Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is aiming to expand the Premier League football club’s City Ground into a 50,000-seat stadium.
The expansion would surpass the team’s previous plans to increase the venue’s capacity from 29,550 to 40,000 through the rebuilding of the Peter Taylor Stand and an extension to the Bridgford Stand.
“What we need to do is have a bigger stadium,” Marinakis told BBC East Midlands Today. “We have a lot of supporters and a huge waiting list for season tickets and I’m sure a 50,000-seat stadium will be full watching our team and our passion.”
In July, Nottingham City Council leader Neghat Khan announced that a deal had been agreed for the sale of land on which the City Ground sits to Forest, albeit with the club moving to clarify that it was continuing to work on the terms for a conditional deal.
Khan said the deal would allow the club to develop its plans to expand the stadium while securing a “significant capital receipt” for the council. Prior to this, the club had been in dispute with the council over a lease deal for the stadium with the current 50-year contract signed in 2011.
In May, it emerged that Forest had been offered a deal to buy the land on which the City Ground sits for around £10m (€11.8m/$12.8m). The city council owns the freehold for the stadium site. The club had also been linked with a move to Toton in Nottinghamshire to build a new stadium, but Marinakis has now confirmed that the City Ground is “the first priority”.
“That is where the team belongs and where the tradition is,” the Greek businessman said. “It’s most important for the town of Nottingham and this is something I want to be able to finalise and for the years to come to have one of the best stadiums in England. This is my prime target right now.”
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