40,000-plus Celtic Park tickets sold
Two -thirds of the tickets for Saturday’ sGuinness Pro14 final at Celtic Park have been sold, meaning the clash between Glasgow and Leinster will set a new attendance record.
With more than 40,000 expected, the game will be played in front of the largest crowd for a club match involving a Scottish team on Scottish soil, surpassing the 37,881 attendance for Edinburgh’s Heineken Cup quarter-final with Toulouse at Murrayfield in 2012.
The Guinness Pro14 Grand Final between Glasgow Warriors and Leinster at Celtic Park this weekend is on course to be the best-attended final in history.
A total of 46,092 supporters travelled to Dublin’ s Aviv a Stadium for last year’ s showdown between Leinster and S carlets, but The Scotsman understands more than 40,000 briefs for Saturday’ s clash have already been sold.
Tickets have been snapped up since August last year, suggesting that neutral fans are just as keen to attend the showpiece final, which will be played in front of the largest crowd for a club match involving a Scottish team on Scottish soil, surpassing the 37,881 attendance for Edinburgh’s Heineken Cup match with Toulouse at BT Murrayfield in 2012.
The historic match, which kicks off at 6:30 pm on Saturday evening–shortly after the Scottish Cup final between Hearts and Celtic at Hampden – is the first Pro14 final to be held at a traditional football venue as well as the first major rugby match to be staged at Celtic Park.
An estimated total of 100,000 people are expected to attend both events.
Pro14 chief executive Martin Anayi said: “Right from the beginning, Glasgow has proved a really enticing venue for our final and we can see the appeal that Celtic Park has had on rugby fans who want to experience this incredible stadium for themselves.
“Now that supporters of Glasgow Warriors and Leinster know their teams are in the final, we’ve seen a huge demand for tickets in the leadup to one of the most exciting games i nth erugbyc alendar. Immediately after our semi-final son Friday and Saturday we saw an incredible rate of sales that we haven’t seen in the lead-up to the last three finals.
“If we can break our previous record then that would see an amazing 100,000 football and rugby fans converging on Glasgow in a single day, making the city Europe’s undisputed sporting capital this weekend.”
Dominic McKay, Scottish Rugby’ s chief operating officer and Pro 14 board director, said: “This match is a unique opportunity to witness a worldclass rugby final at a stadium renowned for having one of the greatest atmospheres in world sport.”
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell admitted it had been a “slightly surreal experience” seeing rugby posts set up on the Celtic Park pitch, adding: “Whatever the results at the weekend, the city of Glasgow will be the real winner. To be able to attract 100,000 sports fans to these two events would be a magnificent achievement.”