Just imagine what an atmosphere like this could do for Eck and the Scotland football team, Keith
RUGGER CHIEF GIVES HIS RIGHT TO REPLY
AFTER a decade of disappointment against England, the Daily Record’s Keith Jackson picked the perfect day to experience the very best of BT Murrayfield on Saturday, alongside 67,000 other passionate fans in Scotland’s biggest stadium.
Gregor Townsend and his players are building something special and we saw that come to the fore against England, especially in a blistering first-half performance. “An epic sporting occasion,” Keith reported and we at Scottish Rugby couldn’t agree more.
While Scotland were setting records on the pitch, BT Murrayfield itself made the event even more special, both inside and out. BT Murrayfield has been a 67,144 sell-out for the last eight Scotland rugby internationals and many fans arrive several hours before kick-off and make a day of it.
The fan village on the back pitches had big screens showing the Ireland v Wales match on Saturday and fans of all backgrounds – young and old, men and women, families, Scots and English – gathered to watch the game together.
They also visited the numerous and varied food and drinks stands; listened to the live music on offer and soaked up the relaxed and sociable atmosphere. For many, that’s as much a part of the day out as the game itself.
The feel-good factor continued inside Scotland’s biggest stadium as the fans roared the team on to a first Calcutta Cup win in 11 attempts. It was electric at times. As Keith himself said: “It was impossible to be a Scotsman inside Murrayfield on Saturday evening and not be completely seduced by the magic of it all”. Just imagine what an atmosphere like that could do for Alex McLeish and the Scotland football team.
We would love to get the chance to make that prospect a reality. We’ve indicated to our friends at the Scottish FA that we’d like the honour of hosting more major football matches, adding to the many successes we’ve had in previous years, because we’ve got a great track record of success.
Frank Rijkaard brought his Barcelona team to Scotland in 2007 and 57,000 fans came to Murrayfield to watch them beat Hearts in a friendly.
The Dutchman later raved about that experience. A year later Pep Guardiola was the manager, his first game in charge also at Murrayfield against Hibs.
Celtic and Hearts have both held various European ties here, with Hearts, most recently, playing SPFL matches at BT Murrayfield while work continued at Tynecastle and the fans have spoken really positively about their experiences.
Scottish football fans have also had their say, with numerous supporters’ polls in recent weeks overwhelmingly showing most fans want BT Murrayfield to become Scotland’s joint home for both football and rugby.
We’ve hosted other major events here over the years – and we’ve just announced the Rolling Stones will be playing here this summer – and enjoy a positive working relationship with the police and other key stakeholders when it comes to managing big crowds and putting on big events.
There will, of course, be nuances about Scottish football that we will adapt to but, working closely with the SFA, we are confident we can make an enormous success of bringing bigoccasion football to Scotland’s capital.
Transport links to and from the stadium are excellent, with trams taking supporters right to the front gates. We successfully managed the direct and safe transportation of 14,000 Rangers fans to BT Murrayfield for their recent league game against Hearts.
If we were given the chance to host Scotland internationals and Scottish Cup semi-finals and finals, we would combine our own expertise with those experienced in regularly arranging football fixtures of that nature. We know it will be a team effort.
The football matches we’ve hosted of late have all passed without incident. We speak regularly with the local residents around BT Murrayfield and have heard no major objections to the prospect of more football matches being staged in this part of the country.
We will continue to make our case to the SFA over the next few months and hopefully after 2020 we can look forward to hosting the Scotland team in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Working closely together from a world-class stadium, football and rugby can make the whole of Scotland proud and create amazing sporting occasions that can inspire the nation.
Working together we can make Scotland proud