Please not Elland road.



Anywhere but Elland Road.

Believe me, being a fat knacker who struggles to squeeze my vast bulk into the seats at ER, I totally agree. It's just about the right size though, and in RL territority.

If we could guarantee England being in the final then I'd go bigger. But if we're not then the crowd could be relatively low.



I'm sort of tempted to go down the Union route and not have a final. Just go on the league leader. Maybe play each other twice instead?

Only a thought.

A Six Nations-style mini-league would make more sense, if, as suggested on here, there were two 'minnow' sides, who would have the interest of battling it out to avoid the wooden spoon.

I'd be happy with that. I think the 4 Nations needs expanding to at least 5. Does anyone involved with the Scotland camp, even in their wildest dreams, think they'll win a game in the series?

They have very little to play for.

Give them a game against France or Wales and suddenly there's an achievable goal for them.

Well we have dates and tickets on sale for the WCC and associated NRL friendlies, magic weekend and the challenge cup and grand finals. Next job RFL is to get these international venues and tickets on sale. Now please.



I think Scotland qualifying pushes us towards double header territory. Any game in Scotland would be very optimistic. So four rounds, four stadiums. I'd go for Leeds, Manchester, London and Newcastle. I'd tie extra marketing for each international in with the other events we have. WCC associated push for international games at Elland Road, Magic associated push for internationals at St James Park etc We are coming back on... with another chance to see the best in the world.



Id put England v Aus up first in London, Olympic or Wembley are both fine. Both got history as a national stadium too.



Eng v Sco at Elland Road, probably the smallest crowd expected so need to go core audience and NZ v Aus should also draw that. Historically been an international venue but as we don't have much success there is might be time for a change in final venue. It's also where I think Leeds should play NQC.



Eng v NZ at St James park, hopefully a good area for growth, sport mad and a place where being a "northern

game" is actually a good thing

play the decider there and show a growth area that we think they deserve more big games after how well magic has gone.



Final at Old Trafford or COM stadium. History at Old Trafford or great chance to build on Magic weekends at COM.

I don't think we can risk using Man City's ground for the final. If England aren't in the final it could be less than half full. The last time we got 26k for Australia v NZ in the final.

In Man City's ground that'd look bad, at Old Trafford itd look appalling.

I think the world cup sold out old Trafford and no one knew who would be in the final and it was Australia new Zealand.



Why would those people not go back for a 4 nations final?

Indeed

But those tickets went on sale before Christmas the year before...

Yep. And the whole event had more marketing available to it than the 4 Nations will. Plus a World Cup is a much bigger deal than the 4 Nations. Especially as we hadn't seen one for 13 years. We last had a 4 Nations here 5 years ago.

Ok we may not sell out old trafford, but we should be looking to sell a final to a large crowd.



Man City could put on a good show.

Leeds, Manchester, London and one other city (Hull, Newcastle or Birmingham for geographical spread's sake) would work a treat I think. Something tells me that as soon as the rest of the country see we are staging Test matches in small towns they switch off.



I actually thought I'd read something about RL being interested in Villa Park after the success of the RWC fixtures there. Its a good-quality ground, a good ambitious size and a new catchment area while being reachable down the M6 and M1 for most core supporters. I wonder if they'll take the plunge and take our game to Birmingham.

I hope we don't use Villa Park.

We have to use London to build up our profile.

The other games should either be in the heartlands to guarantee decent crowds or go to areas where we're trying to develop the game. So really either Manchester or Newcastle or heartlands.