Scottish Rugby chief Mark Dodson predicts doing nothing to bring in more money to Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors would be "dangerous" for the future of Scottish professional rugby.

Murrayfield will seek approval from its members on Friday, October 28, to bring in private investors to boost the budgets of their marquee club sides.

The green light from the special general meeting at the home of Scottish rugby - requiring a two-thirds majority of no less than 106 vote - would start the process of finding money-men willing to boost the coffers of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

And Dodson has warned of a "bleak" future for the clubs if they cannot operate a bigger budget.

The move comes as top flight rugby in England and France has pulled far ahead of the rest of the northern hemisphere clubs in attracting players.

The premise is a simple binary question to the Scottish Rugby members - to be allowed to attract external investment into the professional sides, and the associated academies which run in various locations in Scotland.

Dodson told STV: "There are differences of opinion in Scottish rugby.

"Some people think there is too much control by the union over the pro teams, some people think that the control we have is ideal.

"What we are saying is that we believe, at this point in time, that we have to go external to get some help.

"The alternative to doing something is to do nothing, and I believe that is a whole lot more dangerous."

For their money, any investor would operate the club but not gain any more than a 49% stake. Scottish Rugby would retain ultimate control.

Dodson says that keeping the best Scottish players in the country is a major driving force behind the proposal, and that investors would not be given free rein to flood a team with overseas players.

While no talks will take place with any potential suitors until after the approval of the SGM, Dodson predicted that the expanding rugby markets of Japan and the USA would be a focus in their search.

He said: "We are going to protect the Scottish pipeline of players coming through the academies and we are going to make sure that all our players are released for the international games.

"There will be very clear safeguards in our sales documentation and we are going to make sure that we only have a partner who shares our values.

"We are not going out looking for money from anybody - we will be very selective about who we talk to and who we bring in.

"There is a clear appetite for sports franchises around the globe - and certainly from the Far East and North America.

"We will look principally at those two markets."

In the last two years Edinburgh have seen stars David Denton (Bath), Tim Visser (Harlequins) and Matt Scott (Gloucester) move south, while the Warriors have lost Niko Matawalu (Bath), Leone Nakarawa (Racing 92) and Sean Maitland (London Irish, now Saracens) to the lure of the more lucrative leagues.

The French Top 14 recently signed a broadcast deal worth £76m a year, while the Aviva Premiership is raking in £40m annually from BT Sport.

By contrast the Pro 12 deal brings in around £11m per season - less than £1m per club.

Nonetheless Edinburgh and Glasgow's competitors in the Pro 12 have managed to widen their own buying power. Leinster brought in Maori All Black Jamison Gibson-Park during the summer, Ulster splashed out on New Zealand's Charles Piutau and Springbok Marcell Coetzee.

That is a market that Dodson wants to see the Scottish clubs break into.

He said: "Our ambition is to keep the best players we produce and this will help enormously.

"But we also have to have the ability to go for the high quality foreign players who are available on the global market so that we can stay at the top tier of the game.

"I think you are finding that the Pro 12 is becoming a more competitive environment.

"Ulster and Leinster in particular have been signing some extraordinarily good talent.

"We have to work even harder just to stay at the top level in the Pro 12.

"When you then get to Europe and include the English and French clubs, it shows you how difficult that has become.

"I think there is clear water between us at the moment but I think we have the ability to catch up.

"And the alternative of not trying to catch up is pretty bleak."

"Due diligence" is a phrase Dodson is keen to play up. After five years in the top job at Murrayfield he understands the shake-up of the pro clubs could be legacy-defining.

There is a weight of history on this decision that he is keen to show his awareness of as well. Bob Carruthers and his bizarre 12 months in control of Edinburgh Rugby from 2006 to 2007 may be airbrushed from the official club story, but there is enough remembered in the Murrayfield corridors for it to still send a chill up the spine.

But the more prescient history lesson in Dodson's mind is that of Scotland trying to play financial catch-up to England in football.

The parallels between the rocketing revenues south of the border in rugby now, and in football in the 90s, are there for all to see.

Scottish football chased the big bucks only for a succession of clubs to either go into administration or, in a few cases, out of business altogether.

Dodson believes the lessons are clear enough heed in his search for investors. Murrayfield may only be a mile as the crow flies from Tynecastle, but there will be no Vladimir Romanov-type figures taking over a rugby franchise.

Dodson told STV: "I think the lessons are clear and we are trying to learn from history across the English Premiership - both football and rugby - and also what happened here in Scotland.

"We are trying to set our stall out early and say 'we have a clear problem, we can see it coming down the line, we are asking you early and we want your permission to do this'."

Football does provide some positive learning experiences for the investment in Scottish pro rugby though.

Dodson is a big admirer of Major League Soccer in the USA - particularly the ownership model whereby the league maintains central control of the franchise clubs, while selling stakes to private investors.

Each team is operated by their investors, who are essentially shareholders in the whole entity, and this is how Scottish Rugby envisages the relationship between pro club, investor-partner and the ruling body to work.

But MLS is also a model that is admired by the Pro 12 for its ability to carve a niche within an American market dominated by bigger, more established sports.

For Pro 12 to grow as a whole, it hopes to learn lessons from the rapid rise of soccer in the States.

Dodson added: "I think MLS is a really heartening story to anyone looking to build sports franchises.

"They are in a hugely competitive market over there but they have managed to carve out a proportion of that market for themselves.

"And they have done it in a really smart and modern way.

"We are looking at the Pro 12 all the time to try and improve it as a league - we make no secret of the fact we are looking at the North American market.

"We want to take lessons from around the world, not only to make our league more attractive, but equally to find out what the best models are for investment in our two pro teams."