23 Jun 2025 10:03:51
Stadium expansion, costs and revenue. To start a chat. Let's take it we all love our club. We chat a lot here about staying and growing in Prem. And about the pros and cons of Fosun and Shi. And about the cycle of buying a lot of young, mainly unknown and comparatively not expensive players.
I think we most agree we need more and different channels of income that the limited we have currently. Certainly the club and Shi needs to generate more other channel revenue than they do poorly currently.
But think about ground capacity equation. How much will it cost to raise capacity by 10000? A great deal, especially on our beloved current site. How much revenue from tickets will that bring in? 10000 sears at what? say upper average of £700 year.equals £7m.not a lot is it? (Yes, I know and a few pies, coffees and pints). Doesn't buy you many good players. i'd be very interested in your comments

1.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 10:53:03
From a business point of view, increasing capacity by 1k or so makes little sense as you point out.

I'm a long time fan, in the early 70s I used to wait outside the Mol in the school holidays waiting for the players to turn up to ask for their autographs. On that basis, I still feel it difficult to understand the argument against moving the club out of town to get a large modern stadium. I understand the history and memories but I feel that until we move to a larger stadium we will never be a regular player in Europe.
Get the infrastructure right, rail and roads, parking etc, maybe even get Wolverhampton speedway a home too. The council would be more than willing to facilitate the move (see B-Ham City).

If anyone believes that staying at the Mol is the right way to go I'd be really interested to hear why as I honestly can't see it myself. We need to move on and create new memories

2.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 10:58:16
Taken from the internet which may explain some of the issues the club face in trying to redevelop the ground:

In 1986, Wolverhampton City Council purchased the stadium and surrounding land. This was part of a partnership including a private developer and Asda, with the agreement to build an Asda superstore on adjacent land.

Wolves were granted a lease on the stadium and surrounding land by the council, originally for 125 years, and later extended to 999 years. This long lease ensures the stadium remains in place and allows for future development.

Wolves have long-term plans to expand the stadium, potentially to a 40, 000 capacity, and are in discussions with the council about potential redevelopment and land acquisition.

3.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 11:03:06
All good points. I think with a ground expansion though the bigger picture than just matchday tickets sold has to be looked at. Can we have bigger / better corporate packages? Can merchandising be expanded? Can the stadium be adapted for other uses such as concerts or other sporting events? Can the concourses in the stadium be used for other things such as exhibitions and corporate events? Could the museum be expanded and value added to stadium tours to bring in more revenue? Is a fan park an option somewhere else in the city for when games do sell out, or people want to watch a game and not be in the ground?

The main issue we'd have at the moment with whoever owns the club is the playing side can only be invested in within the rules of PSR. The only way to get around that is to make larger profits and the investment to enable that can be made by an owner if they have the appetite to and the competence to make it a success.

All of that though isn't a quick few weeks between seasons, it takes a long term plan over 10+ years and the concern is when you see what other clubs are doing then we could get left behind and end up competing back where we were as a club 25/30 years ago.

4.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 11:01:02
Rollo you're also failing to take into account the closure of a stand needed to rebuild, all of this has been discussed on here before and a spreadsheet would be needed to calculate the estimated costs and benefits, no easy solutions I'm afraid. That said I think we've hosted Jon bon Jovi and Rod Stewart in the last 25 years, so maybe more use as a concert venue is an option.

5.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 11:29:56
That's my point Arddunby. Such expansion, even by 10000 as someone suggested actually give very little extra revenue, even bearing mind disruption, planning etc

6.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 11:31:36
Tim, why will we never be a regular in Europe without a bigger stadium?

7.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 12:09:13
Excellent thread Rollo - Acle great post!
And agree that increasing the stadium capacity - assuming you could even sell the extra tickets - is not an obvious or easy route to go down.
Far easier to increase revenue from non physical assets IP -not e sports, fashion brands or music none of which seem to have made much progress from Wolves perspective.
Many clubs have beer sponsors, tyre sponsors, airline sponsors, soft drink sponsors etc etc etc.
Wolves need to generate far more revenue from things like advertising, merchandising and sponsorship etc although also using the stadium far more for things like pop concerts, corporate events, weddings etc etc - if the council will allow - is obviously also a nice additional revenue stream as Acle and Arddunby point out.
Sadly however it is a bit chicken and egg to really grow revenues you have to have a brand - a winning brand- and that requires investment or at least not disinvestment, (is that a word), in the team.
Hence until Jeff and Fosun realise that the strategy of selling your best players each year to cover operating losses and buying cheap players hoping to develop them so that you can repeat the exercise a few years later is fatally flawed we will continue to struggle.
ps it is flawed we may have found some great players but not enough as we have dropped from 7th to 16th.
pps no team has ever done it long term and so it is arrogant to the point of stupid to think we can!
Obviously however you have to cover operating losses if you make them. But here is an idea, how about running the club better, so that like Brentford, Brighton, CP and Bournemouth to name just 4, we don't make such massive losses!
It will be far easier to get sponsors etc if you are in the upper reaches of the Prem than if you are in the lower reaches of the Prem or heaven forbid Championship

8.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 12:15:13
All excellent points regarding potential ground development and expansion. I would love to see some investment to improve and increase the capacity of the Mol. In an ideal world would prefer it in the same place, quite like the history to remain and stay put, however all other clubs seem to move. Guess it depends if they intend to develop only sections and money available, would be good for the club to update us.

9.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 13:13:10
Rollowolf, I believe we would struggle to regularly get into Europe while staying at Molineux. The main reason is PSR.

We are restricted by the capacity of the ground and can't just pay to keep our best players. I don't think the present business plan is one that Fosun envisaged when they bought the club. No matter how wealthy or how happy they are to splash cash, they can't.

As a result we will regularly finish below 6 or 8 teams with a much bigger turnover than ours. From time to time we may qualify for Europe, but can't see us keeping ahead on a regular basis of teams with far greater budgets.

Yes, we can cut costs, get sponsors, have gigs at the Mol etc, but despite how poor Man U were, they were still able to buy arguably our best player, we are way off the top teams in the prem in terms of sustainability.

No-one has said why we should stay at the Mol. Does this mean that die hard fans now would be happy to relocate?

10.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 13:17:02
All ifs buts and maybe, s unless someone has heard that Fosun plan on developing the stadium

11.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 16:03:18
As for the argument that increasing capacity by 10, 000 would not bring all that much financial return, it may depend on who the extra seats are marketed to. My local club Chelsea had plans for a new stadium, but the extra capacity would mainly be for higher priced hospitality seats. Chelsea wanted to increase hospitality numbers from 5, 000 to 15, 000. Whether that strategy would work at Wolves I don't know but it would surely be part of planning considerations.

12.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 18:19:41
Deep, I believe we have a waiting list for seaso tickets but have no idea how that translates to hospitality accomodation. My intuitive reaction is that hospitality denand is probably almost totally dependent on the current status and fashionability of the club concerned.

13.) 23 Jun 2025
23 Jun 2025 21:23:02
Indeed I suspect that Chelsea attracts a lot of wealthy tourist fans and corporate event fans that sides outside West London will struggle to attract.
Even allowing for our alleged Korean fan base!

14.) 24 Jun 2025
24 Jun 2025 09:39:49
If I may chip in being an outsider from Wolverhampton, yes wolves have a large fan base and like myself have been on a waiting list for some, I just had an invitation to apply for next season, my love of the wolves stems back to the success in the 50s, it brought the wolves to national and international acclaim, we're still recognised with some affection wherever in the country that I go.
Today though, all I see is the youth in man u, Chelsea Liverpool City spurs and arsenal shirts, a lot in Barcelona.
Alot of the reason is of course TV coverage, but undoubtedly the success of the mentioned teams also plays its part, news media coverage is filled with the same teams and their players commonly known.
How many of those youngsters have been to, or go regularly to old Trafford Annfield etc. (Given I live in oxfordshire), must ve debatable but the club merch is selling afar.
Success and media coverage are the driving forces here, after Oxford utd return into the championship and sky tv coverage I am seeing their shirts being worn again in abundance in this area the team will soon be moving to a new ground to the outside North of the city, but its a venture that could easily fall flat if relegation occurred and other events were not to support it.
Going back to my original point of my support for the wolves and supporter numbers I worry that the fifties legacy may now be being lost and the few, like my son, who like father was brought up a wolves die hard will have offspring swayed by TV and social media to the 6 who monopolise the screens etc.
The only way to make money and prosper is to succeed, hold on to players get a regular media spread and get in the European gravy train.
Ground wise, obviously the mol is dear to me, a familiar friend visited frequently across 60 years, the mol is most certainly the home of the club and to move would lose some of the identity of Wolverhampton wanderers for me.
Get it up to date and joined up at the corners, keep up with the times obviously, supplement that with the sponsorship we'd maybe deserve, I don't mean rename it the 'blah blah' stadium but obviously a renown name.
As I've repeated before, it's free to dream. But we need to keep the fan base in someway.
Romantic ramble over. COYW.

15.) 24 Jun 2025
24 Jun 2025 12:41:20
Good post, Abbey. I don't want to see us move, but if we did, the only reall option I can see is a new stadium at the i54. A molineux rebuild would probably require a temporary home, maybe at the Alexander Stadium for a season. A new stadium where Asda is located is the only other option I can think of.

16.) 24 Jun 2025
24 Jun 2025 15:24:49
Abbey - heartfelt and great post!
My son despite being decked out in a Wolves kit almost from birth is now, as an adult, a Chelsea fan!
They win an awful lot and are wall to wall on TV etc etc.
ps We were at the "Bridge" for the 4-2 two years ago - not sitting together of course - but boy did I love the dinner after the game?

17.) 24 Jun 2025
24 Jun 2025 17:45:59
A sad reflection was, again bearing in mind we're in Oxon, was a primary school day when the kids were allowed to wear football shirts due to the world cup being played, we were in Div 1 (championship now). My lad wore the old gold, other kiddies were decked out in mainly man u, there were a few spurs arsenal and Chelsea, some England. He came home upset because the other kids didn't know the team from his shirt, the teacher had asked the rest of the class for guesses none knew. To rub salt in his wounds the teacher then had to ask who's shirt it was.
After his first game, away at Swindon and a 2-0 win I believe, he was wolves, his first game at the mol was a friendly against Newcastle he was in awe. To this day he's as keen as me I'm glad to say.

18.) 25 Jun 2025
25 Jun 2025 01:15:58
Jeff Shi is supposed to increase revenue for the club.
I doubt he has even kept up with inflation.
Shi out!