--- source: thedugout.football generated: 2026-06-09T17:18:07.373Z data_provider: API-Football canonical: https://thedugout.football/clubs/nottingham-forest/news/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubm90dGluZ2hhbXBvc3QuY29tL25ld3Mvbm90dGluZ2hhbS1uZXdzL2xpZ2h0LWVuZC10dW5uZWwtY2l0eS1ncm91bmQtMTA5NzU5NjQ --- # ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ in City Ground expansion plans, says chairman - **Source:** - **Club:** Nottingham Forest - **Original URL:** https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/light-end-tunnel-city-ground-10975964 Plans for an expansion project have been in the works since 2019 – at which point the idea was to only modestly increase the size from its current 30,445 seats to around 35,000. Multiple setbacks and revisions have taken place since then, including Covid-19 curtailing the original plan, a row with Nottingham City Council over the lease of the ground, and a reimagining of how big the stadium could actually need to be. The latest proposals, submitted in January, are for a complete overhaul of the ground, including the demolition of the Peter Taylor Stand, and a goal to ultimately host 52,500 fans. The Premier League side, who were promoted to the top flight in 2022 and reached the semi-finals of this season’s Europa League, are now waiting for what they hope is the final granting of permission they’ll need from Rushcliffe Borough Council. And Mr Randall, who was reappointed as chairman in October 2024, after a six-year stint at the club, said it appeared the end was near in terms of the club getting the green light when he spoke at the UK Real Estate, Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds on Wednesday, May 20. He said: “In order to sustain what we have built so far, we need a world class stadium. We need significant capacity. “This development gives us the potential to be a properly established Premier League team, regularly competing for European places and to have a very strong women’s team. This project is something we are very, very delighted and excited about. “Neil (Clarke, Rushcliffe Borough Council leader) has been fantastic, Claire (Ward, East Midlands Mayor) has been fantastic, and we’ve had some things this week where we’ve got central government really piling in as well, so there’s light at the end of the tunnel.” When Mr Randall initially took over as chairman nine years ago, the club had just survived relegation to League One from the Championship – but the Reds, since the May 2017 takeover of the club by owner Evangelos Marinakis, have since gone from strength to strength. The expansion plans tabled in 2019 included an expanded Peter Taylor Stand and the construction of a block of flats nearby, which would be sold in part to fund the stadium’s construction. They were approved in 2022, but kept changing over time. Then, in 2024, Nottingham City Council – which owns the City Ground freehold – decided that the Reds were paying far too little in rent at £250,000 per year, and hiked that price up by 300% to £1m. The club started looking at other options – including moving to a different part of Nottinghamshire and building a new stadium there. The city council then agreed to sell the land to the club instead, solving the problem – but Forest said their decision to buy it would rest on having planning permission approved. A new iteration of the 2022 plans was then approved in July last year, paving the way for the purchase of the freehold. But in December Forest announced yet more changes, including a plan for a phased process of increasing capacity first to 48,000 before the final 52,000+ figure is reached. Mr Randall was speaking at a UKREiiF showcase of local plans to market the City Ground and the surrounding area, including other sporting sites such as Trent Bridge cricket ground and the National Watersports Centre, as the ‘Trent Sports District’. He said: “This development of the Trent area is something we’re delighted to be involved in. I think for some it gets taken for granted, almost. This whole project will be absolutely fantastic for the area, fantastic for us. “In my position at the club it’s a strange place because you have your everyday fans, obviously you need to look after them, but you’re also keenly aware there’s a whole community out there. “Many of them don’t even watch football. Others watch Notts County. We have this obligation to drive and to leave the club in a much better place than what we inherited. (The stadium expansion) will obviously have a dramatic economic impact, we hope on the region as a whole.” The chairman also explained that, while the club currently cap season ticket numbers at 20,000, there are 17,000 fans on the waiting list – with that figure only “scratching the surface of the potential crowds we believe we can get”. It was previously suggested that if the green light was given, construction of the upgraded ground could start as soon as this summer. But Mr Randall told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it was too early to know exactly when construction work may begin – but added that the club wanted to get started “pretty quickly”. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We’re confident of getting the planning permission pretty quickly, which means we can hit our targets and get moving.”