Nottingham Forest training ground plans appear amid Evangelos Marinakis’s ‘ambition’.
Latest Nottingham Forest news: Nuno Espirito Santo’s Reds could soon have a new headquarters.
Nottingham Forest are thought to be looking for a new training ground as owner Evangelos Marinakis seeks to make further changes to the club.
The Reds are now headquartered at the Nigel Doughty Academy in West Bridgford. But, according to The Athletic, a new headquarters is in the works.
It is believed that several potential sites have been considered. An official announcement may be made in the following weeks.
“There is a recognition that our existing facilities are too small and incapable of accommodating, as one, the women’s team, the academy and what the Premier League expectations are for the first team,” the chairman of the club, Tom Cartledge, told The Athletic. “A plot of land has been located that will accommodate everyone and help us attract talent beyond the first-team level.
Children will be attending an ambitious school with top-notch amenities. Another objective of the ownership is to treat the club’s players and future talent as well as possible.
It comes as Forest is claimed to seek to expand the City Ground capacity to 40,000 as part of Marinakis’ vision for the club. This would result from enlarging the Bridgford Stand by 5,000 seats, in addition to the 10,000 seats proposed for the Peter Taylor Stand.
When the Reds first announced a multi-million-dollar stadium renovation project about five years ago, tearing down and reconstructing the Peter Taylor Stand was a key component. That transition has yet to begin, with more hurdles and obstacles to conquer. Cartledge, on the other hand, recently stated that things were “progressing at pace”.
When the project was first announced in 2019, the plans included boosting capacity to around 38,000. The redevelopment of the Peter Taylor Stand was viewed as the first phase of the project, with an extension of the Bridgford Stand also proposed.
Meanwhile, both the stadium and the training facility have undergone significant upgrades. And this week, a crane and workers were seen at the site as the club began doing the necessary groundwork in the hopes that planning permission to install hospitality pods would be given shortly.
Last year, Forest presented documents to Rushcliffe Borough Council to create two new temporary hospitality spaces made of adapted shipping containers at the Trent End corners, drawing inspiration from Stadium 974 at the Qatar World Cup. According to the Athletic, Marinakis would “ideally” like to finish the new training site and two rebuilt stands by the end of 2027.
