This morning the NRL and Tourism and Events Queensland have announced the inaugural “Magic Round” for 2019.
What this means is that for one round next year, every single NRL game will be played at Suncorp Stadium. That’s a double header on the Friday night, a triple header on the Saturday and another triple header on the Sunday.
The relevance for Green and Gold Rugby readers? The announced weekend for this endeavour is the weekend of Friday 17 May. When the Super Rugby draw was released earlier this week it listed the biggest match of the season, the derby against the Waratahs, would be at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday 18 May.
So clearly there is a pretty significant conflict here. How this plays out will be intriguing. Clearly announcements would not (should not?) have been made without sign off by relevant parties.
Suncorp Stadium clearly have the Tahs game in their schedule as they promoted it on their social media this week. Obviously the magic round is a good think for three government to support too. Big bucks for the city through tourism events being the obvious focus.
So where is the gap? I reckon this could well come down to the NRL’s bullishness getting them in trouble. They may well have jumped the gun with the date details when clearly the venue is booked.
As far as outcomes are concerned who knows? It’d be a massive call for the QRU to move their match but it could be relocated to the Gold Coast or event Townsville. One thing that is clear, they should be demanding significant compensation from the NRL to do so. There are potentially lost memberships, corporate bookings and ticket sales out of this. Maybe even sponsorships.
In a rare scenario these days, it would seem rugby actually has the bargaining power this time. Let’s see how they use it.
