Rugby matches at Celtic Park could become a regular feature on the Glasgow sporting calendar if Glasgow Warriors can compete consistently at the highest level, according to the team’s owners.

Currently bidding to turn BT Murrayfield into the home of Scottish football as well as rugby, Dominic McKay, the chief operating officer of Scottish Rugby, indicated that the ambitions of his organisation have grown ever greater as he indicated that a successful Grand Final could be the first of many rugby matches at Glasgow’s biggest sporting arena.

“The first thing to do is have an outstanding success of the PRO14 final and a great showpiece that will be for the city and for Scotland,” he said, when asked whether Celtic Park could be used for future rugby internationals.

“Where we might see potential is Glasgow Warriors. Glasgow Warriors are selling out their games in Scotstoun just now and 8000 people packed in creates an amazing atmosphere and we’ve got ambitious plans to extend that further.

“We’d like to get to 12,000 so we’re in detailed discussions just now with the City [of Glasgow council], who are our landlords to expand it further, but there may come an opportunity if the success of the PRO14 is what we believe it will be, that a Glasgow Warriors game could be played at Celtic Park for the right quarter or semi-final of a cup, so we’re open-minded about that.”

Ahead of their annual awards dinner last night it was certainly clear that organisers of the competition contested among teams from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, South Africa and Italy believe they have achieved a major coup in persuading Scotland’s football champions to let them stage the PRO14’s end-of-season Grand Final at Celtic’s home ground on the same day that the club could potentially be seeking to complete a treble Treble across the city.

“We had a really fantastic bid process and we received some really, really in-depth bids from different parties and the one that stood out to us was from the Scottish Rugby Union, Glasgow Warriors and the city of Glasgow,” said Martin Anayi, the PRO14’s chief executive.

“When there was an opportunity to take it into Celtic Park we felt that was far too good an opportunity to turn down, so we’re thrilled we managed to get it away.”

The clash with football’s Scottish Cup final on May 25 next year carries obvious logistical implications for policing and transport, particularly if supporters of both sporting codes are travelling at similar times, but Anayi expressed confidence that no issues would arise as a result.

“We’ve worked with the city and the police and I think they’re really happy with the two events being in two separate parts of the city and I believe the kick-off for the cup final will be earlier in the day, TBC and our kick off will be around 5.30 to 6. So, there will be time in between, but we’re working very closely with the organising committee, the police and the council to make sure it goes off without a hitch.”

While Dublin’s 51,700-seater Aviva Stadium has been filled for the last two Grand Finals, selling out Celtic Park represents a step up and while Anayi alluded to the potential that the football club’s historic connection with Ireland could have a help in that, he said that the emphasis is on creating an unmissable occasion.

“A Glasgow vs Leinster final would not be the worst thing in the world but the most important thing is to create an event that, regardless of the teams involved, people will buy tickets to see a spectacle. If you make it about an event people will buy regardless of the city and who is in the final,” he said.

That is part of a process of seeking to build the PRO14, which has grown rapidly from its Celtic roots – flirting with the possibility of American expansion as well as introducing Italian and South African teams – into the leading domestic league in the world.

“If you look at how you measure that, I think with a lot of metrics we are already there, in terms of the competition on the pitch, in terms of coaches that go on to work at national level, so a lot of metrics are going in the right direction,” Anayi asserted, on the back of a season which saw PRO14 teams win both the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup, while Ireland also completed a Six Nations Championship Grand Slam.

“Off field, we’ve made big strides to close the gap with England and France from a commercial point of view and all of that is to make sure that we can return that revenue back the Unions so that they can continue to invest in their clubs, regions, provinces to keep the best players and coaches there. I absolutely believe that it will be, if it is not already on certain metrics, the best competition in the world.”