SCOTTISH football could benefit from the marketing expertise that has seen their rugby counterparts sell out eight consecutive internationals if their showpiece matches move from Hampden to BT Murrayfield in future, it was suggested yesterday.

Scottish Rugby this week announced that record numbers, more than half a million fans, had attended professional rugby matches involving Edinburgh, Glasgow Warriors and Scotland in this country in the past season.

Murrayfield, which has a capacity of 67, 144, was full for the games against New Zealand and Australia in the Autumn Internationals and also in the meeting with England in the Six Nations Championship. But the visit of Samoa last year was also sold-out as a result of some innovative ticketing initiatives.

The Scotland national football team have struggled to lure supporters to Hampden for competitive fixtures against lesser nations in the past and important Russia 2018 qualifiers against Slovenia and Malta were played in half-full stadiums.

The Scottish Football Association is currently considering whether to move their international games to Murrayfield when their lease at Hampden expires after the Euro 2020 finals.

Toni Blackhurst, the head of marketing and sponsorship at Scottish Rugby, believes both football and rugby would flourish in future from sharing their know-how and working together at the same venue.

“Scotland have had five sell-out games this season – and that follows on from three last season so we are now on a run of eight consecutive sell-outs,” she said.

“The on-field performance – the Scotland team have won seven out of their last 11 games – has obviously helped

“But we have got a fantastic ticketing strategy and that is driving the results that are evident in our eight sell-outs. We developed a season pass four years ago and that allows our most loyal fans to buy a ticket for a Scotland game and come to every game that season.

“We sold 20,674 season passes – a 35 per cent increase on the previous year. We can’t physically sell any more which is fantastic. We have also developed Autumn Test passes, Six Nations passes, other ways that fans can make sure they can see Scotland throughout the year.

“That ticketing strategy has worked very hard for us to fill BT Murrayfield over consecutive games.

“At the Samoa game last year kids got in for £1. We make sure we are affordable. We want to make sure we are attractive whether you are a new fan or a loyal fan.

“To sell out all three Autumn Test games was absolutely fantastic. It is easy to sell-out a Scotland v England game, but not Scotland v Samoa.

“Some tier two nations would traditionally have had smaller crowds. But 96 per cent of people who bought a Scotland season pass came to that Samoa game. Previously they may have chosen the other two games and decided not to come to all three. But we knew there would be a real demand.”

Blackhurst added: Everyone wants to see successful teams and enjoy watching their national team whether it is football or rugby. It is good for Scotland to have successful teams.

“We have spent a lot of time working on our understanding of our audience, trying to know far more about our fans and listening to them so we appreciate what they are wanting.

“Naturally, there will be an element of a crossover there. There will fans who enjoy both sports and there will be fans who only one.

“I think we can both learn from each other in terms of how we communicate and . There will be some learnings that we can take from each other to make sure that we can maximise our crowds.”