Nottingham Forest looked to be in a strong financial position for the 25/26 season, but one aspect of their commercial work could be tweaked to make the Reds even stronger.
Nothing shows financial strength like signings and Forest completed a £100m triple-swoop to bring in James McAtee, Omari Hutchinson and Arnaud Kalimuendo.
After this outlay, Evangelos Marinakis is aiming for Champions League football as the club looks to grow on and off the pitch.
An aspect of this will be improving the club’s sponsorship income so to understand this, Nottingham Forest News has spoken to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, who explained the mechanisms behind shirt sponsorships.
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This season, the Reds are sponsored by Bally’s, in a deal that only looks to last the 25/26 campaign, leaving the commercial team to look for yet another replacement.
Forest’s commercial income reached £30m in the last financial year, when Kaiyun Sports were the club’s front-of-shirt sponsor, but these regular changes to the sponsors aren’t a strategy favoured by anyone in the industry.
Maguire explained: “I think Forest would love to have long-term front-of-shirt partners. That’s the feeling I get when I speak to commercial managers at clubs. The greatest number of sleepless nights is that period when they don’t have a deal in place for the upcoming season.
We are delighted to confirm Bally’s, one of the world’s leading entertainment companies, as the Club’s new Front of Shirt Partner. 🙌
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) August 5, 2025
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“Going forward, gambling sponsors will presumably be focusing on shirt sleeve deals as opposed to sleeve sponsorship deals. That creates a vacuum. No one quite knows what the value of shirt sponsorship is going to be without gambling partners in the mix.
“So if Forest can get a long-term deal, they will get guaranteed revenue, and then they don’t have to worry in 12 months’ time that the market rate has declined.”
Amid the period of growth for Forest on the pitch, Marinakis has also been securing positive revenue streams for the club away from player trading, with the City Ground expansion also set to be lucrative.
The City Ground expansion will be lucrative for Nottingham Forest
Should Forest look to secure a long-term shirt sponsor, the expansion plans for the City Ground will be a good indication for brands that the Reds are a club moving in the right direction.
The current plans will expand the capacity of the stadium by 5,000 seats, with finance expert Adam Williams explaining the sizable impact that could have on revenue.
Speaking to Nottingham Forest News, he said: “This phase of the development might only be adding 5,000 in capacity in terms of the volume of seats, but it’s going to have an outsized impact on revenue. If you’re doing a pro-rata calculation, you’d look at Forest’s current matchday income, divide it by 30,000 then multiply that by 35,000 to see their matchday income when the new stand opens.
“So that would give them a little under £17m in matchday income compared to the total in 2023-24, which was £14.4m.
“But in reality, the value of the new stand is going to be much higher. There’s surely going to be more of an emphasis on premium experiences and hospitality, for starters. They have already increased prices. I think by the time the new stand is open, they’ll have a £30m target all told, I suspect.”
Ideally, then, Nuno Espírito Santo’s side will continue to perform on the pitch and with the work on the City Ground alongside it, the club should have no problem finding a longer-term sponsor.