GLASGOW'S professional rugby team is to move into a new pounds-11.3m home at Scotstoun in two years.
David Jordan, Glasgow Rugby's chief executive, said that, following a draft agreement reached at a meeting this week, the team will become the anchor tenant at the redeveloped stadium.
The deal was reached despite some concern among officials at Glasgow City Council, which owns the site, about the implications of the turmoil afflicting Scottish rugby.
This apprehension will not be lessened by a reading of amendments put forward to the special meeting of the Scottish Rugby Union on January 30.
These include proposals that could mean the end of professional rugby in Scotland, although these moves do not command widespread support.
Talks have also taken place with Partick Thistle about a short-term groundshare at Firhill, where a number of European rugby ties were played, as well as Glasgow Caledonians' meeting with the Springboks in 1998.
The Scotstoun deal, though, will offer Glasgow full operational and commercial control of the rebuilt 6078-seat venue when the stadium re-opens in 2007. The pitch will still be surrounded by a running track - Scottish and UK Athletics will also have access rights to the venue - but the move represents major progress for the club.
"We've been working hard on this project with Glasgow City Council over the past two years and it is very exciting for professional rugby here, " said Jordan, whose efforts have continued unabated despite being told last summer that he was being made redundant by the SRU as part of a costcutting exercise. "It will give us a home we can call our own and a single location we can use for all Glasgow representative matches - at age grade as well as pro level - along with an administrative and training base.
"We have to thank the city council for being very positive about their involvement in rugby."
The council's involvement in rugby has also included the staging last autumn of a Scotland Test match at Hampden Park for only the second time in a century and efforts to ensure that state-of-the-art indoor facilities being built at Toryglen are suitable for rugby training.
Jordan, meanwhile, expressed confidence that Glasgow Rugby's involvement in the Scotstoun project would go ahead despite Murrayfield's political and financial problems. He discussed the matter with Fred McLeod, who took over last week as both interim chairman and chief executive of the SRU.
"The SRU have been involved in the discussions all the way down the line, because we cannot sign anything as Glasgow Rugby, " he said.
"I have explained to Fred the significant opportunities presented and he is well aware that this is a decision that has to be taken quickly."
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