New Nottingham Forest chairman chases £18.3m boost, £10m agreement already sealed
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Nottingham Forest’s new chairman Nicholas Randall has one major task at hand following his appointment earlier this week.
Randall is embarking on his second stint as chairman at the City Ground just 13 months after being replaced by Tom Cartledge.
Cartledge is now stepping down to focus on his family business, the design firm Benoy who have worked closely with Forest on their stadium plans.
Benoy and Cartledge had been central to the proposal to build a new stadium to replace the City Group in Toton. He will remain on the board of directors.
Like Cartledge, Randall also remained on the board at Forest following Evangelos Marinakis’s decision to remove him from his post in August last year.
Forest have enjoyed a steady start to the season under Nuno Espirito Santo, taking nine points from their opening six fixtures.
But while performances on the pitch are the priority in the immediate future, Randall will oversee a task behind the scenes the legacy of which will endure for decades in NG2.
The value of Nottingham Forest’s planned stadium rebuild
Forest have long harboured ambitions to accommodate the enormous demand for tickets among their supporters.
The City Ground’s value to fans goes well beyond its financial utility, but it is one of the least lucrative stadiums in the Premier League in terms of the cash it generates per head.
Forest earned £11.1m in matchday income in 2022-23, their first campaign back in the top flight for over two decades and the last for which full financial data is available.
That figure will have risen in 2023-24, reflecting increased ticket prices.
That trend will continue in 2024-25, with another steep ticket prices being heavily criticised by supporter group but also likely to prove lucrative for the club.
In July, Forest agreed a deal in principle to buy the freehold on which the City Ground stands in order to facilitate plans to expand the stadium.
Forest have said they want to take the City Ground from a capacity of approximately 30,000 to 42,000.
But in a recent interview, Marinakis said that long-term plan is to go beyond that figure to 50,000.
“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,” he told BBC Sport.
“That [the City Ground] is where the team belongs and where the tradition is.
“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.”
Based on their matchday income in 2022-23, that capacity would guarantee them £18.4m per season, drawing them level with the likes of Aston Villa, Southampton, Wolves.
In reality, however, the true figure would be far higher. Not only does that crude estimate not factor in the new pricing structure at the City Ground, but it also does not account for commercial opportunities.
The expansion is likely to focus on corporate hospitality and create other sponsorship opportunities, which industry estimates suggest could take the total value of the expansion per season to around £40m.
The City Ground and Forest’s PSR situation
Forest posted losses of £69m in the last recorded finanical year and became only the second club to be punished for PSR breaches last season.
Under the current system, Premier League clubs are allowed to lose £105m over a rolling three-year period, but a next model is expected to be introduced from next season.
The new system will see spending on wages, transfers and agent fees capped at around 85 per cent of annual turnover.
For Forest to be able to spend more and not be forced into selling their best players, raising revenue is therefore essential.
Expanding the City Ground will give them a platform to do exactly that, not just through ticket sales but their commercial appeal too.
One only needs to look at the example of Tottenham to see how successful this strategy can be – their commercial and matchday income have both trebled since the move to the new stadium in 2019.
