Mark Levy: Magic Round 'no brainer' as NRL considers cash-grab

It's rare for someone born in New South Wales to rap the Queenslanders during a rugby league season, however after experiencing my first Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium, the NRL and the ARL Commission have rocks in their head if they shift the three days of footy away from Brisbane.

While Peter V'landys was walking the corridors of the lavish casinos under the bright lights of Las Vegas, the real party was happening in 'Brisvegas' where 30,000 diehard footy fans flew into the Queensland capital to experience an event which has become one of the highlights on the Australian sporting calendar.

The numbers speak for themselves: 147,095 people made their way through the turnstiles at Suncorp Stadium, not to mention the thousands who strolled through the precinct where rugby league was celebrated through a whole range of initiatives.

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Whoever came up with the "ball exchange" deserves a pay rise, it was brilliant. Kids lining up with their mums and dads to hand in their old footy and have it replaced with a brand new one. It's one of the smartest things I've seen in years.

The queues for the pass-the-ball competition snaked their way around the Caxton Street end of the ground, the "magic kick" gave fans their chance to line up a conversion attempt like Nicho Hynes, and the assault runner which mirrored a footballer doing training drills also proved extremely popular.

Not to mention the activations inside the ground like the VIP decks in the corners of the stadium, the pyrotechnics and the kiss-cam which is always a good laugh.

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Now before you start calling me an NRL suck, I'm the first person to rubbish some of the bad decisions and hold the powerbrokers to account when there's a glaring issue in the game, but the Magic Round is quite simply a raging success because it's staged in Brisbane.

Sadly, it's only locked in for one more year and then it's put out to tender. Admittedly the Queensland government will need to come to the party with an amount of money that locks away the three-day festival of footy long term.

Surely even the premier Annastacia Palaszczuk would concede it's a winner.

Name me a politician in Australia who would knock back a $30 million investment into the local economy. Think of the money spent in the pubs, clubs and hotels over the weekend.

Let's face it, Brisbane is crying out to host more major events like these in rugby league and given Queenslanders will have to fly to Sydney for the grand final, isn't it only fair to reward the sunshine state, along with some of the more passionate footy fans in the country, with their own major event? Isn't it a no brainer?

NRL boss Andrew Abdo was asked about the future of Magic Round on 2GB's Continuous Call Team.

Abdo floated the idea of taking it to New Zealand given the Kiwis were starved of footy during the pandemic.

"Why wouldn't we consider putting more content in New Zealand whether it's Magic Round or something else… that's why it was important to take the All Stars there for the first time," he said.

"So Magic Round's an option but so too is perhaps thinking about Test matches or the end-of-season internationals."

I'm not for one minute suggesting New Zealand isn't deserving of something similar, but as the saying goes if it ain't broke don't fix it - leave Magic Round in Brisbane.

Mr Abdo, the fans have spoken with their feet over the last few years and it's clear they want it to remain at Suncorp Stadium. We even polled some of the listeners standing in front of our broadcast position at the northern end of the ground when the NRL boss was on the panel and the noise was deafening.

A simple "who wants the NRL Magic Round to stay in Brisbane" was all it took before the crowd started cheering as if someone had scored a spectacular try inside the stadium.

To see the smiles on faces as they walked past us was terrific, not to mention the double take when they spotted the likes of Darryl Brohman, Paul Gallen and Josh Morris.

One young woman was overheard saying, "I can't believe I just got to meet the G-Train", a young Roosters fan yelled out "oh my god, look it's Josh Morris", and the Big Marn was mobbed by Queenslanders praising him for his appearances on the Footy Show.

Isn't that what rugby league is all about and the reason why Magic Round is so successful? It's the chance to rub shoulders with legends of the game, join in the banter with rival fans, walk the streets proudly wearing your club colours and take advantage of a city madly in love with rugby league.

There's no need for the NRL to explore other states or countries wanting to host it.

OK, there might be a chance to make some money, but how much more do we need at head office when the league is already reporting multi-million dollar profits?

Magic Round is made for Queensland and instead of playing this out through the media in a bid to drive up the price, let's just lock it in for the next 50 years like the deal that was done to play the grand final in Sydney.

Who's with me? Let me know your thoughts by sending through an email to the WWOS Radio show on 2GB by clicking on this link

Wide World of Sports Radio is heard from 6pm AEST on 2GB 873am with Mark Levy and co-hosts Shane Flanagan (Monday), Paul Gallen (Tuesday) and Brad Fittler (Wednesday), Ken Sutcliffe (Thursday) and Mark Riddell (Friday).

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