WOLVES have announced plans to expand their stadium capacity by 8,000 seats, with chairman Jeff Shi revealing the need for “urgent changes.”
The Premier League outfit have been playing at their famous Molineux Stadium since 1889.
Wolves are planning on expanding Molineux by 8,000 seats[/caption]
It was one of the first grounds in the country to be equipped with floodlights.
And after a major revamp in the early 90s, Molineux became one of England’s biggest stadiums with 32,000 seats.
However, those numbers are now lagging behind a lot of top flight rivals.
Wolves had been thinking about a major expansion to 50,000 seats.
But chairman Shi has now decided against a new renovation.
Instead, the businessman is planning to add around 8,000 new seats to take capacity to 40,000
That would mark a major increase in revenue for Wolves, who have seen more key men leave this summer to balance the books.
Matheus Cunha joined Manchester United for £62.5million last month, with Rayan Ait-Nouri heading to Man City for £36m soon after.
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It is not known when Wolves plan to start their work on Molineux.
Yet Shi is adamant there’s no rush to begin, instead claiming that “urgent changes” are needed in other areas including hospitality.
He told the Business of Sport podcast: “Molineux is not a bad stadium.
“I have been to many stadiums in the UK and it’s a good stadium.
“On capacity we have 32,000, and I think it’s good enough, maybe 35k or 40k is the max for the city, but it’s not urgent.
“The urgent changes are that I think we should have more hospitality areas to serve the clients who want a better environment to have a conference or to eat there. We should do more on this.
“We have a very old stand, the Steve Bull stand, it’s too old. The next plan is to try and change a bit there and build more areas for hospitality, similar to what Fulham did with their new stand.
“That’s what we are trying to do but I don’t think the capacity should be much higher than it is now.
“Financially, we are carefully thinking about it. The goal is not to rebuild the stand or the stadium, but to tweak it and optimise it.”
