Work has started to bring in safe-standing, as well as a ‘corner box’ beside the Trent End and extra seating — some in unexpected locations — to give the stadium some TLC in this period of uncertainty when the people at the top of the club are still deciding whether it is better, ultimately, to stay at the City Ground or leave their home of 125 years for a new, bigger ground elsewhere in the city.
One of the more intriguing developments this week relates to Forest’s co-owner, Sokratis Kominakis, featuring on the list of donors for Ben Bradley — to the tune of £100,000 — in the recent East Midlands mayoral elections.
Bradley is the Conservative MP for Mansfield, a 45-minute drive north of Nottingham. He is the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, which owns the 33-acre of land at Toton, six miles south-west of the city centre, that has been identified by the club as a potential site for a new 50,000-capacity stadium.
So why is Kominakis named as the biggest donor to Bradley’s campaign? And what, if anything, does it mean for Forest? The Athletic will explain what we are hearing.
It is shaping up to be a big summer at Nottingham Forest and, by the time it is done, the City Ground will have a 30,000-plus capacity, Evangelos Marinakis will have a separate executive suite to watch games from and everyone should have a better idea about the club’s intentions for the stadium in the long-term.
The only potential disappointment for Marinakis is that it seems he will not be allowed to smoke cigars in this enclosed area being created to replace his viewing platform beside the directors’ box.
Forest’s majority owner should enjoy the view, though, because various improvements are happening in all corners of the ground, including all sorts of clever ways, unreported until now, to take the capacity beyond the 30,000 mark — something Marinakis has wanted for some time.