Until last Sunday, I thought I was the only one. The only what? Well the only Super League fan in Madrid. That was until a very inebriated man on the metro in Madrid (the oven of Line 1) mentioned that “Wakefield are massive, everywhere we go.” After discovering he had come back from a successful voyage to Perpignan, he immediately clocked me. “You are that bloke online who just slags off Huddersfield and Castleford” (this is not an entirely unfair description). After a drink, I can now confirm that there are at least two Super League fans living here. Like shiny Pokemon: Rarely seen, easily lost.
You would think then, on hearing the news via Matthew Shaw at Love Rugby League of a potential Magic Weekend in Madrid, I would be ecstatic (and if I wanted to make life easy to nab a press pass, I would be). However, as tempting as it would be to go along with yet another story of ‘growing the game’ , I am afraid the truth must be told. Magic Weekend in Madrid is a terrible idea: Here´s why.
Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is way too big for Magic Weekend
83,000 (and change) is the capacity of Real Madrid´s stadium. Ideal for potentially the biggest team in world football but way too big for the regional sport of Rugby League. Not only would you get a fraction of the fans from Everton´s Magic Weekend coming due to the cost (more on that point later) but there is unlikely to be mass interest from Madrileños.
Ok if tickets were cheap enough (20€), you may get those locals who merely want the curiosity factor of watching an event inside a stadium that is overwhelmingly unaffordable to them or a few thousand tourists picking up a ticket. But enough not to have the stadium look like a hollow empty box? No chance. If playing in big stadiums with no fans made a good experience, Huddersfield would be the best team in the league.
Madrid is now very expensive
The stereotype about Spain (and Madrid especially) being affordable or cheap is about a decade out of date. Since the pandemic, the regional and national government have doubled down by turning to the third world model of mass tourism. Madrid has joined Barcelona, Valencia and most other places in Spain you could name dear reader in being very pricey. A massive wave of tourism from America and other countries has made Madrid expensive for tourists, let alone residents. A tercio in the centre? That will be 4 euros minimum please. The pint you are used to ? Seven or eight. Hotels will be exorbitant too.
Sure, there are cheaper places on the outskirts and some in the middle but they certainly aren´t built for groups above four or five. Combined with a tourist tax, and the recent introduction of ‘dynamic pricing’ (scalping) when sports fans are in bars near a stadium and you can see how this becomes eye-watering for the average working class fan.
Magic Weekend in Madrid will be crowded out
Apart from the juggernaut of Association Football , Madrid also hosts Formula 1 and the NFL. International sports with global fanbases. For the NFL in the same stadium, fans can be called on from all across Europe to deliver a packed out crowd and global media coverage. I struggle to see how Rugby League would make a dent in the cultural or sporting landscape of the city.
This isn´t ‘growing the game’ , it´s a gimmick
The best reason against this has been saved for last. It is once again another example of the short termism that plagues Rugby League in Europe. Unless you are blind, it will be obvious (from a television and sponsorship standpoint) the only growth for sports not called Men´s Association Football in Europe are internationals. Sky Sports spent many millions and sports shunted themselves behind paywalls in the hope to be the next football. There is no next football. Even the Premier League had a below inflation TV deal.
However, what TV figures do show is that internationals offer other sports a financially lucrative opportunity to grab the coverage for a small amount of those 52 weeks and cover losses in the fallow months when, as Spanish Journalist Fernando Castán puts it, football eats everything. It also does what Super League owners and administrators say they want, which is provide a wider audience.
England v Australia 1st Test on BBC ONE had 818,000 average audience with 14.2% audience share.
Peak audience of 930,000 and 15.1% audience share.
— RugbyLeagueonTV.com (@rugbyleagueontv) October 26, 2025
Case in point. In 2024 England´s second Test versus Samoa averaged an audience of 741,000 , in 2025 the First Test of England vs Australia drew an average auduence of over 800,000. Now of course the problem here is that they are NRL affliated nations who have zero interest in coming in the one time of year international rugby league in Europe could stand out (July).
But what if I told you there were two nations in Europe , that with a bit of TLC could provide England exactly that from a commercial and growth stand point? Yes, Wales and France actually exist.
Real growth is not sexy.
However, Super League doesn´t want the boring work of having an RFL academy in Wales , minimum player quotas on Super League teams to grow that nation and locking in the French clubs (with same funding) with minimum french caps to provide a core French team. No, Super League clubs want gimmicks.
So clubs will happily go on a jolly to the NRL´s Vegas gambling venture but scream blue murder about a lack of away supporters from France. It will whinge about a lack of players and then, rather than pooling resources to fund full time academies outside of the heartlands, dope itself up on as many NRL retreads it can find like a crack addict desperate for one last hit.
And most infuriatingly, Rugby League in Europe will whine about a lack of TV revenue but refuse to accept that for the only part of the game that can provide that revenue (internationals) to grow, Super League would have to be a vehicle and not the final destination.
The sad reality is that everything Rugby League in Europe needs to do to ensure growth and more revenue is already well within its power but Australian dependency syndrome and a leaderless sport puts the game´s future at risk. If short termism, NRL dependency and cheap gimmicks were the IMG criteria, Super League would be in a league of its own.
You can find more slagging off Huddersfield and Castleford for pilfering central funding whilst playing in terrible stadiums on Twitter @SnrHuevo.
Featured image taken by Pablo Corero
