Revealed: Jeff Shi's 50,000-seat stadium vision for Wolves
Wolves chairman Jeff Shi has revealed his dream for a 50,000 capacity stadium – and confirmed the club plans to stay at Molineux.
Stadium redevelopment has been on hold since 2012 when Wolves were relegated from the Premier League.
Ambitious owners Fosun are planning to expand Molineux if and when the team is established in the top flight.
And Shi, speaking exclusively to the Express & Star, has a vision for a 50,000 all-seater stadium befitting of the team Wolves are looking to build.
"Let's try to get to 50,000 as soon as possible," Shi said.
"Everyone wants to have a big stadium. It's a step by step process and only when we build a strong team and can compete comfortably in the Premier League is the time to expand the stadium.
"Eventually, if we can achieve that, we'll do it of course.
"Laurie (Dalrymple, Wolves' managing director) told me that the maximum capacity may be 50,000. I even asked him can we have a bigger one like Real Madrid's! But it's hard because the position of the stadium, the university is behind us.
"But let's make some progress on the pitch first then when we feel we have a stable squad to compete in the Premier League we can immediately do something.
"Expansion will be step by step. We have to use the summer time to do it but we have the plan. It should be balanced towards the achievement on the pitch."
There have been suggestions the club has been looking elsewhere for a new stadium site but Shi confirmed: "The plan is to stay at Molineux. Although maybe one day in the future we'll be too big!"
Previous owner Steve Morgan invested £50million in the club's state-of-the-art Compton Park training facilities.
With Fosun looking to grow the club at a rapid rate, Shi said that Compton too would need expanding – starting next year – with the size of the buildings and the quality of pitches being looked at.
"Compton is too small now, we should try to find more land and pitches," he added.
"We will do something in Compton Park next year and try to make it more efficient to meet the requirements of the teams here.
"There are discussions taking place with the council and schools. We're confident we can make the Compton bigger and better.
"We have made quick growth and everything has to keep pace with that, including Compton."
