English League Two football club Forest Green Rovers has announced that its stadium will be renamed the ‘innocent New Lawn’.
The announcement comes after Forest Green fans were this month invited to come up with a new name for the stadium after a sponsorship deal was signed with drinks manufacturer Innocent. The agreement initially rebranded The New Lawn as the ‘innocent [insert name here] stadium’ until a permanent name was decided upon.
Supporters were invited to submit suggestions for the stadium name via Forest Green’s Twitter or Facebook account. A panel from the club, including chairman Dale Vince, selected a shortlist of the best names, with a final fan vote deciding the winning suggestion.
Innocent’s social media followers were also encouraged to suggest names for the stadium, which led to ‘Kevin’ becoming one of the shortlisted options after it proved their overwhelming favourite with 65% voting for it.
However, the prospect of Forest Green playing at the ‘Kevin’ has been avoided after a final season ticket holder vote. Along with Kevin, the three other shortlisted monikers were innocent Sustadium, innocent New Lawn and innocent Fruit Bowl.
A club statement read: “Thankfully, Forest Green Rovers season ticket holders had the final say, and 86% of fans went with the innocent New Lawn.”
Reacting to the news on Twitter, Vince said: “Sorry if you hoped the stadium would be called Kevin. Perhaps Forest Green and innocent will do a ‘Kevin’s Go Free’ game when fans are allowed back in?”
Last December, Forest Green was granted outline planning permission to build a new 5,000-seat wooden stadium. The complex is set to feature landscaped parking and two pitches, one of which will be a 4G playing surface and opened up to the local community.
Image: Forest Green Rovers
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