Stadium Plans

[Rhoswolf]

Being discussed in tomorrow's AskWolves 10am

Latest edition of Jeffanory, looking forward to it.

 

[JayStringer]

I've said it before, but the biggest problem with redeveloping Molineux at the moment is Steve Morgan's stand.
He was right at the time that the ground needed more seats and upgraded facilities. But if he'd gone with the short term option of filling in a few corners, or the correct longer-term option of rebuilding the Steve Bull, Fosun would have a lot more and better options now. As it is, he redeveloped a stand that was fine for a while longer, but only added a few thousand seats, and moved the footprint of the stadium slightly, and all these decisions have added limits to what we can do next.

It'll be interesting to see what they say tomorrow, but I expect it'll be a variation on "this is something too explore in five years time."

 

[wallisdan]

I wonder if the new temporary stand will still go ahead

 

[Mardenboroughs Shoulder]

Can't see any major development in the short term. The ROI does not work especially as the future is more uncertain. If they wanted to upgrade they had 12 months without fans to get the building work completed with no loss of income. All the development will be on the pitch until we are established as a top 6 side.

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Can't see any major development in the short term. The ROI does not work especially as the future is more uncertain. If they wanted to upgrade they had 12 months without fans to get the building work completed with no loss of income. All the development will be on the pitch until we are established as a top 6 side.

Lets hope the Euro Super League is back on the table then

 

[pacamac]

I wonder if the new temporary stand will still go ahead

And the improved entrances etc to the Steve Bull?

Did anyone notice any difference there last week?

Swear when I went past one time during lockdown there was a big new rollershutter door covering something that wasn’t there before

 

[Kashmire Hawker]

I wonder if the new temporary stand will still go ahead

Well it has planning permission until May 21st 2023, so has to remain an option on the table and I hope it does!

 

[Rhoswolf]

Can't hide behind FFP with this.

 

[Manic88]

Let’s see how long the government lets us have full stadiums for again before we build a bigger one. Think stadium expansion is so far on the back burner now it’s in the fridge.

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

Based on the video yesterday, if you had any hopes Jeff is going to come out tomorrow and say any stadium development expansion (temporary stand aside) within the next 5 years is going ahead please brace yourself for disappointment.

 

[Deleted member 11157]

Slight problem, where do we get the tens of millions, maybe even hundreds of millions of pounds to do it from?

The Supporters Trust ?

 

[Flea]

No FFP rules regarding this issue is there?
Fosun had an excellent point in time doing something stadiumwise during this 18 months of Covid,since no one was allowed into the stadium anyways.

It didn´t happen,and I don´t expect it will happen futurewise either.

We are going to continue playing in the house that Jack built..with a little help of Steve Morgan of all people.

 

[greco wolf]

Hopefully they’ll improve what we have. Full in corners , improve steve bull stand as much as is possible outside and in. Best we can hope for. At least in the next five years

shame as the steve bull rebuild would have made a massive difference to the ground and tie it all in nicely. In these still uncertain times no one is going to invest £50-100m in new stands

 

[greco wolf]

And the improved entrances etc to the Steve Bull?

Did anyone notice any difference there last week?

Swear when I went past one time during lockdown there was a big new rollershutter door covering something that wasn’t there before

Didn’t notice any difference. But to be honest getting in was so quick didn’t really stand and stare - normally you have loads of time to notice queuing for half an hour

 

[Berkswolf]

I would think they will at least wait and see the affect that covid and var has on attendances this season before making any move.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

I would think they will at least wait and see the affect that covid and var has on attendances this season before making any move.

This.
Even if I had the cash I wouldn’t pull the trigger now. What if the Indian variant goes berserk or a new one and attendances are restricted for years? What if H&S rules change around catering, toilets, seat spacing etc as a result
There’s way too much uncertainty around to be dropping hundreds of millions on stadiums.

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

Let’s see how long the government lets us have full stadiums for again before we build a bigger one. Think stadium expansion is so far on the back burner now it’s in the fridge.

My guess is that there won’t be any full stadiums in August - it would be unwise the commit to anything right now on the redevelopment.

 

[pacamac]

This.
Even if I had the cash I wouldn’t pull the trigger now. What if the Indian variant goes berserk or a new one and attendances are restricted for years? What if H&S rules change around catering, toilets, seat spacing etc as a result
There’s way too much uncertainty around to be dropping hundreds of millions on stadiums.

Don't think anyone's expecting permanent plans are they? Club have made it pretty clear for a few years now thats 'on hold' at best. Even before Covid, like you say would be crazy now.

Would still like to see them press on with the planned new temp stand though, surely that's not a massive lay out.

 

[Oliwolf44]

Whole of football going through tough economic times, uncertainty on how many fans can return would be stupid to do anything to the stadium. Not sure why people are on about it. Years away, if at all being thought about.

 

[Vtrpres]

It will be interesting to see what the attendance fallout is after this.

I go with one other mate, we travel up from the south which is about a 2.5 hour drive each way, I distinctly get the impression he won’t renew as his kids are getting older and he seems to have picked up a few weekend hobbies (I don’t want to approach the subject directly as I don’t want to hear the bad news ) and if he doesn’t I likely won’t as it’s going to get too expensive to go up regularly on my own plus the anticipated price increase.

I know that this is only one case, but I think there will be a few people who have found other things to do at the weekend/ appreciate the extra money in the back pocket. Probably not enough to dent attendances significantly but I think it could be easier for newcomers to get an ST this summer.

Great post that. I too worry about my attendance although I only travel from Shropshire. What you you think will be the TV coverage like post Covid? If ever.

 

[forge]

Slight problem, where do we get the tens of millions, maybe even hundreds of millions of pounds to do it from?

bank loans or issuing bonds

just like how Everton can afford to

 

[Bill S Preston Esq.]

Yeah, 44k average attendance with very cheap tickets in the biggest city in the country. 12k empty seats and a dire atmosphere (not all because of that granted).

Because I know this statistic to be untrue I thought I'd Google where you got your information...

Statista would be my guess, one of the first sites to offer up what you're looking for and giving the magic 44k.

Did you look at everyone else's average attendance? Didn't raise any questions? Didn't read the "further information"?

"Due to Covid restrictions, the final 92 PL games were played behind closed doors"

 

[forge]

Yeah if we're hitting a ceiling of 32,000 currently, who knows what the potential upper limit is? I'm confident 40K with sensible ticket pricing is realistic in the shorter term.

I mean the queue for season tickets is about 10 trillion places long so I think that if the stands were expanded finding the people to fill them wouldn't be hard.

The Steve bull stand needs to be rebuilt. It's getting to the point where it's a safety hazard.

 

[Bill S Preston Esq.]

If the club had known exactly how long the stadium would be empty, and to plan around that, I'm sure we would have seen some work done this year as and when allowed. However, crystal balls aren't a real thing and there was no way for them to plan ahead on it. And now the priority needs to be stabilising finances following the pandemic and improving the squad. Any redevelopment needs to wait a number of years.

Fulham seem to have a crystal ball. Obviously it was just a massive stroke of luck to be building a new main stand during a pandemic, but for us to have capitalised on the situation we'd have needed to commit to the build in spring 2019.

 

[Bankswolf The Third]

If Ridley Scott made a sequel to Blade runner the molineux would still look the same as it is now
Will never happen. There is never a good time to do it, you either invest early or not at all

 

[Peszkywolf]

Would cost roughly similar to an average Championship player to fill 2 more corners and modify Steve Bull lower. Boost us up to 35k. Slightly less given to away fans (2300ish?) so more to home fans. Probably will do for the next 2 years?

 

[Werewolf of Wombourne]

It'll be interesting to see if it is still a sell out every game if we have a season like the one just gone again. Hopefully we won't have to find out though.

 

[Irish_Wolf]

I heard B&Q sold out of orange paint last week. Its happening folks!!

 

[pacamac]

So what did they say re Stadium (can't watch vid at work)

Any mention of temporary stand

 

[Kingswood Wolf]

If Ridley Scott made a sequel to Blade runner the molineux would still look the same as it is now
Will never happen. There is never a good time to do it, you either invest early or not at all

Ermmm... There is a sequel. Amazingly they left future Molineux out of it tho.

 

[Wandsworth Wolf]

There will always be reasons not to do it. There were excuses before the pandemic and now - on paper - there are even bigger reasons not to do it.

But, if you think of it, now is the best time to get going.

It would take a year for a spade to go in the ground and at least another year for construction to complete. So that’s 2 years - at which point things will be more ‘normal’.

Also, there has never been a better time to finance a project like this. Record low interest rates make it viable and affordable.

Ultimately, it all boils down to ambition and desire

 

[Bondi Wolf]

Teams of accountants will be working out whether stadiums are still required. I fear that one stadium per club is no longer profitable.

We will be ground sharing within five years

 

[Kashmire Hawker]

How’s THIS for an admission by Jeff:

“JP: I think you’ve answered this, but a couple of questions, from Leon James and Craig Lefevre, have talked about would a new location still be on the table or is that out of the question?”

JS: No, I think Russell has good done a good job and he proposed to me a good plan. Before that plan, I thought a new location would be possible, but after that plan – I have seen that plan, it’s a very good plan – so I don’t think we should move to another location.

 

[Derbywolf85]

SO basically what Jeff has just said in this is that Banks don't view Football as a safe place to loan to at the moment and there's been an increase in interest rates that makes it as a long term project not financially sound for Fosun to commit to - because the Frist team and the Academy always come first.

So there you have it - no new stadium or major redevelopment of Molineux because it's not financially sound to borrow the money to do it at the moment and that the focus is improving the playing squad.

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

Great post that. I too worry about my attendance although I only travel from Shropshire. What you you think will be the TV coverage like post Covid? If ever.

It will be really interesting to see. I’d assume there will be more fixtures broadcast on TV than before the pandemic, but I imagine the 3pm kickoffs will remain sacrosanct and won’t be broadcast. Although who knows if we’ll ever go back to the majority of games being played at 3pm on a Saturday, seemed to have begun the move away from that well before COVID-19 struck!

 

[TheRetroChief]

I would have thought the time to knock down and rebuild if that is the way they are going to go would be now....well, a year ago really. It doesn't matter about reduced capacity when it's already zero or massively reduced.

go, Go, GO!!!!

 

[ShifnalWolf]

I think a few thousand fans will not renew their season tickets with a big shift in people's priorities and psyche after Covid-19.

They will be filled by the waiting list. I can't see us attracting much more than 30k fans every other week at £500 a year or £40 a ticket.

So putting in another temp stand would almost meet demand I think.

 

[Kashmire Hawker]

I think a few thousand fans will not renew their season tickets with a big shift in people's priorities and psyche after Covid-19.

They will be filled by the waiting list. I can't see us attracting much more than 30k fans every other week at £500 a year or £40 a ticket.

So putting in another temp stand would almost meet demand I think.

Thankfully that South East Corner plan for 550 extra seats, has planning permission until 2023, so that is a small help!

 

[pacamac]

Thankfully that South East Corner plan for 550 extra seats, has planning permission until 2023, so that is a small help!

Did they mention that?

That'll do for me quite shocked people actually thought there was ever a chance of anything but that even before Covid it was clear that wasn't happening

 

[Tony]

Fosun won't ever lay a brick.