Featured image credit: Rob Ridley
Premier League football club Wolverhampton Wanderers has been granted a licence for safe standing at Molineux, with the areas to be in operation for its home match against Tottenham Hotspur on March 4.
Wolves became the first Premier League club to install barrier seating into an existing stadium back in 2019, after the Sports Ground Safety Authority (SGSA) confirmed that it could be licensed as compliant with the government’s all-seater policy.
The SGSA has now granted Wolves a licence to operate safe standing, which will see legal standing return to Molineux for the first time since 1993. The club has fitted 585 barrier seats in the Steve Bull Stand, with the installation deemed necessary to secure the license, which stipulates that standing areas must be available for home and visiting supporters.
Wolves now offers 5,553 seats in the Sir Jack Hayward Stand, 2,115 seats in the Stan Cullis Stand and 585 seats in the Steve Bull Lower Stand, providing a total capacity of 8,253 licensed standing seats across Molineux.
Wolves is the fifth Premier League club to receive the licence, joining Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. As part of the introduction of licensed safe standing, the club has introduced updated ground regulations at Molineux, including a code of conduct for anyone purchasing a ticket in the areas.
Tickets for these areas will see safe standing messaging incorporated into the ticket’s design, and fans with season tickets in these zones will be made aware of the new code of conduct.
Steve Sutton, Wolves’ facilities, safety and security director, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been granted this licence after many, many years of hard work by a number of people. We have listened to feedback from our fans and played an active role in supporting the process, including taking part in the research that has led to this historic change in policy.”
Wolves said the club will now face “additional scrutiny” from authorities in relation to persistent standing occurring in other areas of the stadium, with the club required to put in place a management plan to ensure this does not occur without mitigating measures.
“Failure on the club’s behalf to adhere to this plan and manage and control persistent standing will inevitably lead to enforcement action by the authorities that could result in seats being made unavailable in future,” the club said.
Standing areas will be in place at Wembley Stadium for the Carabao Cup final between Manchester United and Newcastle United on Sunday. The two clubs have received an allocation of 867 standing-area seats at Wembley, with the zones to be located behind each goal.
Teams across the Premier League and Championship have been able to introduce safe-standing areas since the start of the season after former UK Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston approved the wider roll-out last summer.
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