Exclusive:Safe standing install timeline revealed as £8.5m Sheffield Wednesday renovation hurtles on
Sheffield Wednesday will trial safe standing in a section of its North Stand this season.
The £8.5m commitment behind the upgrade and renovation of Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium continues, with work busily ongoing ahead of their first home game of the season last week.
The Owls take on Bradford City this coming Thursday, in what is expected to be a sold-out S6 in the first home league match of the campaign. The clash was pulled forward two days from its original Saturday scheduling on the command of television broadcasters, despite the Owls having been granted a first match away from home by the EFL having made the request in response to the level of work being undertaken.
The match will not feature the installation of a safe standing area at the western end of the North Stand, The Star is told, with important safety work on the facility having taken a first priority in the last weeks. It’s understood that work to implement a safe standing area is scheduled to commence in September. The initial trial of safe standing will take place across areas of the T1 Block, with potential further expansion into other areas of the upper tier of the West Stand and in The Kop.
The work installation process requires specialised companies, only a few which offer the service of installation, and with a number of clubs said to be going about delivering similar facilities at current the understanding is that Wednesday are effectively in a queue. Sheffield City Council’s SAG have been working alongside the club on their plans throughout the summer. The cost of the initial installation is not known, though a late-2024 estimation of a total covering of 5,000 seats in those identified areas was put at somewhere around £250,000.
Elsewhere in the stadium, the vast reinvention of the club’s hospitality offering continues. A glimpse behind the scenes in the South Stand over the weekend showed work still to be done, but The Star is told both Hirsty’s Social and The Quixall Suite will both be open and ready to go for the Bradford match, though as suspected the Pantalones Suite may take more time given plans were drawn up later in the summer.
David Storch pledged to deliver improved water works and WiFi to the stadium as part of his on-field address to supporters on takeover day, May 2. A great deal of work is understood to have been undertaken on that front, while improvements to players’ areas have taken place. Improved media facilities are in the pipeline, with the former players’ lounge set to be transformed into a modern facility comprising of both a press suite and press conference area. Progress on that front is expected in September as the new ownership continue their rapid turnaround effort.
The Star understands the capital programme for investment across the stadium and training ground has pushed past £8.5m as work rolls on to put the club in a better place. Senior Owls man Jamal Lowe commented over the weekend on the positive impact the initial investments and improved structures have had on the playing staff in the last weeks.
During the administration period there was speculation over certain interested parties exploring the possibility of moving away from Hillsborough in the longer-term. Chairman David Storch made clear early in the Arise takeover that they would instead make large-scale improvements to the stadium, which is still regarded as one of the most iconic in English football.
“Hillsborough stadium is a remarkable place,” Storch said in June. “In Chicago we have a stadium called Wrigley Field, which was born in 1914. The current owners came in and re-did the entire stadium, they took the guts of the stadium and brought it to life. That’s our thinking with Hillsborough. It’s a great stadium and we want to bring it to life.
“We have now shown some of the plans on the premium side and we want to carry that feel through the entire stadium. There’s a lot of space in the stadium that can be realised with some great opportunities and our job is to go ahead and capture those opportunities the best we can.”