Scottish Rugby has applied for planning permission to build a new playing venue in Murrayfield, Edinburgh.
The new 7,800-seat stadium will be the home of Edinburgh Rugby and will be built on land currently used as training pitches. The planning application, submitted to City of Edinburgh Council, is for a fan-focused playing venue that will incorporate a new 3G surface and covered spectator stands around all four sides of the ground.
Edinburgh will play its home matches on the international pitch at BT Murrayfield for the coming 2018/19 season, with the aim of commencing the 2019/20 campaign in the new purpose-built venue.
Scottish Rugby has designed the project using flexible infrastructure and is open to making the space available to other users from the wider rugby community in Scotland, and the possibility of other sports as well.
Dominic McKay, Scottish Rugby’s chief operating officer, said, “We are incredibly excited to be in a position to be able to submit this application to give Edinburgh a new home.
“After many years of exhausting all the potential stadium and playing ground options for Edinburgh in the local area, we have taken the initiative and will be investing ourselves to develop a venue that can help the team to grow and provide a great spectator experience.
“We are fortunate to have space within the BT Murrayfield campus to comfortably accommodate this planned new facility and retain practice pitches for all elements of rugby. We see this as adding increased flexibility to the BT Murrayfield site and believe we have submitted a robust, sensible application and hope it will be viewed favorably.”
June 8, 2018
