MURRAYFIELD OF DREAMS
Rugby chiefs open door to make Edinburgh stadium new home of Scottish football
SCOTTISH RUGBY insist Murrayfield’s doors are open to become the new home of Scottish football. Chief operating officer Dominic McKay launched a weekend charm offensive in rugby’s bid to lure the SFA to the capital by inviting the media to a behind-the-scenes experience ahead of their Autumn Test against Samoa. The stadium’s 67,000capacity, superior travel links and modern facilities are being used to try to tempt football’s biggest games to
Edinburgh as the SFA’s lease for the Glasgow ground expires in 2020 after hosting part of the Euro Finals.
And McKay is adamant Scottish Rugby has a readymade stadium to host both sports – including cup finals and Scotland games – with increased spectator benefits and revenue streams.
He said: “We’ve shared a couple of bits of information with our friends at the SFA and ultimately what we want to do is give them an option and say we’d love to host football games here.
“We’re open-minded about what the future might be but it’s a matter for the SFA to decide what’s in their best interests.
“What we’ve shown here is even for the small games, with our marketing muscle what we can do is assist to grow that crowd a little bit further. The more we can work in partnership with our friends at the SFA, the more money that’s then generated and re-invested back into grassroots sport.
“No doubt with football coming here, the largest stadium in Scotland, you’re going to drive a lot of value that can go back into football clubs across Scotland. It’s something we’re proud about from rugby but if we can offer it for football that’s fantastic for sport in this country.
“We’ve hosted European Cup Finals here, we’ve hosted outstanding rugby matches including the European Cup Final a few weeks ago but we’ve hosted football games here regularly.
“So we know we can do it, we know we can put on a great show.”
The prospect of Celtic and Rangers fans flooding into the capital could pose logistical issues.
But McKay said: “It would create a special atmosphere which, in a neutral city, could be quite interesting, quite positive. We had the largest travelling Rangers support since Manchester when Hearts played, there were 15,000 Rangers supporters in here.
“We have an outstanding relationship with the police in Scotland but we’d learn from the experience at Hampden, we’d learn from the experience at Celtic Park or Ibrox and make sure we put on the world-class event we always put on.”