Nottingham Forest are the second oldest league football club in the world,[8][9] and were founded in 1865,[10][11] but did not move to the City Ground, their seventh home, until 33 years later in 1898.

[13] This was common land so the club were unable to exploit their matches commercially,[14] and as there was no gate money, revenue came mainly from the players' membership fees.

[24] This was the result of the work of club committee-member William Bardill, a nurseryman and landscape gardener whose family firm still exists in Stapleford.

[19] Throughout the 1900s, Notts County also regularly used the City Ground for home matches when their usual venue at Trent Bridge was unavailable for football due to cricket taking precedence.

[28] During World War II the City Ground held a variety of events to entertain off-duty servicemen, including boxing, horse gymkhanas, and visits from zoos.

[33] The City Ground was flooded after the adjacent River Trent burst its banks in March 1947, with Forest having to play some home fixtures at Meadow Lane.

[19] Many archives and official records were damaged and floodwaters reached as high as the crossbars of the goals, with swans seen swimming the full length of the pitch.

[19] The visitors for the opening were Manchester United's "Busby Babes", just four months before eight of them died in the Munich air disaster, and the match on 12 October 1957 saw a new record attendance of 47,804.

[19] As a result of the fire, Forest played six "home" matches at Meadow Lane, losing all of them,[19] and after returning to the City Ground used the changing rooms of nearby Trent Bridge while the Main Stand was rebuilt.

Under Clough's reign, Forest had taken the English domestic game and the European scene by storm and money raised from those successes was invested in a stand that had a capacity of 10,000.

The stand also incorporated 36 executive boxes and a large dining area, which was designed to be the focus of the club's corporate hospitality arrangements.

The disaster resulted in the Taylor Report, which ordered that all clubs in the top two divisions of English football should have an all-seater stadium by August 1994.

[43] Although a compromise rent of £22,000 per year was agreed, the delay meant that Forest had in the meantime turned their attention to replacing the Colwick Road Terrace at the other end of the ground.

[44] It also houses a management suite, which includes the public address systems, computerised electronic scoreboard controls and the police matchday operation.

Leicester Tigers once again played at City Ground when they were defeated 19–16 by Racing 92 on 24 April 2016 in the semi-final of the European Rugby Champions Cup.

[46] The move was planned to coincide with the extension of the Nottingham Express Transit to the area and the expansion of the nearby A453 link to the M1 motorway, promising a "dramatic new gateway" to the city, including additional housing and commercial development.

[46] The plan was opposed by local residents, however,[47] and criticised by fans as an attempt to deflect attention from the fact the club had been relegated to League One.

[48] After the developers decided against proceeding, a new proposal was announced in 2008 for a 50,000 seat "super stadium" costing £100m near the National Watersports Centre at Holme Pierrepont, to form part of England's 2018 FIFA World Cup bid.

[49] The club argued that the main stand at the City Ground could be developed to provide a capacity of 37,000, but that access problems would mean that the venue would never qualify to hold World Cup or other international matches.

[49] The new stadium would have required a new bridge to be built over the River Trent and extensive engineering to overcome the risk from its location on a floodplain,[50] but was abandoned as it was felt it would face significant local opposition.

[54] FIFA's technical requirements had been the driving force behind the proposal and the failure of England's World Cup bid in 2010 threw new stadium plans into doubt.

[57] By the time of the Hasawis' sale of the club in 2017 the City Ground was criticised by the Nottingham Post for having "started to fall into a state of decay" and being "tired, dishevelled, sad and like nobody really cared any more".

[59] On 28 February 2019, the club confirmed an extended lease on the City Ground, allowing it to proceed with plans to redevelop the stadium and surrounding area.

The new Peter Taylor Stand will see the introduction of a museum, a new club shop, executive boxes, and a range of hospitality lounge options and restaurants.

The redevelopment also includes new safe standing areas, high-definition screens, and upgraded hospitality lounges, making the City Ground a modern and vibrant venue for football and other events.