The New Lawn Stadium: Forest Green Rovers
Forest Green Rovers have played at a ground called ‘The Lawn’ pretty much ever since the club was formed. Originally they played at The Lawn Ground, which was known as a place ‘at the top of the hill’. That, in turn, led to the one of the club’s nicknames, The Little Club On The Hill. In 2006 they moved to The New Lawn, a stadium with a capacity of a little over 5,000. It is, as we’ll explain in more detail later, one of the most eco-friendly stadiums in the world.
The club itself was established back in 1889 by a reverend named EJH Peach. Back then it was just called Forest Green until the ‘Rovers’ was added in 1893, then in 1894 it was renamed as Nailsworth Association Football Club in order to ensure the town had a club to represent it. It was re-established as Forest Green Rovers in 1898. They were one of the founding members of Mid-Gloucestershire League, which later folded in 1901, meaning that the club moved to the Dursley & District League.
Stats
| The New Lawn Stadium Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Opened | 2006 |
| Capacity | 5147 |
| Average Attendance | 3148 |
| Record Attendance | 4836 (Forest Green Rovers v Derby County (2009)) |
| Pitch Size | 101 x 64 (6464) |
| Nickname | The Lawn |
| Owner | Forest Green Rovers Football Club |
| Sponsor | Bolt |
| Clubs Hosted | Forest Green Rovers, Gloucester City |
| First Fixture | Forest Green Rovers v Swindon Town (12/07/2006) |
| Forest Green Rovers Stats | |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1889 |
| Nickname | Rovers, The Green, FGR, The Little Club On The Hill, Green Army |
| Club Mascot | Green Devil |
| Rivals | Wrexham AFC, Lincoln City, Gloucester City A.F.C. |
| Previous Stadiums | The Lawn Ground |
| Kit | Green & Black (Home) / Pink & Black (Away) |
| Training Ground | Forest Green Training Centre |
| Shirt Sponsor | Ecotricity |
| Team Owner | Dale Vince |
| Record Goalscorer | Alex Sykes (73) |
| Record Appearances | Alex Sykes (295) |
The New Lawn Stadium Photos
Roger Cornfoot [CC BY-SA 2.0]
FGROVER1989 / Wikimedia Commons
Roger Cornfoot [CC BY-SA 2.0]
Nick / Flickr.com
Nick / Flickr.com
quisnovus / Flickr.com
The New Lawn Stadium Seating Plan and Where to Sit
The New Lawn is very much built in the traditional English style, with four separate stands on each side of the pitch. The main stand runs along one side of the pitch and is opposite a smaller standing section. There are two small stands behind each of the goals, but most of the sections are standing as there are only 2,000 seats in the ground, with an overall capacity of just over 5,000.
Forest Green Rovers Ticket Prices
Tickets for Rovers matches are cheaper by £1 if you buy them in advance, and as would be expected it is cheaper to watch from the terraces than it is from a seat. Prices for adults and concessions will all fall somewhere between the price bracket below:
- Adults: £19.00 – £23.00
- Concessions: £15.00 – £18.00
How To Get Forest Green Rovers Tickets
The club’s official website is always the best place to head to buy tickets, but you can also call them directly or pick them up in person from the reception of the stadium. SMS tickets are also available.
Where to Buy
Getting To The New Lawn Stadium
Train – Stroud Train Station is the closest to the ground, located as it is about fifteen minutes away by car.
Bus – There’s a bus stop right outside the ground on Nympsfield Road where bus numbers 63 and 65 stop. They’re the ones you’ll want to keep an eye out for if you’re hoping to get the bus to the stadium.
Car – The ground is located in the middle of the M5 and A433, so if you can get to either of those then you’re not far away. The A46 is probably the closest main road to the ground and by the time you get onto that there’ll be signs pointing you in the right direction.
By Air – If you’re hoping to fly in to watch a Forest Green Rovers match then Gloucestershire Airport is the closest, located about seventeen miles away from Stroud.
Taxi – A cab from the centre of Stroud out to The New Lawn will take about fifteen minutes to complete its journey and will likely cost approximately £18.
Parking Near The New Lawn Stadium
There is a large parking area at the stadium with 230 spaces. As the stadium has yet to sell out for a game you’ll almost certainly be able to get a space there.
Useful Resources
- Parking - Just Park
The New Lawn Stadium Hotels
Stroud is an unexpectedly beautiful part of the country. It’s worth exploring the surrounding area if you stay at one of these hotels before a match.
Holiday Inn Express Gloucester - £60+
Brookthorpe Lodge - £80+
The Old Lodge - £90+
Pubs and Bars Near The New Lawn Stadium
They know a thing or two about good pubs round these parts. The Woolpack, made famous by Laurie Lee in his book Cider with Rosie, is only up the road from Stroud, although since it isn’t much good for sports we haven’t included it in our selections below.
The Green Man
Star Inn
Queen Victoria Inn
Facilities
Depending on how you look at it, the food options are fantastic or awful. On the one hand they sell award winning pie’s as well as fajita’s, burgers and other freshly made delicacies. On the other hand, the stadium is 100% vegan – so no meat. No harm in going vegan for the day, though, and it’s something a bit different to the usual greasy spoon type nosh you get elsewhere.
Prices
- Programme: £3
- Pie: £3.5
- Cup of tea: £1.7
- Beer: £4
Hospitality
There are two main hospitality options for matches at The New Lawn. You can enjoy delicious food, alcoholic drinks and a decent view in one of seven hospitality boxes big enough for ten people. Or, if you’d rather not, then you can sign up for some VIP Dining. This includes a table in the Carol Embrey Suite or the Black and White Suite, with table service and a great selection of food, plus a reserved parking space and seats directly outside the box.
Private Hire
There are numerous options for venue hire at The New Lawn Stadium, including The Green Man pub, which is a public house within the complex. Whether you’re wanting to host a birthday party, a charity dinner, a disco or a stag do then you’ll be able to do just that, with the events team able to accommodate up to 200 people. One of the team will be assigned to you to ensure you get a service tailored exactly to your needs.
Stadium Tours & Museum
As we write this there is no museum, but the club do run Ecotours on match days. It’s more about the stadium and how sustainable it is rather than the club itself, although some club history is included.
About Forest Green Rovers
We mentioned earlier how the club started out, being formed in 1889 and undergoing a few name changes after that. What we didn’t tell you was about the continued complications that involved the club in the following years, such as their withdrawal from the Dursley & District League in 1908 in the wake of finishing that season with zero points. In 1911 the club merged with Nailsworth to become Nailsworth & Forest Green United. Another major name change occurred in 1989 when they became Stroud Football Club, though that didn’t last long until they returned to being Forest Green Rovers.
Having previously been a founding member of the Mid-Gloucestershire League, they were also one of the founding clubs of the Gloucestershire County League in 1968. It’s fair to say that the club has bounced around the lower levels of British football for most of its existence, getting promoted to League Two for the first time in its history at the end of the 2016-2017 season thanks to a play-off victory over Tranmere Rovers. That win meant not only that Forest Green Rovers played in the Football League for the first time, but also that Nailsworth became the smallest town ever to have a football club playing in the Football League.
The New Lawn Stadium History
Work began on Forest Green Rovers’s new football stadium in 2005 after its design was approved by council members. It cost £3 million and took a little over a year to be completed. As well as the stadium there’s also a gym and sauna, a pub, a leisure club and conference facilities on site. As mentioned earlier, the stadium is one of the most eco-friendly in the world. In 2011 a decision was made to make it an organic pitch, the first of its kind. It is fertilised with manure, meaning that it’s got a very specific smell to it. There are solar panels in place, allowing the stadium to generate its own electricity, plus there’s even a robotic lawn mower that trims the turf.
Dale Vince, the club’s chairman and owner of Ecotricity, is a former New Age traveller and a green energy industrialist. He has worked hard to grow the stadium’s environmental features. This includes the things mentioned above as well as the fact that the stadium collects rainwater and recycles it. It is a meat-free football ground, becoming the first to be entirely vegan. This was kick-started in 2014 when it hosted a vegan football match between Forest Green Rovers and Lincoln City. The refusal to sell meat isn’t to everyone’s taste, of course, with the likes of chicken and steak pie a staple at most football stadiums. The club believes that its’ vegan diet has aided players fitness since it was introduced… which is why players bend over backwards to sign for Forest Green Rovers…
Future Developments
In 2015 the club unveiled plans to build a new £100 million facility that will include a new stadium. It won’t improve the capacity, levelling out at about 5,000, but it will be one of the greenest sports centres anywhere in the world. Because of this there are unlikely to be any major developments done to The New Lawn between now and the new stadium’s construction.
Plans were accepted in March of 2020 and the new stadium, made completely of wood, broke ground in Feb 2023.