The target to beat stands at 10,000--as that was the crowd that turned up to New Anniesland in 1922 to see the Inter City
At that time Edinburgh could field a winger who could certainly hold his own with Thom or Max regarding pace--one Eric Liddell-who later won the Olympic Gold medal over 400 metres in 47.2s-not bad speed there
In case you think this is fantasy see the attached grainy press pic of the day with John Beattie's house in the backgrond



15,000 crowd would be ideal Boxing Day gift for SRU

THE SCOTSMAN CHALLENGES
Published Date: 23 December 2008
By DAVID FERGUSON
BOXING Day, 2008, is the date Edinburgh and Glasgow hope marks a new horizon for professional rugby in Scotland with a record crowd attracted to Murrayfield for the first leg of the David Lloyd 1872 Cup.
The professional game has struggled to take off in Scotland for various reasons, all of which come back to a failure to energise the large swathe of public who before the game split into amateur and professional just had rugby at its heart. How many that represented was impossible to gauge – the 67,000 at Murrayfield often seemed like a wholly different community to that spending Saturday afternoons at club grounds across the country.

The biggest crowd for a pro club game in Scotland is currently 51,326, for the Heineken Cup final, which returns to Edinburgh in May, between Toulouse and Stade Francais in 2005. The largest for a pro game involving a Scottish team remains the 17,174 that trooped into Murrayfield on December 20, 2003 for the Celtic Cup final, where Ulster defeated Edinburgh.

That figure has remained many miles from any imagined by the city sides, far less the now-defunct Border Reivers, in what has become declining figures since. But, with the help of a ticket scheme, where supporters who bought a brief for the recent autumn Test matches could also apply for a free ticket to the Boxing Day clash, there is talk of a stunning 15,000-plus attendance at Murrayfield on Friday night.

Ian Riddoch, the Glasgow chief executive, said: "Crowds at both Glasgow and Edinburgh have grown exponentially this season which is actually bucking the trend at many clubs in England – Edinburgh's game with Wasps at Murrayfield had a bigger crowd than the reverse fixture for example at Adams Park.

"The Christmas and New Year games are huge for us though, to find out where pro rugby in Scotland is. It is hard to say how many people will be at either game. Obviously, with the ticket link-up to the autumn Tests we are hopeful of those 15,000 or so people who have gone to the trouble of getting their Magners League ticket, on top of the season ticket holders, all coming along on Boxing Day, many to their first Magners League match.

"My hope is that our boys put on a really good show and persuade people to come to Firhill for the return on January 2."

Any kind of Boxing Day crowd over 10,000, irrespective of how many go on a free ticket, will be a major success, but as any supporters with a reasonable memory will appreciate, the real test is the same as it is for the coaches and players; consistency.

Hughenden and Myreside, not to mention the Caledonia and Borders venues, regularly welcomed 5,000 people in the early days, before the SRU's poor management witnessed a fall in the 21st century as attendances in Ireland and Wales rose.

It took the Bob Carruthers consortium, where Riddoch was brought in as marketing manager, to show them the way. Average crowds moved from under 2,000 to over 3,000 in their 2006-7 season, and after another dip when the SRU axed Carruthers the interest in Andy Robinson's side has steadily risen to close in on 5,000 this term, and even though many of the 7,711 Heineken Cup crowd against Wasps did not pay full price it was still a milestone.

Glasgow's average has risen from 1,600 two years ago to 2,100 last season to now top 3,000. Riddoch will be disappointed if Firhill does not house more than 5,000 for the return of the David Lloyd 1872 Cup on January 2 and if the team remains in the hunt for the league title an average above 4,000 could be achievable by the season's finish in May.

Riddoch said: "Growing crowds is not easy, but having got rid of the uncertainty of which teams would still be around next season has helped. Everyone knows we are at Firhill, Edinburgh play at Murrayfield; we started selling season tickets in April this year for the first time, and people knew what they'd be getting and where.

"We have better customer research and communication with the supporters, are also improving our community relations – since launching in June, 2007, our 'Champion Warriors' programme now has 111 clubs and schools signed up – and player appearances have dramatically increased at Glasgow and Edinburgh.

"And we cannot underestimate the fact that both teams are playing good rugby and competing better on the field, which is a lot easier to market than when we were struggling at the bottom of the table.

"We're a long way from proving we've made pro rugby work, and while the hope is to beat the 5,200 record against Saracens last season I'll still be disappointed if we don't fill Firhill on January 2 (capacity is 9,000] because I believe we have a fantastic product.

"But that is why these two games at Murrayfield and Firhill are so important for Scottish rugby. This will be a true barometer of how far pro rugby has come and perhaps give us an idea of where we can go."

Tickets will be on sale for the Boxing Day derby right up until kick-off, and Edinburgh officials insisted that they were fully prepared to cope with an attendance around three times their previous best despite lengthy queues, confusion and frustration for well-attended games in the past.

More turnstiles will be open, but there are no tickets on sale at the turnstiles. Tickets can only be purchased from the Murrayfield Ticket Centre off Roseburn Street.

To help persuade people not to arrive at kick-off time, Edinburgh are ramping up the pre-match build-up with the new big screens, featuring interviews and match highlights, and the Murrayfield President's Suite being opened as a public bar for supporters. It may be ironic that by attracting new fans, Edinburgh will bid to dent the title hopes of their Scottish rivals, but that level of competition is what the teams need now to give Scottish pro rugby the credibility it has yearned for.

This article was originally posted on 23-Dec-2008, 09:04 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 23-Dec-2008, 09:24.