Nottingham City Council's leader has been told that the sale of the City Ground remains "on course" despite the ambition for it to be cleared before Christmas now looking unlikely. The Labour-run authority revealed a deal earlier this year that will see Nottingham Forest by the City Ground's freehold from the city council, which owns the land.
That follows months of argument over the council's original plan to increase rent on the land, which would have seen Forest's annual bill going from £250,000 to over £1 million. Despite the initial terms of the deal being unveiled in July, Nottingham City Council's leader recently told Nottinghamshire Live that she had heard nothing since.
In the latest update, Councillor Neghat Khan says that she has now met the club's new chairman and has been reassured that the sale should be complete by the end of this financial year in April. Nottingham Forest welcomed Nicholas Randall back as chairman in October after Tom Cartledge stepped down.
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Councillor Khan said: "I met Nicholas Randall at a university civic event and I said 'has anything changed? He said 'no, it's still all on course', so hopefully, fingers crossed.
"That's something we wanted before Christmas. It's not been able to happen.
"Hopefully before the end of the financial year we can get that sorted. It sounds brilliant, I'm just waiting for the invite to go to the club and have a discussion, but I'm confident that that will happen."
Nottingham Forest chairman Nicholas Randall pictured in the middle of a crowd at an event wearing a black suit and red tie
Nottingham Forest chairman Nicholas Randall (Image: Joseph Raynor/Reach PLC)
Forest did not respond to a request for comment, but the club has previously made clear that any decision to purchase the City Ground freehold will be "entirely conditional" on them being given all planning permissions for their plans to expand and improve the ground. Although Nottingham City Council is the landowner, Rushcliffe Borough Council is the planning authority covering the City Ground.
Plans already approved in 2022 include increasing the capacity of the Peter Taylor Stand to 10,000 seats and outline planning permission for a residential apartment block at the ground with 169 units. New hospitality building plans at either side of the Trent End Stand were also approved in May 2024.
Yet other plans at the City Ground include improving and, in the case of the Bridgford Stand, extending the other three sides of the ground. The overall master plan aims to get stadium capacity from just short of 30,000 up to 40,000.