very good, Edinburgh city centre was great (apart from the roadworks) and some amazing pubs. I disagree with some of the comments regarding the RFL marketing up there. Most of the locals we spoke to were fully aware of the event - even those where we stayed in Kinross (25 miles from Edinburgh).

Not many more positives for Edinburgh really. As has been said, if the weather had been ropey then most of the weekend would have been a washout. A heavy downpour during the walk down to the stadium and it would have made for a very uncomfortable several hours. I'm pleased I didn't bring the kids as the walk from the city to the stadium and back would have been way too much for them to cope with.

Having been to both, it has to be Cardiff, its city centre location and stadium roof every time for me.

: Mon May 04, 2009 7:57 pm  

We should also go back to having derby games, i feel this would improve the attendance a little.

: Mon May 04, 2009 8:00 pm  

Thelonius wrote:

I'm pleased I didn't bring the kids as the walk from the city to the stadium and back would have been way too much for them to cope with.

On that point though, there were loads and loads of buses from the city to Murrayfield for £1.20 a journey.

: Mon May 04, 2009 8:31 pm  

What pi$$es me off is the fact that these people complaining about empty stadiums are probably the ones who turn up for the weekend and can't be ar$ed watching the games unless their own team is playing. I think only the Wire fans contribute to any prolonged attendance on both days.

I suspect that there is no perfect venue, you just got to make the best of what there is on offer, there is something for everyone if you look hard enough.