The City Ground

Lore & Background

The stadium was a venue when England hosted UEFA Euro 1996, and is only three hundred yards (270 m) away from Meadow Lane, home of Forest's neighbouring club Notts County; the two grounds are the closest professional football stadiums in England and the second-closest in the United Kingdom, after Tannadice Park and Dens Park. They are located on opposite sides of the River Trent. The City Ground was the first football ground to have elliptically shaped goalposts when it was presented with a new set of goals by the Nottingham-based Standard Goals Company in 1922. The ground's all-time record attendance of 49,946 was set in October 1967 when Forest beat Manchester United 3–1 in a First Division fixture.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights hum to life over a drizzle that has just stopped, and the East Stand is already a wall of red. You can smell the wet grass, the hot chips from the stand's food stall, the particular metallic tang of a Nottingham evening in October. A boy of maybe nine sits on his father's shoulders, both in the same faded red shirt, and the father is singing—not performing, just singing, the way you do when the words are older than you. The ball rolls out, the keeper claims it, and for a moment the whole ground is quiet, just the sound of boots on wet turf and the distant lapping of the Trent beyond the perimeter. Then the whistle. Then the roar. And the boy on his father's shoulders is screaming, and the father is screaming, and the stand is one single red-and-white organism, breathing, shaking, alive. This is not a stadium. This is a Sunday. This is home.

Reader's Guide

The City Ground is located on the banks of the River Trent in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire. It is three hundred yards (270 m) from Meadow Lane, home of Notts County. The stadium has a capacity of 31,212, with plans for expansion to 45,000 and eventually 52,500.

Did You Know?

• The City Ground was the first football ground to have elliptically shaped goalposts, installed in 1922.
• The ground's record attendance of 49,946 was set in October 1967 when Forest beat Manchester United 3–1.
• The City Ground is only 300 yards from Meadow Lane, making them the closest professional football stadiums in England.