| The New Lawn | |
|---|---|
Forest Green Rovers' new stadium |
|
| Full name | The New Lawn Stadium |
| Location | Nailsworth, Gloucestershire |
| Built | 2005-2006 |
| Opened | 2006 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Capacity | 5,147 |
| Tenants | |
|
Forest Green Rovers 2006-present Gloucester City 2007-2008 |
|
The New Lawn is a football stadium and home to Forest Green Rovers F.C., a professional football club based in the town of Nailsworth in Gloucestershire. They play their football in the Conference National and previously played their home matches at The Lawn Ground. The name of the new stadium is yet to be confirmed, as the club are still looking for a stadium sponsor. Rovers have played at the stadium since the start of the 2006-07 season.
The stadium was due to cost the club £3 million pounds and was approved in October 2003 by local council members, despite much local opposition due to the controversial siting of the development on school playing fields.[1] Work started on the stadium on the 3 May 2005.
The new ground has facilities to house 230 car parking places, 3 coach parking places, a capacity of 5,147 and two seated stands - the main stand and another seated stand. The stadium also has a leisure club, gym, sauna, conference and meeting facilities as well as a pub and many other facilities. The stadium is used seven days a week for different events as part of the Five Valleys Conference & Leisure Centre.
The stadium was first used in a pre season friendly against Swindon Town in July 2006 and was officially opened in September 2006 when the England C team played a friendly fixture against Forest Green. The largest attendance so far at The New Lawn was in a FA Cup third round game against Derby County in January 2009 when 4836 watched Forest Green narrowly lose 3-4.
For the 2007-08 season Gloucester City shared the ground due to serious flooding at their home ground but have since moved to Cheltenham Town ,via a spell at Cirencester Town.
In April 2009 The New Lawn hosted the Conference League Cup final between Forest Green and AFC Telford United in which Telford won the game 0-3 on penalty kicks following the 90 minutes finishing goalless. The match was shown live on Setanta Sports.In December 2009 the ground was selected as part of the city of Bristol's 2018 FIFA World Cup bid to act as a training ground facilitiy.
In June 2011 work began on the pitch at the stadium to make it the first organic football pitch in the world.[2]
This was then followed in December 2011 by the installation of 180 solar panels to the EESI stand to help the club generate its own electricity.[3]