English Championship football club Wolverhampton Wanderers is considering plans to create one of the biggest single-tier stands in the country as part of redevelopment of its Molineux stadium, according to the Express & Star.
The local newspaper said the plans involve adding a further 5,000 seats to the Sir Jack Hayward Stand, bringing it up to a capacity of around 10,000 seats.
This would be achieved by building back on the current structure. However, the Express & Star noted that the land needed to do so is owned by Carillion, the facilities management and construction services company which is headquartered in Wolverhampton and recently entered into administration.
Talks are said to be taking place over the potential purchase of the land, but the Express & Star said that work would not take place until the club, more commonly known as Wolves, secures a stable position in the Premier League. Wolves, under the stewardship of Chinese conglomerate Fosun, currently sit six points clear at the top of the Championship table.
The redevelopment of Molineux has been put on hold since Wolves’ relegation from the Premier League in 2012. The new Stan Cullis Stand, located opposite to the Sir Jack Hayward Stand, opened that year and was converted from a single-tier structure to a two-tier design – a move that proved unpopular with fans.
Fosun, which took over Wolves in the summer of 2016, is understood to be formulating a wider redevelopment plan for Molineux, the club’s home since 1889. The last major redevelopment completed in the early 1990s made it one of the finest stadia in English football, but Molineux has since fallen behind many other modern venues.
