{"id":2099447,"date":"2025-07-02T12:42:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/westmidlands\/?p=2099447"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:42:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:42:31","slug":"wolves-chairman-rules-out-stadium-redevelopment-in-favour-of-hospitality-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/westmidlands\/news\/2099447-wolves-chairman-rules-out-stadium-redevelopment-in-favour-of-hospitality-investments","title":{"rendered":"Wolves chairman rules out stadium redevelopment in favour of hospitality investments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wolves chairman Jeff Shi has ruled out a major redevelopment of Molineux Stadium, and instead wants to “optimise” the club’s hospitality and conference offer.<\/p>\n

Shi, who has been with the club since 2016, was leading on plans to redevelop the site into a 50,000-seater stadium before the pandemic ended those ambitions.<\/p>\n

Wolves had the 14th highest average attendance in the Premier League last year of 30,660. Nearly all Premier League clubs’ averages fit into two groups – either 25,000-32,000 or above 50,000.<\/p>\n

Shi said that any expansion in the capacity “if you just do it for only 3,000-4,000 more, you will lose money, for sure”.<\/p>\n

He added: “We have 32,000 seats at the moment, and I think it’s good enough. 35,000 or 40,000 maybe the max for the city. But it’s not very urgent. <\/p>\n

“I think the urgent changes [are] we should have more hospitality areas and to serve the clients from the business, and they want to have a better environment to have a conference or to eat there – and we should do more on this.”<\/p>\n

Everton was the latest Premier League club to say goodbye to its historic home at the end of last season, while Midlands clubs Aston Villa, Birmingham City and Nottingham Forest have significant stadium redevelopment projects underway.<\/p>\n

But Shi, speaking on the Business of Sport podcast<\/a>, dismissed any major changes at Molineux.<\/p>\n

“The goal is not to rebuild the stand or the stadium,” he said. “It’s more about to tweak or to change it, to optimise that.”<\/p>\n

His focus is on the Steve Bull stand, which runs down the touchline opposite the dugouts. The stand was completed in 1979 and is blamed for Wolves’ financial crisis of the 1980s which saw the club come close to going out of business.<\/p>\n

Shi said: “The next plan is try to change a bit there, and try to build more area for hospitality, for more business clients to come and enjoy.<\/p>\n

“Similar to what Fulham did and for the new stand. But they are more high-end for the super-rich client to come, but we are more for maybe not super-rich, but clients that want to have a better environment to enjoy the game. That’s what we are trying to do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No return to 50,000-seater ambitions with ‘urgent changes’ focused on corporate offer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2099448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,120904],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-2099447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","category-sport","tag-black-country","tag-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\nWolves chairman rules out stadium redevelopment in favour of hospitality investments | TheBusinessDesk.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No return to 50,000-seater ambitions with 'urgent changes' focused on corporate offer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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