A group of businessmen have made a formal approach about launching a third professional Scottish side and basing it in Aberdeen. As things stand, there is no realistic prospect of the proposal going ahead, but the development should add impetus to plans to create a new community stadium in the city, which would then be shared by the existing football club and the new rugby union team.

In the meantime, maintaining interest in top-level rugby in the northeast of Scotland may well depend on plans to bring next season’s autumn international against Canada to Pittodrie, the home of Aberdeen Football Club.

The locally based consortium has made a formal approach to both the Scottish Rugby Union and Aberdeen FC about launching the side, and will meet the football club’s board on December 7 to discuss the plan. The idea is to share Pittodrie with the football club, which is likely to scupper the proposal since the pitch there is in such a poor state that they will not let even the football side’s second XI play on it. The potential damage from rugby would obviously be far worse.

However, Aberdeen City Council is working on plans for a community stadium that would solve the problem, and the extra impetus that comes from a second professional sport wanting to use the facility could speed up the project.

The latest proposal is to build the facility on the Linksfield site on the city’s North Beach, next to the site identified for a “Centre for Sports” that is also planned. At the moment, there is no timescale for the project. The union has given the plans a cautious welcome but Gordon McKie, the chief executive, has described the talks as both tentative and exploratory, noting in particular the problems with finding somewhere for the team to play.

“Should circumstances change, Scottish Rugby would be pleased to engage in further discussions and assess any relevant funding proposal on its own merits,” he added.

In fact they are likely to welcome the proposal as long as they are convinced that it is supported by people who are rich enough to be able to support the team for a lengthy period, and willing to spend their money on the side. Since the union felt forced to close down the Borders it has become increasingly obvious that there is going to be a problem developing young players with only two teams for them to play in.

For a time the great hope was that plans for a Scottish side based in London and playing in the Magners League would come to the union’s rescue but it looks increasingly as though the English rugby authorities will refuse to back the proposal to host a rival tournament in their own capital. If they do, there is no realistic prospect of it going ahead.

Though there has been a plan to start a side in Stirling, that fell apart during the summer when the consortium behind that project and the union failed to reach agreement on compensation for releasing international players – exactly the dispute that has recently been settled in England and is still an issue in Wales.

It is understood that the consortiums backing the failed Stirling bid and the new Aberdeen one are not connected.