Wolverhampton Wanderers managing director Laurie Dalrymple has expressed his desire for the Premier League club’s revamped Molineux stadium to become a multi-use venue that can be used throughout the year.
The club is planning on expanding the 32,000-seat stadium into a 50,000-capacity venue, and earlier this year Dalrymple said renovation work on the Steve Bull Stand is likely to begin in 2020. The redevelopment of Molineux’s South Bank could potentially begin in 2022.
The Steve Bull Stand has a current capacity of 9,500 and this would expand to 11,000 under the renovation plans, which would see the stadium’s overall capacity increase to 46,000 once all work is complete.
Dalrymple said the club has big plans for Molineux to become a nationally-recognised venue. “We want to be seen as an iconic venue for a multi-purpose use, not just in the Midlands but nationally as well,” Dalrymple told local newspaper the Express & Star.
“We want this stadium to become not just a fantastic football venue but also a choice for non-matchdays. It would be unforgivable if we redeveloped without other business uses in mind.”
He added: “We’ve done a huge amount of work with a consultancy that specialises in stadium and capacity modelling – they’ve worked with a number of other big clubs, not least Liverpool when they redeveloped their main stand.
“We’re talking with key stakeholders and the council remains fundamental to what we’re doing, we have to have their support. The difficulty is because we’re not moving off site, it provides restriction for us to execute that plan.”
Last month, Wolves claimed a first for a Premier League club by announcing that it will install a new barrier seating solution at Molineux. It came after the club announced in January that it would pilot a section of seating options that could be used for safe standing should government legislation on all-seater stadia change.
The club said last month that all seats in the Sir Jack Hayward Stand would be replaced this summer by a new barrier seating solution, with all seats in the Stan Cullis quadrant to be fitted with an independent barrier.
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