New Nottingham Forest Stadium

This article is about the proposed new Football ground. For the former Cricket ground, see Forest New Ground.

New Nottingham Forest Stadium
Location	Nottingham
Architect	Benoy
Capacity	41,500 (Net capacity)

The New Nottingham Forest Stadium was a proposed football stadium which would have been built in Nottingham. Several locations were discussed, with the hope that the ground would host matches at the 2018 World Cup had England's bid been successful. The stadium would also have been home of Nottingham Forest football club, who currently play at the City Ground. It was announced in the Autumn of 2008 that the club's proposed new stadium would only be built if England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup was successful. With England's bid unsuccessful, the plan changed to instead rebuild the Main Stand at the current City Ground and raise the capacity to around 40,000.^[1]

History

In June 2007, Nottingham Forest announced plans to leave their current home, 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 was a bidding nation. The City Ground was deemed unsuitable, even with expansion, due to the areas that needed to be available for car parking around the stadium; the City Ground is in a dense urban area, surrounded by private housing, businesses and industry.

The stadium was intended to have a capacity of between 45,000 and 50,000 spectators. A poll among Forest fans founds that the majority were in favour of new ground being named the Brian Clough Arena in honour of the club's legendary former manager. Other possible stadium names suggested by some supporters included the New City Ground, City of Nottingham Stadium, and the Robin Hood Arena.

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 exhibited 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. With England's bid unsuccessful, the plan changed to instead rebuild the Main Stand at the current City Ground and raise the capacity to around 40,000.^[2]

References

1. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
2. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}

See also

• Ground improvements at English football Stadia