McKie hopeful of Murrayfield sell-out

The last time the Heineken Cup final was played in Edinburgh in 2005 there were around 16,000 empty seats in the 67,778 capacity Murrayfield stadium as Toulouse defeated Stade Francais 18-12 to lift the trophy for the third time.

This was put down to the match featuring two French sides, and the followers of these clubs being less inclined to travel to the Scottish capital than supporters from clubs in England, Ireland and Wales might have been.

Since then the Heineken Cup final has always been played out in front of capacity crowds – either at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff or at Twickenham in London.

It was confirmed yesterday the showcase event will return to Edinburgh at the climax of next season, and regardless of who makes it to the final, Scottish Rugby chief executive Gordon McKie is confident his organisation will have laid on a day to remember.

“You don’t know who’s going to be there until quite far down the road, and in 2005 it was always a difficult sell having two French teams, but I’m confident that we will have a very, very busy stadium this time,” he said.

“I think the game has grown enormously since then in terms of awareness, interest, how important it is to the clubs and the volume of supporters who follow professional rugby.

“So if the same two teams were to come back to Murrayfield next year we would probably beat the 51,000 we had in 2005, because interest is so much greater now.

“That was then and this is now. Professional rugby has really taken off since 2005. You only have to look at the attendances Stade Francais can get.

“Although next year’s event will be the 14th, it was still in its infancy in 2005. I think there has been huge progress over the past couple of years.”

Scotland won the right to host the 2009 Heineken Cup Final after their bid was preferred by European Rugby Cup, the tournament organisers, ahead of a counter-proposal from France.

“It is a competitive environment and I know the French were very keen to get it, even though they had issues about where they would put it, so we are delighted that our bid has won through,” said McKie.

“The Heineken Cup will generate massive PR as it’s such a high-profile event. It’s constantly going to be in the public eye that it is coming to Edinburgh.”

McKie is hoping the decision to stage such an important rugby match at the home of Scottish rugby might help persuade the governing bodies of some other major sports Murrayfield is an ideal venue for large-scale spectator events.

“This gives us 12 months to build towards hosting a really great event and it is great news for Murrayfield to be back on the radar with a big world-class event.

“We want to show Murrayfield as a world-class venue that can cater for sport and non-sport events of all types. This will demonstrate to the RFL and the NFL and so on that if the ERC are prepared to look at Murrayfield then so should they.”

He continued: “It also must surely give both our teams a bit of a lift to know that if they can go all the way then they will be playing at Murrayfield.

“The sides have made progress this season in terms of results and crowds and they both have very stable squads for next season. So there is plenty to look forward to next season for supporters of Scottish rugby.”