City Ground Stadium Capacity, Tickets, Seating Plan, Records, Location, Parking
The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been the home of Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445.
The stadium was a venue when England hosted Euro 96 and is just three hundred yards (270 m) from Meadow Lane, home of Forest’s neighboring club Notts County; the two grounds are the closest professional football stadiums in England and the second closest in the United Kingdom, after Dundee and Dundee United grounds. They are located on opposite sides of the Trent River.
| Built In: | 1898 |
| Capacity: | 30,445 |
| Home Teams: | Nottingham Forest Football Club |
| Ground Size: | 115 x 78 yards |
City Ground Stadium History
Background
Nottingham Forest is the oldest league football club in the world, having been founded in 1865, but did not move to the City Ground, its seventh home, until 33 years later, in 1898. During its first fourteen years, the club played most of their parties. at the Forest Recreation Ground, from which they took their name. This was common ground, so the club could not exploit its matches commercially, and as there was no money for gate, revenue came mainly from player membership fees.
When Forest first entered the FA Cup in 1878–79, reaching the semi-finals, they were unable to play home games as the rules of the cup competition stipulated that spectators had to be charged for admission. In 1879 the club left The Forest to play at the Castle Ground in The Meadows, after Notts Castle Football Club, who had previously played there, had broken up and their players joined Forest. This enabled Forest to cash in in time for their second FA Cup campaign in 1879–80.
The rapidly growing interest in the game saw the increasing importance of the ability to accommodate large numbers of spectators at football matches and from 1880 most of the club’s major games were played at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, then Nottingham’s most advanced indoor sports venue. In 1883, however, Forest were abruptly replaced as tenants at Trent Bridge by local rivals Notts County, a move possibly related to Notts’s appointment of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club secretary to his own newly created position of club secretary. paid.
Forest only discovered that they were being replaced at Trent Bridge in early August 1883, leaving them very little time to find new ground, and Parkside Ground in Lenton, where Forest first played on 22 September, was criticized for its distance from the city. its slope and uneven surface, with one newspaper columnist commenting that “as long as the Forest Club maintain a ground on which it is impossible for them to play their particular game with precision, as well as being bleak and generally inaccessible, they will find little patronage”.
Despite moving three years later to the nearby Gregory Ground, which was much better reviewed in the press, Lenton’s distance from the center of Nottingham meant attendances continued to decline and in 1890 the club moved again, this time to the Town Ground in The Meadows. which was much closer to the club’s roots and became Forest’s first proper football stadium.
In July 1897 the Town Ground has briefly renamed the City Ground, in recognition of Nottingham being granted city status, but the newly formed council planned to redevelop the site for building and terminated Forest’s lease, offering in its location the site on the south side of the river that would become today’s City Ground.
This land had been granted to the mayor and burghers of Nottingham by Edward VI in a royal charter dated 21 February 1551, with the intention that rents from agricultural land would pay for the upkeep of the adjacent Trent Bridge. The Council gave the club a 21-year lease on the new site, and the plan to move to the new ground was approved by the club at its annual meeting in December 1897.
To raise the £3,000 needed to finance the move, the club asked members, supporters and businessmen to sign up for “New Ground Scheme” vouchers which cost £5 each, raising more than £2,000. Many of the bonds were never redeemed, the bondholders effectively making a donation to finance the new land.
Early years
Forest first played at the new City Ground a week before their FA Cup final victory in April 1898, and the reserve team played there on the afternoon of the final, but the ground was not officially opened until the first game of the following season. a Division One match against Blackburn Rovers on 3 September 1898 with an attendance of 15,000. The ground had a main timber-slatted slipway on the west side with a barrel roof, a narrow timber shelter covering the full width of Trent End, and a shorter roof covering part of the east side.
The course was considered one of the best in the country, “a velvet carpet of lush grass.” This was the result of the work of club committee member William Bardill, a nurseryman and landscape gardener whose family business still exists in Stapleford. Bardill excavated the playing area to a depth of two feet, laid a bed of clinker to ensure perfect drainage, and on top of it laid a high-quality turf pitch barged up the river from Radcliffe-on-Trent.
Forest’s FA Cup first-round match against Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1898 drew a crowd of 32,070, the first time a football match in Nottingham had attracted a gate receipt of more than £1,000. The ground was considered “one of the best in the country” and was chosen to host the FA Cup semi-final in 1899, a recognition which was proclaimed at the club’s annual meeting as “beneficial to club and town”. The ground hosted a total of four FA Cup semi-finals between 1899 and 1905, and a full international between England and Wales in 1909.
Throughout the 1900s, Notts County also regularly used the City Ground for home matches when their regular venue at Trent Bridge was unavailable for football due to cricket taking precedence.
Stadium Capacity
City Ground Stadium has a seating capacity of 30,445.
City Ground Stadium Seating Plan
Notable Events & Records
Throughout its history, the City Ground has been the site of many memorable moments and historic events. Some notable records and achievements that have taken place at the stadium include:
-In the 1977-78 season, Nottingham Forest won the First Division (now known as the Premier League) under the management of Brian Clough, the first and only time the club has won the top-flight league.
-In the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons, Forest won back-to-back European Cup under the management of Brian Clough, becoming the first club to win the tournament in their first attempt since its inception in 1955.
-In the 1989-90 season, Forest reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, which is the club’s best performance in the tournament.
-The City Ground has also hosted a number of international matches, including matches involving the England national team.
-In the past decade, City ground went through a significant renovation, which included the construction of a new main stand, new seating, and improved facilities for players and fans.
Overall The City Ground holds a special place in the hearts of Nottingham Forest fans, and it will continue to be the home of the club for many years to come.
Upcoming Events
Not Yet.
Parking
City Ground has two official car parks. Peter’s post and Brian Clough’s post. The Peter Taylor Stand car park is located at the front of the stand and is accessible from Pavilion Road. The one at the back of the Brian Clough stand can be accessed from the A6011 or Lady Bay Bridge.
