Premier League club announce plans to overtake six rivals with multi-million stadium upgrade

Nottingham Forest have announced their plans to transform the City Ground, including expanding its capacity to around 52,000.

The Reds revealed the proposal on Thursday, signalling their intention to start a major project next summer that would see three of its four stands undergo major redevelopment.

AFP

Forest have played their home games at the iconic venue since 1898, and have been keen to remain at the classic stadium.

But owner Evangelos Marinakis has made no secret of his plans to increase its current 30,404 capacity, as he looks to take the club to the next level.

And the recently unveiled project would do just that, with extensive work being done to make the ground competitive with other Premier League arenas.

What is the plan for the City Ground?

In the first phase, the project would increase capacity from 31,000 to 45,000.

Then a further redesign of the iconic Brian Clough Stand could add up to 7,000 more seats, bringing the total capacity to 52,000.

Forest first released the proposed designs at an event on Thursday, where they were given an address of support from the Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward.

They will submit the official plans to Rushcliffe Borough Council on December 15th.

In the meantime, Forest are hosting two drop-in sessions on Friday and Saturday for fans, local residents, and stakeholders to take a closer look at the plans.

The latest news on the ambitious project comes after it was revealed last month that the club had brought in KSS Group to oversee it.

These are the same architects who behind the Anfield expansion, and have also worked on Liverpool and Leicester’s new training grounds.

And the architects appear to have even bigger plans for the City Ground, compared to the first expansion plans the club revealed six-and-a-half years ago.

Part of this involves a new 58-metre Peter Taylor stand with 1500 more seats than its equivalent at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. 

Once complete, the stand would boast a capacity of 15,000 – 4.000 more seats than the total capacity of Bournemouth‘s Vitality Stadium.

Also in the pipeline would be filling in the corners at both ends of the Trent End – creating a further 5,000 more seats in the process.

The exact price of Forest’s project is currently unclear, with their previous plan to expand just the Peter Taylor Stand – approved in June – being estimated to cost around £130million alone.

It is therefore fair to assume that the newly-unveiled plans would see this figure rise significantly.

Benoy Architects

How would the new City Ground compare to other Premier League stadiums?

Provided the ambitious new project goes ahead, the City Ground take its place among the Premier League’s biggest grounds.

Currently, Forest’s home ground ranks 15th out of the top-flight stadia in terms of capacity.

Welcoming just over 30,000 fans, the East Midlands venue only places above the homes of Bournemouth, Brentford, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Fulham.

But this would change dramatically with the addition of around 22,000 more seats at the City Ground, which would see it overtake six other grounds.

Among the clubs whose capacities would be dwarfed by Forest’s developed stadium are Wolves (31,750), Brighton (31,876) and Leeds’ Elland Road (37,890).

Big-hitters Chelsea would also affected by the expansion, with their iconic Stamford Bridge boasting a 41,631 capacity.

Getty

Getty

So too would Aston Villa and Sunderland, with Villa Park and the Stadium of Light able to host 42,900 and 48,700 respectively.

With the exact capacity of the new City Ground currently unclear, there is a possibility that it could rank even higher among Premier League stadia.

Newcastle‘s St James’ Park and Everton‘s new Hill Dickinson Stadium home both boast capacities of upwards of 52,000 fans.