Nottingham Forest expands corporate event lounges at City Ground

Nottingham Forest Football Club has expanded its non-matchday events offering at The City Ground by introducing the European Lounge alongside the Madrid and Munich Lounges. The new and upgraded spaces are aimed at corporate bookers looking to host meetings, conferences, networking sessions and hospitality in a football stadium environment.

Situated within the Brian Clough Stand, the lounges have been configured to give organisers flexible options in layout and scale while retaining a sense of occasion tied to the club’s heritage. The areas are intended to serve both local and national businesses seeking alternative settings to traditional conference centres and hotel meeting rooms.

Background and industry context

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Football stadiums and other sports venues have increasingly diversified into year-round event destinations, using their existing infrastructure to attract corporate events, exhibitions and private functions. For clubs, non-matchday activity represents a growing revenue stream; for organisers, it offers spaces with built-in branding, AV capacity and transport links.

The City Ground, home to Nottingham Forest FC, follows this wider trend by developing hospitality and corporate spaces that can transition between matchday use and dedicated business events. The launch of the European Lounge and the Madrid and Munich Lounges reflects ongoing investment in facilities that can support modern event requirements, from formal conferences to informal networking.

Key developments and venue features

The European Lounge is positioned as a versatile, professional environment for meetings and business events. Located within the Brian Clough Stand, it is designed to accommodate a range of formats, including:

Board meetings and executive briefings
Training sessions and workshops
Small conferences and presentations
Networking events and corporate hospitality

The Madrid and Munich Lounges, located alongside the European Lounge, provide additional capacity and configuration options. Collectively, the three lounges can be used individually for smaller groups or combined to host larger programmes that require multiple breakout rooms or parallel sessions.

The spaces are configured to support common corporate requirements such as theatre-style seating, cabaret layouts or classroom arrangements. While specific capacities and technical specifications were not disclosed, the design focus is on delivering a self-contained, professional area with access to in-house catering and matchday-level hospitality services.

Event organisers can make use of the stadium’s existing operational infrastructure, including experienced hospitality staff and established security and access procedures. The lounges also benefit from their location within an iconic stand, providing direct links to the broader stadium environment when required, such as for pitch-view receptions or guided tours built into event agendas.

Industry impact

The development of the European, Madrid and Munich Lounges contributes to the growing pool of stadium-based event venues in the UK. For the events sector, this expansion offers additional choice in the Midlands region for conferences and corporate gatherings that seek a distinctive backdrop without compromising on professional standards.

By adding more flexible lounges, the club enhances its ability to host multi-part programmes that demand several different spaces on the same day. This can be relevant for association meetings, internal company conferences, training roadshows or client-facing showcase events where plenary and breakout rooms need to be located in close proximity.

The City Ground’s enhanced facilities may also support hybrid and digitally enabled formats, as stadiums typically invest in robust connectivity and AV infrastructure to serve matchday broadcasting and hospitality. While specific technology capabilities for the new lounges were not detailed, the physical configuration of the spaces suggests scope for integrating streaming, video conferencing and interactive presentation tools through either in-house or third-party providers.

Why this matters for event professionals and technology providers

For event planners, the European, Madrid and Munich Lounges broaden the spectrum of venue types available for business events, particularly for organisations aiming to align their programmes with sport, performance or regional identity. The location in a high-profile football stadium may help increase delegate interest and attendance compared with more conventional meeting settings.

Venue flexibility is a growing priority in event design, and the ability to scale up or down across three adjacent lounges provides practical advantages. Organisers can:

Design agendas with clear zoning between plenary, breakout and networking areas
Adjust capacity in response to late registration changes
Experiment with different room formats and engagement styles within the same event

For event technology providers and production companies, the expanded lounge portfolio creates additional opportunities to deliver services into a stadium environment. This can include:

Temporary AV installations for conferences and product launches
Hybrid event setups combining in-room audiences with remote participants
Interactive displays or experiential technology aligned with team or sponsor branding

The use of distinctive sports venues may also influence how technology is deployed. For example, planners could integrate digital wayfinding, registration kiosks or mobile event apps to guide delegates through lounges and other parts of the stadium, or utilise existing large-format screens where appropriate. While the specific digital infrastructure of the European, Madrid and Munich Lounges is not detailed, the broader trend is towards layering technology onto characterful physical spaces rather than relying solely on purpose-built conference centres.

Conclusion

The introduction of the European Lounge and the availability of the Madrid and Munich Lounges at The City Ground underline Nottingham Forest FC’s continued move into the corporate events market. By repurposing and enhancing areas within the Brian Clough Stand for professional use, the club is positioning the stadium as a viable option for meetings, conferences and networking events alongside its core role as a football venue.

For event organisers, the development provides additional choice in a competitive venue landscape, particularly for programmes seeking a recognisable setting with flexible room configurations. For technology and production partners, it offers a fresh context in which to design and deliver event experiences that combine the appeal of live sport venues with the functional demands of the modern business events sector.