: Thu May 07, 2009 5:38 pm  

The various "Ghost Tours" in Edinburgh are good. Didn't do one this weekend, but did last time we went in December, very entertaining. Generally they go through a walk round of the city, going through the history, then go underground into the vaults, with more history of it, then stories of the ghosts and legends and stuff.

: Thu May 07, 2009 5:40 pm  

Wire_Yed_79 wrote:

but that is a final between 2 teams not the whole league which makes it more marketable and the press don't like stepping out the M25 if they can help it so im sure they'd put a bit more effort into it only downside is it can only start after football season is over

Its alright Arsenal's season is usually over by April anyway.

I think its a good idea and could raise awareness of Rugby League within London, hopefully meaning an increase in support for the Harlequins. Plus there's about 500,000 aussies in London, surely a good few thousand would attend if the event was well publicised.

: Thu May 07, 2009 5:54 pm  

SEB wrote:

I think a venue needs:

-Good quality, decent size stadium (min 50k, I know we won't fill that, but it's nice to have the flexibility to move around which would be harder in a smaller stadium)
-Decent host city with it's own tourist attractions and sufficient accomodation
-Far enough away from M62 heartlands to encourage people to go for weekend
-Not too far away though, so day trippers can be included too.

I don't think anywhere quite meets those criteria other than Cardiff and Edinburgh. I was thinking the other night the Emirates looks a nice stadium, but we already go to London for the Cup Final, and everyone would get dispersed into the city and so it wouldn't have the same festival feel.

Anywhere in London could well mean not seeing another RL fan anywhere other than inside, or immediately outside the stadium. I've never been, but as many have mentioned Newcastle is there anything there other than pubs and the stadium? I'm not aware of any stadia in the South West that would be suitable.

Other than Cardiff or Edinburgh, the only viable alternatives that I can see are Paris or Dublin (as my sister lives there, Dublin would be my favourite).

: Thu May 07, 2009 6:29 pm  

Thelonius wrote:

Anywhere in London could well mean not seeing another RL fan anywhere other than inside, or immediately outside the stadium. I've never been, but as many have mentioned Newcastle is there anything there other than pubs and the stadium? I'm not aware of any stadia in the South West that would be suitable.

Other than Cardiff or Edinburgh, the only viable alternatives that I can see are Paris or Dublin (as my sister lives there, Dublin would be my favourite).

Marseille or Lyon would make more sense in France due to the South being more into rugby league than the north (irony or what)

: Thu May 07, 2009 7:24 pm  

The tour is did was Conan Doyle, Walkabout, Lloyds, Slug and Lettuce, Cafe Habane and Modd......class.

: Fri May 08, 2009 9:38 am  

Mark wrote:

I was sat a few behind you, we moved after the Leeds game to get abused and threatened by the HKR fans.....great stuff.

I forgot you'd said you were going to be near us and didn't see you - you should have said hello.

: Fri May 08, 2009 9:39 am  

SEB wrote:

I don't think anywhere quite meets those criteria other than Cardiff and Edinburgh. I was thinking the other night the Emirates looks a nice stadium, but we already go to London for the Cup Final, and everyone would get dispersed into the city and so it wouldn't have the same festival feel.

With you on that, both Cardiff & Edinburgh have now proved successful. Even though the capacity is way over sized for us, it gives people the opportunity to wander around as they please.

Would be good publicity to push the event more around the London area, but can’t see it making as much impact as the previous two venues. Plus the whole occasion wouldn’t seem as big in a city the size of London. Whilst in Cardiff & Edinburgh, it had the feeling of something ‘going on’ and everywhere you looked had various other RL followers about. Maybe the event could switch to & fro from Cardiff to Edinburgh, gives people the opportunity to go back to what they enjoyed (or not so, in some cases ).

Mark wrote:

I was sat a few behind you, we moved after the Leeds game to get abused and threatened by the HKR fans.....great stuff.

Did many of you go for the reserved seat option or not? Seemed like the east stand seemed to be the best place for the sun on both days (we had to wait quite a while for it to come round to us in the south).

: Fri May 08, 2009 9:44 am  

Mark wrote:

I was sat a few behind you, we moved after the Leeds game to get abused and threatened by the HKR fans.....great stuff.

I was sat on the row in front of Seb.

: Sat May 09, 2009 6:48 am  

SEB wrote:

I forgot you'd said you were going to be near us and didn't see you - you should have said hello.

A few rows in front mate, tried to get your attention...you were looking well considering you'd just ran 10k.

: Sat May 09, 2009 6:49 am  

Latchford Wolvesfan wrote:

:shock: I was sat on the row in front of Seb.

Didn't see you, the Catalan fans were really loud..."we hate Rhinos"