Molineux stadium
Encyclopedia
Whitmore Reans
Whitmore Reans is in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is situated to the north-west of the city centre, in the city council's Park and St Peter's wards.- History :...
, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It has been the home ground of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...
since 1889, and has a long and illustrious history as the first 'new build' stadium in Football League
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
history, one of the first grounds in the country to install floodlights
Floodlights (sport)
Floodlights are broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial lights often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions....
, as well as hosting some of the first European club games in the 1950s.
At the time of its multi-million pound renovation in the early 1990s, Molineux was one of the biggest and most modern stadia in England, though it has since been eclipsed by many other ground developments. The stadium has however hosted England internationals
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
and, more recently, England under-21 internationals
England national under-21 football team
England's national Under-21 football team, also known as England Under-21s or England U21, is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team....
, as well as the first UEFA Cup Final in 1972. Although currently a 29,195 seater stadium, the record attendance at Molineux stands at 61,315.
Plans were announced in May 2010 to rebuild two sides of the stadium by the 2014–15 season to increase capacity to around 36,000. The first stage of this project began in Summer 2011. There are also provisional future plans for a longer term redevelopment of every stand that could potentially create a 50,000 capacity.
Stadium
The stadium is located a few hundred yards north of WolverhamptonWolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
city centre, at the far side of the city's ring road
Wolverhampton Ring Road
The city of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England has a Ring Road which encircles the city centre. It is just over in circumference. Technically, the route is listed as "Inner Ring Road", although only a tiny section of the "Outer Ring Road" was ever constructed, and only a single of the two...
, and is a prominent building due to its size in an area with predominantly low-rise buildings. It consists of four stands: the Steve Bull
Steve Bull
Stephen George "Steve" Bull, MBE, is an English former footballer who is best remembered for his 13-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers...
Stand (formerly the John Ireland stand), the Jack Harris Stand, the Stan Cullis
Stan Cullis
Stanley Cullis was a professional footballer and manager, most notably for Wolverhampton Wanderers. During his term as manager between 1948 and 1964 Wolves became one of the strongest teams in the British game, winning the league title on three occasions, and playing a series of high-profile...
Stand and the Billy Wright Stand. Both the Billy Wright and Stan Cullis stands feature statues of each man in front of them.
The total seated capacity of the stands is approximately 28,525, with a temporary seating area lifting the present official capacity to 29,195. The current stadium design stems from the early 1990s when it was extensively redeveloped to become a modern all-seater venue in accordance with the Taylor Report
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report, better known as the Taylor Report is a document, whose development was overseen by Lord Taylor of Gosforth, concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. An interim report was published in August 1989, and the final...
, which required British football stadia to provide seating for all those attending.
In the days before seating regulations, the ground could hold more than 60,000 spectators; the record attendance for a match at the ground is 61,315 for a Football League First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
game against Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
on 11 February 1939. The 1940s and 1950s saw average attendances for seasons regularly exceed 40,000, coinciding with the club's peak on the field.
Molineux has hosted England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
internationals. The first was a 6–1 win over Ireland
Northern Ireland national football team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. Before 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association...
on 7 March 1891. England again beat Ireland, this time 4–0, on 14 February 1903 and lost to Wales
Wales national football team
The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...
2–1 on 5 February 1936. The last was a 5–2 defeat of Denmark
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team represents Denmark in association football and is controlled by the Danish Football Association , the governing body for the football clubs which are organized under DBU...
in a 1958 World Cup
1958 FIFA World Cup
The 1958 FIFA World Cup, the sixth staging of the World Cup, was hosted by Sweden from 8 June to 29 June. The tournament was won by Brazil, who beat Sweden 5–2 in the final for their first title. To date, this marks the only occasion that a World Cup staged in Europe was not won by a European...
qualifier on 5 December 1956. It has also hosted two England under-21
England national under-21 football team
England's national Under-21 football team, also known as England Under-21s or England U21, is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team....
internationals (in 1996 and 2008) and, in 2005, hosted some European Youth Championship qualifying matches.
On 24 June 2003, Molineux also became Wolverhampton's biggest live concert venue, with Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
performing in front of 34,000 people.
Origins
The Molineux name originates from Benjamin Molineux, a successful local merchant (and a distant relative of the now extinct Earls of Sefton) who, in 1744, purchased land on which he built Molineux House (later converted to the Molineux HotelMolineux Hotel
The Molineux Hotel in Wolverhampton is an 18th century former mansion house known as Molineux House, which later served as a hotel and currently, following restoration serves as a local authority facility...
) and on which the stadium would eventually be built. The estate was purchased in 1860 by O.E. McGregor, who converted the land into a pleasure park open to the public. Molineux Grounds, as it was titled, included a wide range of facilities including an ice rink, a cycling track, a boating lake and, most crucially, an area for football.
The grounds were sold to the Northampton Brewery in 1889, who rented its use to Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...
, who had previously lacked a permanent home. After renovating the site, the first ever league game was staged on 7 September 1889 in a 2–0 victory over Notts County
Notts County F.C.
Notts County Football Club are an English professional football club based in Nottingham. They are the oldest of all the clubs in the world that are now professional, having been formed in 1862. They currently play in League One of The Football League, the third tier of the English football system...
before a crowd of 4,000.
Wolves bought the freehold in 1923 for £5,607 and soon set about constructing a major grandstand on the Waterloo Road side (designed by Archibald Leitch
Archibald Leitch
Archibald "Offside Archie" Leitch was a Scottish architect, most famous for his work designing football stadia throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.-Early work:...
). In 1932, the club also built a new stand on the Molineux Street side and followed this with adding a roof to the South Bank two years later. The stadium finally now had four stands, which formed Molineux for the next half century.
In 1953, the club became one of the first to install floodlights, at a cost of around £10,000. The first ever floodlit game was held on 30 September 1953, as Wolves won 3–1 against South Africa
South Africa national football team
The South Africa national football team represents South Africa in association football and is controlled by the South African Football Association, the governing body for football in South Africa. South Africa's home ground is Soccer City, known as FNB Stadium due to a naming rights deal, in...
. The addition of the floodlights opened the door for Molineux to host a series of midweek friendlies against teams from across the globe. In the days prior to the formation of the European Cup
European Cup and Champions League history
The history of the European Cup and Champions League is long and remarkable, with fifty years of competition finding winners and losers from all parts of the continent....
and international club competitions, these games were highly prestigious and gained huge crowds and interest, the BBC often televising such events. A new taller set was later installed in 1957, at a cost of £25,000, as the stadium prepared to host its first European Cup games.
Construction and decline
The Molineux Street Stand (by now all-seater) failed to meet the standards of the 1975 Safety of Sports Grounds Act. The club set about building a new stand behind the existing one, on land where housing had been demolished. The new stand, designed by architects Atherden and Rutter, had a 9,500 capacity, equipped with 42 executive boxes, although sporting red seats in contrast to the club's traditional colours. When the construction was complete, the old stand lying in front was demolished. This new stand, named the John Ireland Stand (after the then-club president), was opened on 25 August 1979 at the start of a First Division game against LiverpoolLiverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
.
The pitch was not moved following this development and so the stand was some 100 ft from the touchline. The project had cost £10 million and been one of the most expensive developments at any football ground and the cost of its construction plunged Wolves deep into debt and they narrowly avoided liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
in 1982, when taken over by a group fronted by former player Derek Dougan
Derek Dougan
Alexander Derek Dougan was a former Northern Ireland international footballer who played for Wolverhampton Wanderers....
. By the time Wolves slid into the Fourth Division in 1986, the John Ireland Stand and the South Bank terrace were the only sections of the ground in use, after new safety laws implemented following the Bradford City stadium fire forced the closure of the North Bank and Waterloo Road Stand, which were very dilapidated. As well as that, attendances had fallen due to the club's on-the-field decline.
The club's perilous financial situation meant the stadium fell into ruin, with no funding either for repairs or to move the pitch. The club was saved from folding in August 1986 when Wolverhampton Council bought the ground for £1.12 million, along with the surrounding land, while Gallagher Estates, in conjunction with the Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
Superstore chain, agreed to pay off the outstanding debt – subject to building and planning permission for a superstore being granted. Although the stadium continued in use, the disused sections were never reopened.
Present day stadium
The takeover of the club and stadium by Sir Jack HaywardJack Hayward
Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, OBE is an English businessman, property developer, philanthropist and president of Premier League football club Wolverhampton Wanderers.-Biography:...
in 1990 paved the way for redevelopment, which was further prompted by legislation following the Taylor Report
Taylor Report
The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report, better known as the Taylor Report is a document, whose development was overseen by Lord Taylor of Gosforth, concerning the aftermath and causes of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. An interim report was published in August 1989, and the final...
that outlawed terraces which affected Premier League and Division One
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
stadiums from the 1993–94 season.
The North Bank terrace was demolished in October 1991, and, the following summer, the new Stan Cullis Stand was completed in August 1992, in time for the 1992–93 season. Next came the demolition of the Waterloo Road Stand, with the new Billy Wright Stand opening in August 1993. The final phase of the redevelopment came in December 1993, when the new Jack Harris Stand was opened on the site of the South Bank terrace.
The newly-renovated stadium was officially opened on 7 December 1993, in a friendly with Honvéd
Budapest Honvéd FC
Budapest Honvéd FC |football]] team. "Honved" means the Homeland Defense. Originally formed as Kispest AC, they became Kispest FC in 1926 before reverting to their original name in 1944. The team enjoyed a golden age during the 1950s when it was renamed Budapest Honvéd SE and became the Hungarian...
, the Hungarian team who had been beaten in one of Molineux's most famous original floodlit friendlies. Molineux, with an all-seated capacity of 28,525, was then one of the largest stadiums in England, although this figure has since been exceeded by other new or revamped stadia.
In 2003, the John Ireland Stand was renamed the Steve Bull
Steve Bull
Stephen George "Steve" Bull, MBE, is an English former footballer who is best remembered for his 13-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers...
Stand (in honour of the club's highest goalscorer of all time), and at the same time the south-west corner of the ground was filled with 900 temporary seats, known as the Graham Hughes Stand, which, until their removal in the summer of 2006, raised the Molineux capacity to 29,400. This expansion occurred when Wolves were promoted to the Premier League, and allowed the club to set a record crowd for the redeveloped stadium of 29,396 on 17 January 2004, when they defeated Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
1–0. This seating area – now officially named the Wolves Community Trust Stand – has again been added since the club's return to the top flight in 2009, which lifted the capacity to 29,195 before the club began its redevelopment of the stadium in summer 2011.
Current redevelopment
Plans were announced in May 2010 to begin an extensive multi-million poundPound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
programme of redevelopment to enlarge the stadium's capacity and develop its facilities. A full application for planning permission was submitted in September 2010, and granted three months later.
Phase 1 of this process was confirmed in February 2011, and commenced on 23 May 2011 as demolition of the Stan Cullis Stand began. In its place will be a new two-tier stand (seating 7,700), complete with mega-store, museum, café, hospitality facilities and video screen, that will be officially opened for the 2012–13 season. The stand will extend around into the north east corner – currently open space – to house away fans in this spot. Stadium capacity at the end of this phase will be approximately 31,700.
This phase, costing an estimated £16 million, is being carried out by contractors, the Buckingham Group. The lower tier was opened to fans during September 2011, creating the current stadium capacity of 27,828. Phase 1 is scheduled to be fully completed by July 2012.
Phase 2 will be the rebuilding of the Steve Bull Stand over a two-season period (2012–13 and 2013–14), scheduled to be fully completed for the 2014–15 season (although some areas may already be available to fans during the 2013–14 season). When finished, this will increase stadium capacity to around 36,000 and see the stand connected to the new Stan Cullis Stand. The stand will feature numerous corporate and hospitality facilities to help increase non-matchday business. Proceeding with this second stage would raise the redevelopment spend to in excess of £40 million.
Phase 3 is subject to demand and finance, but is planned to be the construction of a new top-tier on the Jack Harris Stand, that will connect it to the new Steve Bull Stand. This would bring capacity up to around 38,000.
Phase 4 is a tentative plan to completely redevelop the Billy Wright Stand in a move that would bring capacity to 50,000. However, no planning permission will yet be sought for this phase and it remains only a potential, rather than planned, development with no timeframe in place.