Edinburgh looking to learn from Warriors

EDINBURGH managing director Jonny Petrie admits the capital club have taken a lot of lessons from the way Glasgow Warriors have done things as they aim to re-engage with the city’s rugby community going forward.

On Thursday, plans were announced to move into a new stadium within the grounds of Murrayfield. That will happen in time for the 2019/20 season, subject to planning permission, with the stadium having a capacity of 7,800.

Edinburgh have also rebranded with a new badge and will be switching to blue, white and a touch of burnt orange in terms of kit colour from this coming season.

In recent years, Edinburgh have struggled to sell their product to the wider community in the city, crowds around the 3,500-4,000 mark being commonplace at both Murrayfield and Myreside.

That has been at the same time as Glasgow have created a real connection with the area’s supporters and, in the season just gone, Scotstoun was regularly a 7,351 sell-out, with 10,000 squeezing in for the Guinness Pro14 semi-final loss against the Scarlets last month.

‘Glasgow have done a great job and there are a lot of lessons we can take from the way they have engaged with supporters,’ said Petrie. ‘We feel things are slightly different over here, but there are a number of untapped markets that we need to go to — such as the large student population in the city, while there is a latent audience who used to come, but don’t any more and we must try and re-engage with them.

‘First and foremost it is about having a product that people want to come and watch and success breeds success. We can do all of the marketing we want, but you need the team on the pitch to be performing or it makes life difficult.

‘We have seen the playing performances go up a level under Richard Cockerill and I believe the team can get better and better.’