The innocent New Lawn – stadium description

Forest Green Rovers may be in existence since 1899, but for over a century haven’t won promotion to the central league level. No wonder it was well enough to play home games at the modest Lawn ground in Nailsworth until the 21st century. Situation changed in 2006, when construction of the New Lawn ended just 200 meters west, allowing for the old ground to be used for residential development.

The new stadium offers four grandstands, one per side, having part of the terracing inherited from its predecessor. The eastern main grandstand offers significant floor space, used not only for club offices and player facilities, but also banqueting hall for 200 people and a fitness centre. It also has majority of the stadium’s 2,000 seats.

With total capacity of over 5,000 the club are yet to reach sell-out crowd, though it should be kept in mind that it wasn’t until 2016 that they were even close to reaching the English 4th league.

After the club was taken over by Dale Vince (renewable energy giant, owner of Ecotricity) in 2010, the stadium went green much further than the name may have suggested. Local menu lost all meals including red meat first, then became the first vegan one. The field is now considered fully organic, only being fertilized with cow manure. To quote the groundsman, it results in a “lively smell”, but a beautiful turf.

The field is mowed without human involvement, by an automatic, solar-powered mower. Forest Green Rovers overall use 10% of solar power to secure their demand, as much as the south stand’s power plant produces. Rainwater is also harvested for reuse.

Eventually the club wants to move to a new location, near the M5 motorway junction in Stonehouse. The idea is to build a massive Eco Park there, with stadium for up to 10,000 people and extensive training/leisure complex for £100 million.