The South Stand was replaced in 2003 when a new 7,000 seat South stand, subsequently renamed the Jarrold Stand was built in its place. The club installed new electronic screen/scoreboards at either end of the stadium in 2007. Behind the goals, they are full colour, with scope for still and moving images. They were first used in the 5-2 Carling Cup victory over Barnet F.C. in August 2007.
The current stadium consists of five stands; the Barclay (sponsored by Coral (the northeastern stand), the River End known as the Regency Security Stand Stand (the southwestern stand), the Geoffrey Watling City Stand (the northwestern stand), the Jarrold Stand (the southeastern stand) and the most recent addition, the Aviva Community Stand (the southern stand).
The previous River End stand (named due to it being close to the River Wensum) was demolished in April 1979. A two-tiered replacement, costing £1.7m, was completed in December 1979. Its name was changed to the Norwich & Peterborough Stand in the 1990s due to a sponsorship deal with the Norwich & Peterborough building society.
This stand is named after Captain Evelyn Barclay, a former vice-president of the club, who donated the roof costs for the original stand. The Barclay is often incorrectly referred to as the Barclay Stand.
The original Barclay was built in 1937 and demolished in 1992, when a new two-tier structure, modelled on the River End (now the Norwich & Peterborough Stand) was built at a cost of £2.8m (offset by a £2m grant from the Football Trust).
Floodlights are supported on both corners of the Barclay and the Norwich & Peterborough stands, which are the ends behind the goals.
The single-tiered Geoffrey Watling City Stand was built following a severe fire on 25 October 1984. The fire was apparently caused by an employee of the club leaving a three-bar electric fire switched on overnight. The City Stand (as it was named at the time) cost £1.7 million to build and was used for the first time on 30 August 1986 when City hosted Southampton. It was formally opened by the Duchess of Kent on 14 February 1987. The stand was renamed in honour of Norwich City president Geoffrey Watling, who died in 2004.
The stand is the smallest of the four in terms of capacity, but includes the Directors' Box, Press Area, and various other hospitality suites.
Where The Barclay extends around to meet the Geoffrey Watling City Stand, is the Thorpe Corner infill, "affectionately dubbed 'The Snakepit' by supporters", a term that is even sometimes used in official club reports.
The Jarrold Stand is on the former site of the South Stand, which was named in honour of Sir Arthur South.
The Jarrold Stand was partially opened for the game against Sheffield United on 31 January 2004, and fully opened for the next home match against West Ham United on 21 February 2004. This was a landmark for the stadium - it represented the final stand of the original ground to be replaced.
The Jarrold Stand is sponsored by Jarrolds, a local department store. The original 4-year sponsorship deal has now been extended through to 2013. The stand is a cantilever, single-tiered, all-seated stand, that can hold up to 8,000 supporters. The Jarrold Stand is "unusual in having not one, but three separate television gantries suspended beneath its largely perspex roof."
In 2005, further work was undertaken on the stand and it reopened in 2006. The stand now extends around the Norwich and Peterborough Stand corner of the ground.
Accommodation for visiting supporters is provided in the end of the Jarrold Stand closest to The Barclay.
The corner infill between the Jarrold and Norwich & Peterborough stands is called the Aviva Community Stand, which was originally built in 2005 and named after sponsors Norwich Union. It seats up to 1,500 fans and also provides extensive facilities for disabled supporters.
The club had two options on how to fill the corner between the Barclay and the Jarrold Stand. The club decided not to fill this corner with seats, as this would lead to away supporters being surrounded by home fans.
It was therefore decided to complete the ground's corners with a hotel. It was hoped that a hotel could offer greater financial rewards than ticket sales. In 2005, a contract was signed with the Holiday Inn hotel chain in 2005, and construction commenced in 2006. The hotel opened in 2007 and allows customers with pitch-facing rooms to watch matches.
Catering at Carrow Road is provided by Delia's Canary Catering, which is part of Norwich City Football Club PLC. The service is described: "All menus are made up from Delia Smith's own published recipes (6,000 in all) and as we are in an agricultural area we take pride in using the finest ingredients and local seasonal produce."
Yellows is a "New York-style diner" in the Norwich & Peterborough Stand. Earlier restaurants in the same place were called 'Strikers' and 'Scores'.
Delia's Restaurant and Bar is a restaurant in the Norwich & Peterborough Stand.
The Gunn Club is a catering facility behind The Barclay. With access restricted to members and season-ticket holders, "The Gunn Club" offers a slightly more up-market catering experience, available for hire on non-match days. The club offers facilities and features including video screens, appearances by current and former club members and (by popular demand) real ale.
The 68-page match programme for Norwich City matches costs £3.
The club have, in the past, stated that they have plans to increase the capacity of the stadium should the club win promotion back to the Premier League, using the increase in funds to finance the expansion. Specifically, these plans include building a second tier on the Jarrold Stand or the Geoffrey Watling City Stand. The club have stated that the Geoffrey Watling stand has foundations designed to support a second tier, and that the roof can be removed and replaced after a second tier is added. At the time the original stand was built the inner ring road ran next to the ground, and any extensions of an upper tier outside the existing footprint of the stand would have caused planning difficulties. Since the road was re-routed in the late 1990s an extension to the stand is less likely to raise planning objections.
Carrow Road has never hosted a match involving the England national football team, but the England national under-21 football team has played at the stadium on three occasions. The first was in 1983 in a UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualifying match against Denmark national under-21 football team, which England won 4-1. The team played another qualifying match in the same tournament at the stadium in 1997, beating Greece national under-21 football team 4-2. This game saw Michael Owen's only ever appearance for the England Under-21 side, before his subsequent rise to fame in the senior national team. As part of their preparations for the 2007 finals of the European Championship tournament, the England Under-21s played Slovakia national under-21 football team in a friendly match at the ground in June 2007. England won 5-0 in front of a crowd of 20,193 people.
Games involving the England Under-19 team and the full England women's national football team have also been played at the stadium. The women's team have played there on two occasions; the first a 1-0 defeat to Nigeria women's national football team in 2002, in front of 8,000 fans, and the second a 1-0 victory over Iceland national women's football team in 2006. The latter game's attendance of 9,616 was the largest crowd that had watched a friendly game involving the women's team.