The meeting came after last week's warning that one of Scotland's three professional sides will disappear unless £1 million of private funding can be found.
McKie initially met with a delegation of players, including experienced pros Jon Petrie, Dave Hewett and Paul Thomson, and then accepted their insistence that discussions with players had to be conducted in future through the new Scottish Professional Rugby Association. McKie had refused to acknowledge the body up until that point, but then called its chief executive Jim Hay into Murrayfield to meet with the SRU's human resources director Jackie Anderson. Hay then met the country's pro players at the nearby ice rink.
Hay told The Scotsman: "Mr McKie hasn't given the players any guarantees, but he did make it clear that the last thing the SRU want is to go to two teams and that he is seriously seeking ways to avoid that happening.
"He remains confident that investors can be found and that the three teams will be able to remain next season. He is not in a position to be able to give guarantees, but the main thing from the players' perspective is that they are no longer sitting in the dark, not knowing what their employers are thinking.
"Mr McKie has said he will meet with us again next week and keep the players up to speed."
McKie told the players that if a team does have to be cut, the SRU will endeavour to move as many contracted players as possible to the remaining teams.