Evangelos Marinakis drops Nottingham Forest City Ground hint amid stadium uncertainty
Owner Evangelos Marinakis appears to have dropped a hint about Nottingham Forest’s City Ground future.
The Reds are considering relocating to a new site amid a dispute with Nottingham City Council, who own the land the stadium is built on. There is an ongoing row between the parties over rent and a new lease.
A move would see Forest abandon plans, first announced in 2019, to redevelop the City Ground and increase its capacity. Chairman Tom Cartledge said this week that “due diligence” was being done on “several” alternative sites, including in Toton.
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Marinakis was asked about his dream for the Reds when speaking to BBC Sport after Olympiacos, who he also owns, beat Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night. He said he wants to “build a big stadium”, although it is not clear whether he was referring to a new one or redeveloping the City Ground.
“I think we have achieved great things,” the Greek said. “Now you will see that we want to build a big stadium and a new training centre.
“It is a great thing. It is a team that inspires us and we want to do more. You will see in the years to come that we also have big dreams for Forest, and it is the right thing to have such dreams.”
Forest’s existing lease on the City Ground site has 33 years left on it and talks about a new 250-year one have hit a stalemate. The council are said to want to increase the rent to £1 million from £250,000.
That negotiations are said to have fallen through over a deal to buy land off the A52 for a new training ground has only added to the club’s thinking over potentially relocating. In an interview with The Athletic, Cartledge said the club are weighing up whether to follow in the footsteps of Manchester City and have a stadium and training ground on the same complex.
“The terms on that (training ground) project are prohibiting us, but other things have come forward that have given us time to think,” he said. “Where do we want to be? Where are those campuses where we can try to put all of this together in the way Manchester City have done?”