Nottingham Forest’s plans to expand the City Ground have been approved, taking the club a significant step closer to a redevelopment that has been discussed for at least seven years. The club is aiming for a capacity of more than 52,000, which would mean up to 21,300 more people heading to the stadium on matchdays — an increase of 68%.
For supporters, the wait has been a long one. The last time the City Ground saw major redevelopment work, Stuart Pearce and Stan Collymore were still playing for the club. The ground has regularly reached capacity since Forest returned to the Premier League, and in recent years the only notable additions have been a temporary stand built out of shipping containers and some cosmetic improvements.
There is also a strong sense of déjà vu. Permission was granted a little over a year ago to increase capacity to 35,000, but that scheme never went ahead: after several consecutive seasons in the top flight and a European campaign, the club’s ambitions grew. The new proposals, unveiled only months after the previous ones were rubber-stamped, do not mean the redevelopment has to start from scratch, but their sheer scale required fresh planning permission and extra consideration from the authorities.
Much of the scrutiny has focused on the area around the ground. In Lady Bay there are long-running problems with parking, and ward councillor Richard Mallender said that while he was happy to see the stadium expand, the volume of traffic regularly led to buses being cancelled and residents being trapped in their homes. “We’re not here to block things, we don’t want to stop things,” he said. “What we want to do is make sure this really successful team have the stadium they need, but that it also works for the people who live here.”
He and other councillors back the introduction of a controlled parking zone, which could see parking banned within a 25-minute walk of the ground for four hours either side of kick-off, except for residents and businesses. Forest are set to contribute £990,000 towards establishing the CPZ, part of a £4.1m package intended to get more people to the ground without using their cars. Councillors are sceptical about how well that “modal shift” strategy will work, and it is set to be monitored by a new transport working group made up of the club, councils and other stakeholders.
Getting tens of thousands of fans across the River Trent is a separate problem. Highways authorities rejected a proposal to permanently close two traffic lanes on Trent Bridge, and the planning report states that “the pedestrian capacity of Trent Bridge is the principal constraint on the development”. Rather than scupper the application, the issue has been made a planning condition: the club can proceed with the expansion provided it comes up with another solution — not necessarily a new pedestrian and cycle bridge, although councils on either side of the river have made clear that is their preferred option.
That has sparked fears among fans that Forest would have to build a bridge before redeveloping the stadium. That is not the case. The condition is structured so the club cannot begin demolition work until a new crowd flow solution — which may or may not be a bridge — has been agreed, and it would not be allowed to occupy the stadium above its current capacity until that solution is delivered. In effect, the stadium and any hypothetical bridge could be built at the same time. A further provision allows for temporary measures for up to 18 months if a permanent solution looks set to take longer than the rebuild itself. The club has not said what it intends to do, but East Midlands mayor Claire Ward suggested this week that her office could contribute, saying any investment would need a business case and a closer look at the details.
Chairman of the Nottingham Forest Supporters’ Trust, Asif Naidu, described the plans as “hugely exciting” and said the travel issues were “clearly not insurmountable”. The trust, he added, wanted to work with the club, its members and the wider supporter group to understand what can be done and how supporters can help overcome those hurdles.
Crowd flow is the biggest barrier to getting spades in the ground, but it is not the only one. The plans involve demolishing the Britannia Boathouse, home to the Nottingham Rowing Club. Forest have agreed to provide like-for-like facilities somewhere else, which the rowing club supports, but planning documents say that although some alternative locations have been discussed, nothing has been confirmed. The legal agreement drawn up states that the current boathouse cannot be demolished until either a replacement is built, or temporary facilities are found followed by a permanent replacement within three years.
Unresolved too is the question of who owns the land the stadium sits on. After a public row over rent two years ago — which even prompted talk of relocation from the City Ground — an agreement was reached to buy the freehold from the city council. That deal was based on the club getting permission to expand the stadium, which it has now been given twice, but at the time of writing the deal had yet to go through and the council still owns the land. There is nothing to suggest it cannot be finalised.
No date has been set for the redevelopment to begin, and many supporters may still feel they will believe it when they see it. One difference this time is that the latest plans align more closely with the vision of club owner Evangelos Marinakis. Speaking ahead of Forest’s home game against Coventry, head coach Oliver Glasner said he had discussed the stadium expansion with Marinakis when the two met earlier in the week. “It’s great news for the club, it’s great news for the city, it’s great news for our supporters and I think everybody is now looking forward to when the works will start,” Glasner said.