Forest submits application for stadium revamp

Article posted by Coliseum, December 6^th, 2019

Image: Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest, the professional football club based in West Bridgford, England, has submitted an application to the Rushcliffe Borough Council for overhauling the Peter Taylor Stand. The project price tag is £100m.

If planning permission is granted, a new three-tier stand will come up which can hold up to 10,000 spectators. Work is scheduled to start in 2020 summer.

Remarked Nottingham Forest Chairman Nicholas Randall QC, “We are delighted to announce this latest step in our journey. I would like to thank all of those who provided feedback and showed their support for the new stand. More than 8,000 people submitted responses during the public consultation week alone, with 99.5 percent of the feedback showing a positive reaction. In addition to this, we received over 60 letters of support from local, regional and national institutions, groups and businesses.”

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Randall explains, “Ensuring the long-term presence of the club in the local area is essential to the vision of our owner Mr Marinakis. We have made it our priority to listen to our neighbors and local businesses to understand their requirements for the broader economic and social benefits linked to the development in the area.”

“Everyone involved has worked tirelessly over the past 10 months to collate and consult with various stakeholders involved in the project to ensure we deliver a stadium that benefits not only our supporters but also our local community and its businesses,” he said.

“This is evidenced by the new jobs the redevelopment is expected to produce. Currently, the club sustains more than 850 additional jobs locally with this number expected to grow to more than 1,125 when the new stand is complete. This number will grow further to at least 1,450 when Premier League football is achieved,” he continues.

Randall further observed, “In addition to the economic and social benefits, the new stand will also enable us to develop high-quality spaces in order to create a vibrant hub for community-based activity. This will open up opportunities for more diverse and inclusive programs for all our people and in particular the young to participate in.”

“This statement of intent from Mr Marinakis again emphasises his long-term commitment to the club and his determination to create the conditions for sustained success,” Randall informed.

Benoy Chief Executive Tom Cartledge, puts in, “We are delighted that the many months of work with the club and its experienced consultant team saw the submission of the detailed planning application, a major milestone in our journey to improve The City Ground.”

“We will continue to work with the local planning team at Rushcliffe and other key stakeholders towards the application being heard at committee in the first quarter of 2020,” he said.

“The Peter Taylor Stand is of course the first phase of the work we expect to see at The City Ground and this first phase will kick start an exciting period of overall improvement for the club,” Cartledge remarked.

“I am also thrilled that we have had so many positive comments on the design itself. As Nottinghamshire designers, Benoy recognize the heritage of The City Ground. It has been built up over years as a series of ‘stands’, each individual and with their own characteristics and we don’t play in a ‘bowl’ but in a stadium of real individuality,” exults Cartledge.

“The new stand will enhance further the sense of The City Ground being a unique, urban and compact ‘city’ stadium. We have never set out to homogenize the stadium but play on its heritage, we know the fans see the ground as their ‘unique’ home and not a ‘faceless arena’,” he asserted.

The wider project, first unveiled in February, also envisages creating more than 200 apartments and a 100-bed hotel.

If the project gets the go-ahead, the number of jobs the club supports would be expected to increase from more than 850 to in excess of 1,125. The number may also rise to at least 1,450 if Forest (the nickname of the football club) is promoted to the Premier League.

The project has been designed by Nottinghamshire-headquartered architects firm, Benoy. Benoy is a multi-award winning international architecture, master planning, interior and graphic design studio.

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