“Nottingham Forest Can Buy The Freehold To The City Ground” | Steve Battlemuch On The Council’s POV

The battle between Tom Cartledge, Chairman of Nottingham Forest Football Club, and the Nottingham City Council has reached a boiling point over the lease of “The City Ground.” At the heart of the conflict lies a fundamental disagreement over the cost of leasing the land on which the historic stadium stands.

In the exclusive interview we get the Councils point of view, with guest Steve Battlemuch who is a Nottinghamshire City Councillor who has been supporting Nottingham Forest his whole life. Mr Battlemuch gives us his thoughts on the stadium dilemma and where he see the dispute between the local council and the club is heading.

This standoff has put the future of Nottingham Forest and “The City Ground” in jeopardy, as both parties dig in their heels and refuse to budge. But with a majority of the fans keen to stay at the clubs spiritual home and firmly against a move to the proposed new site in Toton, this debate could rumble on for sometime.

Let us know your thoughts on what Steve Battlemuch had to say and where you stand on the stadium situation, should Forest move or not? As always dont forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to Forest Fan TV.

Steve Battlemuch on twitter – https://twitter.com/Battlemuch4WW
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[Music] there there should be an option for Forest simply to just buy the free hold from you is that table question that’s been on the table all all along that there were two sides to this story and that really you know that this story will come out in due course [Music] afternoon everybody hope you’re doing well and welcome to this special podcast or event where we’re going to be discussing with Steve battl merch about the ongoing saga on the city ground and its Future Let’s get into [Music] it Steve how are you mate good to see you yeah it’s good it’s lovely sunny day in night it’s like this uh 5:30 tomorrow yeah well yeah let’s I wish we were here to talk about the game tomorrow and and focus on things on the pitch but it is what it is and we are where we are guys please don’t forget to hit that like button and subscribe to Forest fan TV if you are new and as I said we’re going to be talking about well what’s gone on in the past 24 hours with the city ground and who better to talk to about it then with Steve Steve do you just want to introduce yourself to the viewers for those who may not know um who you are and what you do okay I suppose I’m here mainly in the capacity that I’m a city councelor Nottingham City councelor labor counselor uh and currently have executive responsibility in the council for economic development and property so cover the sort of areas that would involve you know leases and sales of land of which obviously we’ve we’ve got one but you know my other my other hat that I wear and have worn for much longer than that is of a DI Forest fan Trent season ticket older um went to my first game when I was five many many years ago so um you know club club at heart and what what took you to Forest was that passed down from generation to generation or just homegrown it was a combination my my sister took me to my first match age five in 1967 which subsequently I looked up in the record box was a boring nil nil with Manu and and I stood at the front of the Trent end um and then didn’t really go again until uh till Duncan McKenzie famous Sunday game against Man City in 74 um but then um so I didn’t really have anybody to go with no no real big family connections but I have got an old claim to fame which is my Uncle Jim played 32 games for forest in the 50s at left back so I suppose it was in the blood somewhere uh and then I was lucky enough to get a season ticket in the year that we won the championship for the first time 7778 and when you do that you don’t turn back because what a first season to be a season ticket older oh to have born been born in those days but um we’re here Steve to discuss obviously there’s been an article released by the athletic um with Daniel Taylor where he’s sat down with Tom and they’ve basically started discussing the future of the city ground and um there was a few quotes there um that I kind of just wanted to address a couple of highlight ones um cage said that the club continues to be frustrated um the relationship with Forest is in a bit of a standoff with Nottingham City Council who owned the land neither the leader of the council the CEO or nor any of the Commissioners appointed by central government have reached out to the club nobody is knocking on the door nobody is trying to start a relationship again and say how do we find a way and in the meantime other councils and land owners are providing opportunities that we have to consider um what were your thoughts on the article in general and in specific what Tom was alluding to in terms of the relationship with the council yeah I mean I I wish we weren at this point having public debates about relationships between the council and and the chairman I mean I’ve I’ve tried to have a really good relationship with Tom I spoke to him on and off for the best part of a year while I’ve been in this role um and you know so I have been speaking to him as a portfolio holder um I know that the corporate director in charge of property sales has been to meetings with him and I know that the leader of the council has had a phone call with him but um you know that’s not the chief executive meeting him I don’t think the leader met him face to face i’ say it was a phone call the Commissioners I think it’s a bit of a red hering I mean the Commissioners have only been in for two months and they don’t normally take meetings with external people they’re there to advise the council and not not to get involved in outside bodies um but yeah I think you know it’s been in the Press hasn’t it that Tom’s been talking to Ben Bradley a fair bit Ben Bradley the leader of the County Council uh and conservative MP for Mansfield he he’s been talking to Ben about you know possibilities um well if if you if you believe the speculation about possibilities of a of a new stadium somewhere in the county and what was your kind of General stance on the article itself I mean there was a lot in there I’m sure you had a chance to read it is it is this adding more friction into the relationship and and how is how are conversations going anyway between forest and the city council at the the moment where do we stand yeah I mean firstly I read the article like I read all of Danny’s articles um because he’s sort of you know he’s Forest fan and he sort of talks about the club with some knowledge uh but as soon as I read it and I read the fact that he hadn’t got a quote in there from the city council I knew we had a problem um and um I understand that you know Danny had tried to get a comment by his deadline that we the council hadn’t managed to meet that deadline and subsequently over the next you know 12 to 15 hours the city council put out a statement uh that has been picked up by the local papers uh and that’s why I did my my tweet really um because I just didn’t I saw a couple of the comments immediately under Danny’s article where people were saying oh this is typical Nottingham City Council they they’re broke they can’t organize anything they’re driving the club away and I just knew that that was a an exaggeration of the position so I just wanted it to be absolutely clear that that there were two sides to this story and that really you know that this story will come out in due course but you know I prefer it not to come out in in in in in the Press i’ rather it to come out face tace in meetings and there has been meetings with the club you know I think the last face tof face meeting with the club was in February you know but the the club’s been talking about new stand as we know since 2019 and you know with a new stand would become a new lease because the lease that they’ve got is for the current makeup of the ground and what they need is you know the land that the boat clubs are on for example so that that changes that changes the lease immediately because that’s land that’s owned by the council as well is that what prompted the discussion then the fact that the stadium Redevelopment would require a change to the existing lease is that what’s brought this up yeah well it the the lease has got about 33 years left and I suspect I mean I’m no I’m no expert in contract law and all the rest of it but I suspect that if the club is going to borrow money to build a stand uh it needs a longer lease than 33 years absolutely yeah so they’ll they’ll want an extended lease the city council if any other organization was changing the the use of the land that they had a property on that that we owned that was likely then to bring that company more money in it’s night follows day that the lease gets change and and it reflects the new value of the land so can we just clarify a point of fact then so the the lease at the moment I understand it’s 250,000 a year is that right yeah I don’t I don’t I know that the Club have put the figures out into the public domain but I I really don’t think that I’m in a position where I can trade figures publicly because we wouldn’t want to negotiate over the Internet okay but so just but would it be fair to say that um if they stay put for 33 years that that lease is going to remain unchanged uh if they don’t modify the ground so that is an option basically do nothing is 33 more years at the current lease and um this is something I’ve only just learned from talking to you now that the the re-evaluation of the lease is a consequence of the proposed Stadium Redevelopment would that be fair to say I think that’s fair to say that that I must say as a supporter it’s pretty frustrating to hear this when we’ve already been through how many rounds of planning um you know with the the problem we had with with rushcliffe council with the County Council to get all the the planning permission to get to this stage and then to find that something so fundamental still hasn’t been resolved I mean you’re absolutely right nobody’s going to spend money on developing a piece of land without certainty over its future and it just amazes me that nobody’s had this conversation before now why would you say that is well conversations have been going on since 2019 and I I think probably both at one point maybe both the club and the council thought they got a deal um you know 201920 um but then I it could never have been signed could it because if it had been signed we wouldn’t be having this conversation so I I think that that deal never kind of totally got agreed covid then comes um the club um two years later get promoted to the Premier League um you know values change etc etc and um we then get into you know the next round of negotiations and you know what what is the the the the cost from what the council might think the land is worth based on based on evaluations you know um not not not back of a packet but based on you know land valuations and and stuff uh against what the club think it’s worth and you know I I can understand where Tom’s coming from as a fan I understand it you know he wants the he wants the city to accept that the the club being on the banks of the Trent brings in income to the city which clearly it does in terms of hospitality and um you know overnight stays in hotels and pubs and all the rest of it um it’s difficult to put an exact figure on that you know people come out with different figures some of it some of that money goes into the county some of it goes into the city because of Rush cliff and West Bridge for norest of it um but it’s undoubtedly is a bonus having having having a Premier League club on your doorstep and and I personally as a fan want it to stay there and I want it to be expanded um but it’s hard to then say well because of that you can knock off X percentage off the value of uh the property and given the financial situation that the council’s in we we wouldn’t be having that sort of conversation with any other organization um you know fores thankfully at the moment are a Premier League club so it’s not like you know let’s say you had a Cil somewhere with a League 2 club and then we might be going out of business and you might be saying well can we have a rent freeze while we stay off Administration imagine there’d be very strong arguments in a council you don’t want your local club to go out of business but don’t think we’re in that ball game here are we you know we’re a Premier League club with an owner that has put except put a hell of a lot of money in but I think you know the differences between what the club want to pay and what the council are asking I don’t think are insurmountable can we come to that because I know you don’t want to throw figures around but we’ve heard the the the figure of a million pounds a year mentioned um I mean I’m not expecting you to confirm or deny that but I think in any other Walk of Life if if your landlord came along and quadrupled your rent you would probably feel that was a little bit of a uh a shock or or a little bit unfair uh so I mean what have you got to say about that is it in that is is it in that sort of degree or is it more or less yeah I mean I yeah you’re not going to draw me into the figures um well they’ve been widely discussed yeah not and not by us Yeah by far we can yeah because Tom said I’ll just read his quote for you Steve he said the rent if you add it up for the next 33 years comes to 9.5 million the proposed rent the council wants us to pay over 250 years is more than 250 million so if we’re talking openly about the fa’s desire for financial stability and the future of the clubs to be secure it is simply wrong for us to sign up and put this club in a position where we have to pay 250 million in rent to stay here so just to clarify for those who may not heard can we just talk about the relative financial position of the club and the council because you you alluded to both of those Steve so I mean you were aware that Forest lost 63 million pounds last year so um absolutely and there’s and there’s lots of other um businesses and attractions in the city that that are struggling as well and you know we have some very tough conversations with organizations that are doing incredible work in the city you know and putting on excellent services for for people and and and we have to have really conversations with them as well because we’re we’re in a scenario in the city because of the rising cost of adult social care children services homelessness that we’ve had to in effect borrow 60 million pounds from the government to pay day-to-day living costs of adult social care children’s Etc and the way that the government insists on us paying that back is by by us selling assets so it’s it’s a Bonkers scenario because you can only sell things once so we’re we’re now involved in an asset sale program to try and pay for people who have got children taken into care that’s that’s the context of of the difficult financial situation we’ve got so uh if we we look at the full context right and I this has to be mentioned because to what extent is that self-inflicted I mean you know are you now perhaps regretting the interest free loans that were given to Robin Hood energy never paid back right I mean that has been widely discussed it’s the elephant in the room right so I mean we know that the council has legal obligations to provide adult social care housing Etc and it is AB it is a disgrace that has to be financed by the oneoff sale of assets but if you still had those reserves that were pumped into Robin Hood energy and never came back then we wouldn’t be in the situation well that that’s that’s about a third of the story Rob um because the the 34 million loss on Robin Hood energy is about 3% of the overall losses that we’ve had from lack of government grant so we’ve lost about a 100 million a year for 10 years on the TRU that’s about a billion pounds we’ve lost from government grant um now how could that change if we get a labor government later this year though so presumably once your mate K sta is uh is crowned uh is crowned in Westminster then it’s a complete different ball game you’re not going caping hand to Michael Gove anymore are you’re going to uh to a labor government so that could change in a year and meanwhile Forest could be back in the championship and wouldn’t have all of that Sky TV money so we we could be in a situation here where you’re negotiating with Forest saying we’re penniless please help us out and you’re a rich Premier League club and within two or three years the the roles could be reversed your coffers could be filled by a new labor government and Forest could be down in in in the championship well God help us League one and then they’d be saying well who signed up to this million pound a year rent this is killing us so can you see it from their point of view that there’s there a substantial risk in in doing that absolutely and that’s why you’d never sign up a contract like that would you that wouldn’t look at relegation Clauses and all the rest of it so all of those things should be part of any negotiation have they been though has that been is that there I’m not involved in that level of detail Rob um because I’m I’m a counselor not an officer but you know the the club would rightly want to put that on the table and as a fan I would I would expect to to see that and as a counselor I would think that would be perfectly reasonable to look at or what what rent would you be paying if you’re in the championship what rent would you be paying if you’re in League one absolutely you know and subsequently on the other way if Forest were in the Europa League or even the Champions League in 5 10 years you know does that change it the situation so what what what we can’t do is get into a speculation about what labor might give the council in you know October next April whatever because the reality is you know there hasn’t been loads of noises coming out of the labor front bench on lots of money for public services things might ease up a little bit but you know we are still faced with the fact that we have a lot a lot of property that we have to either get a commercial rent for Mark value or we have to sell and the forest ground in that respect is no different to lots of other buildings that we’ve is an option then when you say sell presumably there there should be an option for Forest simply to just buy the freeold from you is that on the table that’s that’s been on the table all all along so in essence Forest could buy the land and own it yeah and and again the differences and I’m not going to go into the exact figures but the differences between what we had it valued at and what what the club offered you know marginal in the terms of what we’ve seen spent as fans on wages for top players or transfer fees for players who haven’t even kicked the ball for us so that that’s quite interesting Steve because it it’s nothing we’ve seen from the club if they have done I’ve missed it where they’ve talked about the negotiation of buying the land itself it almost seems to be constantly about this rent issue as Rob was alluding to the 250k versus the million pounds so do you feel I know you can’t speak on behalf of the club for this but do you feel that’s not an option they want to pick up you’d have to you’d have to ask them it’s it’s an option we’ve put to them um and as we put out in the press release yesterday which we only put out by the way because of Danny’s article yeah you know we we didn’t want to get into this debate I didn’t want to be on this podcast much rather be talking about Forest matches that I’ve been to and all the rest of it but um we only put that out because it looked like a fairly one-sided article from from Danny and you know I like Danny I’ve told him that personally so you know I’m not speaking that a turn and um I think we just had to set the record straight that we we’re not trying to hold the club to to Ransom here we really not we we we’ve reiterated in our press release yesterday that that we’re waiting for them to come back with you know alternative plans okay so coming back to the point that we just discussed which was about whether Forest could buy the Freehold um I’m not an accountant but it would seem to me that if they were to purchase the freeold for you from you that would be a one-off payment that could be capitalized and then it would actually save the club 250,000 a year of operating costs which would then improve the position in terms of profit and sustainability and that money would therefore be available to spend on players or whatever the club would do I might does that sound does that make sense to you yeah and you know as far as we were concerned that was always an option um and you know both on the lease figures and on the the sale figures you know we we are some way apart but I don’t think it’s in some out B that’s why I think we need to get people back around the table and and see what’s possible well this makes eminent sense but but my my question is Steve is like within the council whose job is it to get on the phone to the club because it seems like both sides are waiting for the other to get in touch and well that’s that that’s not the case Rob we we have given the club our valuations based based on external valuations we had a meeting with them to discuss it you know broadly the club said they didn’t agree with the figures and we’ve been waiting for them to come back with a you know different proposals and or different valuation or tell us something materially that that they don’t agree with in in the valuations or whatever so you know we we do think we we’re waiting for them to come back to us but I say I I don’t want to get into a big who who said yeah she said but that that is the reality and that that’s the only reason we’ve commented over the last 24 hours because the article made it look like you know we were we deliberately weren’t talking to them and that’s just not the case it has to be honest it has felt that a lot of the statements coming out of the club have been pointing the finger back towards you guys so are you saying now you guys feel like the ball is in forest’s court at the moment and you’re waiting on a response would that be would that be a fair assessments or can you guys start the dialogue up just to get it moving and look you know we can all we can all admit that that things can always be better aren’t we no one’s perfect yeah um we’re about to have a new leader with the city council from a week on Monday you know maybe that’s a a fresh start we you know the new leader goes and meets Tom or something let’s let’s get the season out the way let’s get the Chelsea game and the Bernie game out of the way let’s know what division the club are in let’s know what you know where we are but as far as I’m concerned we should be working to resolve this because I’d like to see the club stay at City ground I know I think the vast majority of fans would you know is are we going to stay there for Life who knows because nobody knows our football changes and takes off if we were in this is me talking as a fan again but you know if we’d had 10 years sustained membership of the Premier League with a 42,000 seat stadium and we were filling that out regularly and we were potentially losing out another 20,000 people who wanted to come then you know the club might then want to look at you know if we can’t get any more in the city grounds after that do they want to build somewhere but you know we’re not at that stage are we like like you said earlier Rob we could we could be in the championship next year if we lose the next two games and L win there so um you know I think we we need to see what’s what what’s possible for for both sides it certainly needs to be resolved both you know Council I suspect want want Forest to stay um so there’s some contradictions there in the County Council might want to sell them a plot of land at totem but I suspect Rush Cliff would quite like them to stay where they are what’s your view on the Totten site then just as as a fan what what do you think about that proposal well I I can’t get past the the phrase that you’d never you’d never seen the Mis rolling in from totem sidings as Pete as Pete Blackburn said on a different podcast I mean you know I I don’t think it’s a runner personally I think it has all the Hallmarks of a bit of a soulless bowl that we’ve criticized as fans ourselves when we’ve gone to some of these places and that end up being in a you know on a industrialist site somewhere I’m not saying all those St yeah not saying all those stadiums are terrible but quite a lot of them are I don’t think there a massive infrastructure around the place I’m not sure about the transport links there it wouldn’t feel like Nottingham it’s technically closer to Darby you know which is never a good thing so but do do you feel that club is seriously considering this or that it’s basically negotiation tactic well you know this is where we get into the rounds of speculation is it but you know I’ve read a hell of a lot on this over the past few weeks I think when the club first talked about it I think they did an interview with the BBC in about February and I think at that time people said oh this is a threat you know they they’re just threatening to try and get a better deal with the council uh and then when it’s come out again now you know again this is speculation I don’t know for a fact that this is happening this is this is speculation that well you know I think they’ve been out and had a look at the site and you know they’ve been measuring up for curtain sort of thing so um maybe there’s a bit more to it than than than just uh a negotiating tactic and you know might be that some people in the club think that the ambition of the owner is for a 50 60,000 Stadium all singing or dancing stadium with a training ground next to it and a couple of hotels and a a right big sporting complex that that other clubs have and you know I know that Tom’s made the point about if you look at the top 10 clubs in the Premier League they’re all got grounds at are 45,000 and above and that’s the ambition of the owner clearly now you know great if we can sustain that does it not concern you then that the longer that this um lease issue goes unresolved the more that that plan starts to gather Moss as it were and and and and pick up momentum and then it becomes harder to to stop yeah and I think I think the fans what should have a say in it as well person as a fan you know at some point they’re going to have to have a consultation with fans and you know I think there had been a bit of a a bit of a round the houses with it Haven there with a fans Advisory Board well the the thing is with that the club can pick whichever fans it wants to speak to based on whatever answer they want so that’s not exactly a perfect mechanism but I I I do worry that um you know you guys are waiting for the phone to ring and in the meantime this is picking up momentum to the point where it actually becomes a serious plan and becomes Unstoppable so I mean what what I’m saying is like what are you doing other than coming on today and thank you for that but what are you doing to break the impass as it were well I spoke to Tom yesterday because you know it’s breaking off in the media and you know on Twitter and in the athletic so you know I I reiterated again let’s keep talking you know let’s try and um get people together and you know the stuff that we put out as a press release you know we we reiterating to the club all the time just just respond back to us to the to the last meeting that we had um you know’s an idea here’s an idea I saw on Twitter and I’m just interested in what your comment is on this so if we were talking about a different piece of land there is actually a a quite a large Square piece of land uh uh sort of next to the BBC and the NHS Walkin Center and the incinerator but there’s like that old British waterways building um so that’s been talked about now I you know that would be even closer to the center and even closer to the station and I’m presumably the city council owns that land right so I the least type on that I think is not yeah exactly there something to do with like it’s in it’s industri zoning or I mean this isn’t Sim City or whatever can’t you just like rezone it as sporting or what what about what about that you know if what I’m saying is if the club is hellbent on pursuing a brand new built from scratch 50,000 allsea Stadium wouldn’t you be haven’t you got sort of that piece of land or other pieces of land that you could say okay if this is what you want to do how about this I mean is that up for discussion keep it more Central yeah I I’ve I’ve heard it speculated about but also I know that the club have asked a question and I know that we’ve already responded to the club on it and I know about that piece of land specifically or yeah so so people talk about it is the bit as you walk down London Road from the uh from Trum Bridge from the city ground towards the station uh so you’re walking you’re walking down London Road and you’ve got the canal and then um just over the the back I think there’s a virgin active gy but there’s a big next to that there’s a big Council comp compound and there’s a couple of council depos there it’s where the bin wagons are stored but there’s also an incinerator uh there and then there’s some general Wasteland behind it now I’m I’m told from from the club’s point of view they’ve looked at it aily and they think it’s a big enough site the slight problem slight problem and it is you know quite a big problem is there’s a big incinerator there so um which burns waste so that would have to be knocked down moved moved somewhere else there’s all sorts of ecological and environmental issues surrounding that ter on that point I have to ask right is a is the city center an ideal place for an incinerator because I mean like people are not allowed to have oh God now off to I mean I love this I love this conversation but I’d have to get you know I’d have to get my colleagues in know about this sort of stuff to talk to but the the reality is even something like that has a lifespan and I think you know it will probably go to when its lifespan is and then that might be the end of it but it’s there and it provides heating it provides District heating to about 8,000 properties in the city and in the city center so you know it it sounds whenever anybody raises it it sounds a great idea and but when you look at the practicalities of it it it’s quickly unravels but that piece of land leaving out the incinerator that piece of land has a larger footprint than the current city ground right I mean that yeah I would think so yeah I mean looking back I’ve looked into it that piece of land has been vacant since it was bombed in the second world war the the railway sidings were a target for the the L rapper right and and it’s on it yeah it’s not all vacant because there is obviously there is the incinerator there the district heating system there’s also two Council depos Etc to squeeze in between the boat club and these and these houses on that that space would be fantastic for them fit you find you find a consultant that knows about knocking incinerators down and rebuilding them somewhere and and offer your services to to both the club and uh and the council you make a lot of money rob yeah we’re going to but we’re on a fast track to Toten at the moment and that that site it doesn’t seem I mean the problem with that site is you have to have a car to go there yeah you have to have a car just just on that one Steve would that then cause who who would it cause the issue to there in terms of infrastructure be it transportation and stuff is that something Forest would have to get involved in or would there be pressure on you guys to have to build some infrastructure maybe to yeah if that were to happen that that would be completely outside the city council’s re because um you’ve got um Brock Stow Bor Council would be the planning Authority and so there’ be some some mix up between brockow bough Council and the County Council so it’s not out it’ be outside the city we we don’t own the land but um in terms of Transport links yeah I mean there’d have to be some serious consideration of Transport links maybe the new mayor’s office would have a look at it because they’ll maybe get some money for Trans transport infrastructure so it would be a major project wouldn’t it if they were going to build a brand new stadium but what I’m saying there would have to be a consideration from whoever’s in charge of it to supply the infrastructure and I assume would Forest have to be involved in that as well oh yeah yeah what what they’d have to put in a planning application to brockow B Council to build a stadium on their on on land that’s in their burrow and how planning authorities work is that they say yes subject to and then they list all the conditions and transport and how people get to the venue and where people Park is is a massive consideration you you look at what happened in Brighton yes you can build a new stadium but you can’t have any cars within a six mile radius want it I’ve been to Bright away and you end up on a on a train waiting for a train line for an hour after a game but yeah um just don’t just a Layman question here if it were to happen let’s just pay Devil’s Advocate and Forest left the city ground what what would could we expect to happen to the actual Stadium or ground I say there’s another question is it because if if Forest give up the lease then the land reverts to the city council um and you’d have to look in whether there were covenants there about what what it could be used for or or whatever if the club bought the land then they could still move couldn’t they technically and they could redevelop the land for something else but um you know that where I think this all falls down is if the club want to get more people in the ground ASAP surely you do that by expanding the existing ground that’s got to be a quicker fix than building a stand a ground from scratch the only argument for building the ground from scratch is you use the old ground while you’re doing it and then you move in because stand down while it gets redeveloped whichs less income coming in yeah so you could almost see them running in parallel if they did move it to another site yeah but I mean I remember the argu I went to the presentation that Forest did in 2019 at the ground and um you know they were talking about we’d knock the stand down at at the end of a close season we try to get a couple of games towards the end of the season to be away we’d then have off the stand up by Christmas and people could move into the low bit and we’d have it all done by the end of the season and you know clubs clubs are quite Adept at this these days aren’t they you know stands are going up left right and Center in places not just in the UK but around the world so there is expertise out there about how you can do things a bit quicker and I think just to close off because you’ve been more than generous of your time I do appreciate it Steve what’s the next step so if if if the club were watching and we could send them a message to get things moving because I think from a fan perspective I don’t know if you guys would agree but we just want to know the resolution of it and let’s not do anything till at least Sunday hopefully once West Ham have beaten Luton but going forward what needs to be the next steps to start to add a bit of pace to the momentum of this so my hope now is that we can get everybody around the table that we um take the opportunity of the new leader the council coming in a week on Monday to sit down with the the forest uh leadership um at the end of the season see if they can come up with an alternative proposal in terms of the funding um see if they’ve got an alternative valuation if if they want to show any further consideration of that um and try and get an agreement to to to move forward you know if the club alternatively have explored things with the County Council and they’re really Keen to explore a move then we probably just need that clar clarification as well from the club yeah fantastic Steve as I said you’ve been more than generous with your time I want to thank you for taking time I think it’s been a fascinating discussion to see it from the opposing um sides and what you’re dealing with and as we mentioned at the start we’ve heard a lot from the farest side about what’s been happening but not too much from the council um guys if you want to follow Steve Heat is on Twitter and it’s battle much for WW I believe is your Handler on there I’ll leave that for you guys in the description down below but um yeah Rob any closing thoughts from yourself or hand over to Steve if I could just reiterate what I said earlier which is I think while this is allowed to drift I think we are drifting into a move to Toten because the more time that and the more emotional energy that gets expended in that and the more it’s actually talked about the more people start to look at the idea maybe through Rose tinted glasses yeah it would it be nice to have a season ticket I’m on a waiting list of 11,000 people so uh but what I would say to you is that you know just think about who you’re dealing with here like Mr marinakis doesn’t like to be pushed around is is my reading of this situation uh and I think it’s important to understand what he’s done for the city to date and just to maybe just take that into account um because I think this kind of standoff it could end up in a in a resolution that hurts both parties and you know we’ve got enough problems with Premier League referees and all of the other things that are against us without sort of fighting among ourselves yeah I I just want to say Rob I accept that I I personally but I know the council itself is incredibly proud of the achievements of forest um the name recognition that Nottingham Forest have brought to the city of Nottingham over the last 45 years is incredible you know people talk about us around the world and they come to the city international visitors you know we’ve got now in our tourist information office two-thirds of our tourist information office is the Forest Club shop you know that’s incredible it’s just around the corner from the Briant Club statute we hosted in the council house the celebrations for getting back into the Premiership that was a brilliant day you know the players on the on the balcony of the council house and 30,000 plus people in the Market Square you know an absolutely brilliant day so we’re we’re incredibly proud of the connection with the club that was founded in the city of noham and we want it to be part of the fabric of the city going forward even though technically it’s 500 yards over the Border yeah um I just want to say thank you again Steve guys once you’ve watched this get your comments in down below I’ll be fascinated to hear your thoughts on what Steve had to said and does this open your eyes a little do you see this debate whatever you want to call it in slightly different um lenses now having heard um what Steve’s had to say about it so please don’t forget to hit that like button if you haven’t already subscribe to fars fan TV if you are new and we’ll see you on the next video again thank you to Steve and thank you to rob you Reds thank you much [Music]