Putting aside the result and the shocking news about Adrian Purtell how did everyone rate the Manchester experience?

For me it was a bit of a mixed bag...

The positive was without doubt the venue, what a superb stadium - great viewing, great facilities and a cracking atmo...Obviously the Beer was overpriced but that's to be expected i suppose..

The negative for me was Manchester itself with regards to the pubs, very poor in comparison so Edinburgh/Cardiff. We walked all over and everything was really spread out. Deansgate was rubbish and that Printworks is nothing to shout home about IMO, very disappointing.

Be good to hear thoughts, cheers.

I just can't summon up any enthusiasm for this event. If we're going to use the playoffs to decide the champions, at least make it a fair league where each team plays the same teams the same amount of times.

Warrington and Catalan might as well have just been given a two point start at the beginning of the year. If the RFL decide to make the event as fair as possible by either determining fixtures on last years placings or just by random draw, I might be inclined to attend one of these events.

I actually thought the attendances were pretty average considering how close to the heartlands it was this year so I am obviously not on my own with these views. Watching on the telly, the stadium looked empty and low on atmosphere for much of the time.

I do concur with some of your points Bully_Boxer, the games seem to favour a couple of teams (Catalans, Warrington) but Salford did beat the Giants so its not a given.

As for the attendance and atmosphere i can only speak for the Sunday but it was pretty much 3/4 full at the second half stage of the Bulls v Rhino's game and very good.

The event seems to be here to stay in the short term so how do people rate Manchester?

Are you serious? The ground looked dead?

I loved it and there's a couple of people who are interested in going next year based on value and location.

The weather played a massive part for me seeing as the result didn't suit but with the number of games on show, there should be at least one to enjoy.

Personally I like Manchester; easy to get to and decent facilities.

I would change the way teams are selected - why not balls in a bag like a cup draw- surely that would be fairer - I wouldn't have a problem with Warrington playing Widnes if the draw was random and not down to some bright spark at Red Hall.

Also IMO I would have referred a bank holiday weekend.

From where? were you there?

Probably not. On the TV it looked near as full as it was in reality.

Best media facilities - end of discussion.

Ground was good, outside entertainment was OK, transport links around Manchester were good and will be even better when the tram station at the ground opens, pubs in the city were fine.
Prices in the ground were expensive, and fed up with seeing our team losing every time we go.

7/10

loved it, 8/10

I would love to see it where 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th right down the table. Seems much fairer to me.

They can take it as the league table stands the week before. It would also cause some excitement wondering who might play who.