Nottingham Forest City Ground deal takes positive step as council backs expansion plans

The leader of the Nottinghamshire council that covers the City Ground has confirmed he remains happy with Nottingham Forest's current expansion plans. It comes after Nottingham City Council, which owns the land on which the City Ground sits, said terms had been agreed in principle for Forest to buy the freehold for the stadium.

The council confirmed the news at a meeting on Monday (July 8), yet the club came out with a statement later in the day suggesting the deal was not as far along as the council had suggested. In particular, the club appeared to want more guarantees that its deal with the city council would allow its full stadium expansion plans to go ahead - something the city council has pledged to honour.

The club's statement said: "Any decision to purchase the freehold will be entirely conditional on Nottingham Forest first being granted the relevant permissions that will allow us to realise our hugely ambitious plans for a significantly larger stadium capacity, world-class hospitality spaces and associated substantial real estate development in the vicinity of the ground. Our discussions remain confidential and the club will update fans when meaningful progress has been achieved."

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A central part of the long-term vision for the City Ground is to increase the capacity of the Peter Taylor stand by knocking it down and rebuilding it. Plans also include improving and, in the case of the Bridgford Stand, extending the other three sides of the ground. Once the major stadium work had been completed, Forest plans to build a 169-unit residential block near the existing Bridgford House apartments.

The latter element is what reportedly caused the council to try and increase Forest's rent from £250,000 a year to "north of a million", with a public dispute having been ongoing for months over it. Although Nottingham City Council currently owns the City Ground freehold, the actual planning permission for any expansions would have to come from Rushcliffe Borough Council.

The authority's leader, Councillor Neil Clarke, said: "We will continue to work constructively with all partners. It is positive Nottingham Forest and the City Council are continuing discussions and like all commercial negotiations, details remain confidential until finalised.

"We granted Nottingham Forest planning permission for their latest planning application to extend ground capacity and associated development in 2022 and should any further plans come forward these will go through our usual independent planning process."