City Ground - Proposed Relocation

Proposed Relocation

In June 2007, Nottingham Forest announced plans to leave the City Ground after more than 100 years, with the aim of Nottingham having a ground suitable to hold matches for the 2018 World Cup, for which England is a bidding nation. The City Ground was deemed unsuitable, even with expansion, due to the areas that needed to be available for fan parks around the stadium; the City Ground is in a dense urban area, surrounded by private housing, businesses and industry. The initial plan was to move to a new purpose built stadium in Clifton towards the south of the city, forming part of a new housing and leisure development. However, this location was soon changed to a site at Gamston due to logistical problems surrounding plans for a Clifton ground, such as potential matchday pressures on the proposed Nottingham Express Transit tram extension and the A453. Plans for the Gamston ground were exhibitied to the FA World Cup committee in 2009, and Nottingham's plans for a new ground and waterside Fan Park using the River Trent, meant they were successful in getting through to the next stage of potential host cities for the 2018 World Cup bid, even beating plans by neighbours Derby and Leicester, who already had new stadiums but were eliminated from the Host City pool. However, objection from Gamston residents and its out-of-town location has meant that more recently, this Stadium site has changed again, with the City Council looking towards an area of wasteland currently being redeveloped, known as Eastside, around a mile to the East of the city centre near the Sneinton area. Although the plans are still preliminary, any such ground would seat 40,000–50,000 people.

There were previously plans to rebuild the City Ground's Main Stand (on the condition that Forest return to the Premier League) – a plan which would make the ground up to around 40,000 capacity. However, Forest now justified the new ground plan over the previously proposed City Ground Main Stand extension by suggesting that the current 'new' stands (Trent End, Brian Clough Stand, Bridgford Stand) are in a state which, 10 years down the line, would be money intensive on club funds, along with other complex FIFA host ground restrictions. Much of the funding for the brand new stadium however would be from the private sector or Nottingham City Council.

Possible stadium names have even been suggested by some supporters, including the Brian Clough Arena, the New City Ground, City of Nottingham Stadium, and the Robin Hood Arena.

Due to the 2018 FIFA World Cup being awarded to Russia, plans for a new ground have been at least temporarily shelved, with the original plan of rebuilding the Main Stand now being considered in the event of Forest winning promotion to the Premier League.