Glasgow Rocking for Double Final

It will bring the curtain down on the European Rugby season and Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 Final in Glasgow will cap another successful season for the tournament, as well as one of the teams.
It will also be a unique occasion with Glasgow hosting Leinster against Glasgow at Celtic Park only ninety minutes after Heart of Midlothian and Celtic meet in the Scottish FA Cup Final at Hampden.
The historic rugby clash, which kicks off at 6.30pm, will be the first time the Guinness PRO14 showpiece event has been staged at a traditional football venue and the first major rugby match to be held at Celtic Park.
The crossover between sport and facility echoes the Heineken Champions’ Cup being played at the Newcastle United home of St James’ Park two weeks ago.
Already, the crowd will exceed the 34,500 that attended the 2016 Guinness PRO12 final between Connacht and Leinster in BT Murrayfield in Edinburgh. The target has now been set to beat last year’s record crowd of 46,092 from Dublin.
“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,” said Martin Anayi, CEO of PRO14 Rugby.
“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 lead-up to one of the most exciting games in the rugby calendar.”
“Immediately after our Semi-finals on 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.”
The stadia are 4.4 kilometres apart and would take just under an hour to walk between.The popu;lation of Glasgow is half that of Dublin at 600,000, giving an indication of just how much of an impact staging the two games will be.
It’s a precursor to Dublin next year which will have over 130,000 attending the College Football Classic between Notre Dame and Navy at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening, followed by the All Ireland Football Final at Croke Park the following day.
“This match is a unique opportunity to witness a world-class rugby final at a stadium renowned for having one of the greatest atmospheres in world sport,” said Dominic McKay, Scottish Rugby Chief Operating Officer and PRO14 Board Director.
“With a spectacular pre-match show to set the pulses racing, it’s also an ideal chance for non-rugby fans to experience all the drama and passion of an international sporting event.”
“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,” added Peter Lawell, CEO of Celtic and one of those who will be attending both games.
“It has been a slightly surreal experience watching rugby posts being erected on the Celtic Park turf, and we’ve been working very closely with the Guinness PRO14 team to ensure that this match is a truly memorable experience for fans, no matter the result.”
The 2019 Guinness PRO14 Final at Celtic Park is being supported by Scottish Rugby Union, EventScotland and Glasgow Life, while the Final Series Partners for this year have included Energia and Westland.