⚽ Wolverhampton Wanderers - Wolves Stadium Tour - Football Soccer Travel Ideas ⚽

Hi guys, welcome to another episode of Ultimate  Bucket List, and on today's show - I show you  

around one of the most surprising football tours,  that you can visit in this country. No seriously!

Wolverhampton Wanderers. More commonly referred  to as just Wolves, they're one of the original  

members of the Football League, and one of the  oldest professional teams in world football.  

Currently flying high in the Premier League,  it's a team steeped in history and tradition.  

And they've been playing here at Molineux  Stadium longer than most teams have existed.  

Built in 1889 with a current capacity of  32,050. Don't let that small capacity fool you,  

this stadium is massive. And a tour  of the place comes highly recommended. 

So when you get here, I highly recommend that you  park up early and have a walk around the stadium.  

You'll probably come across this place first,  the north side of the stadium known as the Stan  

Cullis stand. Named after their greatest manager  Stan Cullis, you can find a statue of him outside.  

And this is home to the Wolves museum and the  Wolves Megastore, which we'll go into later.  

It's also home to Wolfie’s Den which I  assume is some kind of kids play area? 

And you'll also find the ticket office on the  northwest side of the stadium. A season ticket  

waiting list for this place? Wow?! The west side  of the stadium is known as the Billy Wright Stand,  

named after one of their greatest  ever players Mr Billy Wright.  

And the main reception is located in  the middle of the Billy Wright Stand.  

And it's here that you'll first notice how well  branded this place is. From the logos everywhere,  

to the W's hidden in roofs, even the door  handles resemble the logo which is awesome! 

They've even branded the public subway i.e.  the tunnel that goes underneath the roads.  

And you can learn a little bit of history about  Wolverhampton Wanderers if you don't know it,  

that's pretty awesome. Speaking of subway  this leads to the Sir Jack Hayward Stand.  

You'll know you're there because there's  a big giant statue of the man himself  

literally outside. Admittedly the stand from the  outside isn't much to write home about. But you  

still get to see this lovely branding everywhere,  especially the Wolves heads in the brickwork here. 

From the outside the worst looking  stand is possibly the Steve Bull Stand.  

I’m sure it's very lovely inside and this is  where the executive boxes are, but from the  

outside it kind of looks like an old council  building that hasn't changed since the 70’s.  

You'll probably also notice the memorial wall  where people have their names engraved on bricks,  

and the TV crews lining up outside  to set up for tomorrow's match. 

Anyway to start your tour, you'll  need to go to the main reception  

located in the Billy Wright Stand. It's  advisable to check in early because if you do,  

you can have a wander around and have a look at  some of the memorabilia that's out on display. And  

there's some really interesting pieces here. By  the way this is where your tour actually begins.  

Your tour guide will give you a short history  of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.  

It's mainly for people like me who  don't know a damn thing about Wolves,  

but it's nice to hear even if you're a  Wolves fan. You'll then get led upstairs  

and … look at that branding isn't it wonderful?! You'll then get to go into the Chairman’s Suite,  

and once again everything is branded beautifully  and the layout? Well, it's actually quite nice!  

It's definitely a very fancy shindig. I’d love  to be here on a matchday taking in a nice meal  

and some drinks before the actual match begins.  Even though I’m Chinese unfortunately I don't  

know these guys, so I won't be visiting this place  anytime soon. They've even got these nice fluffy  

blankets to keep them warm on those freezing cold  nights and they're beautifully branded as well. 

You'll step out into the director's box  where you'll arguably get the best seats  

in the house. And from here you'll notice the  stadium is actually quite big. Okay, none of the  

stands are actually symmetrical with each other,  nor do they look the same. But I think that adds  

to the character. Currently there's teams of  people preparing the pitch for tomorrow's game,  

and I should probably mention at this  point that Wolverhampton Wanderers  

are one of the few stadiums in the  country that allow safe standing.  

So most of the Sir Jack Hayward Stand  over here is now fitted with rail seats.  

You get a short talk about things like stadium  facts, capacity, history etc. It's a good place  

to take photos and videos but you don't  actually get to stay here all that long. 

You're then led into a typical  corporate hospitality suite,  

and whilst this might look big and swanky  - this is nothing compared to what's next.  

It's down the stairs you go past  some more beautifully branded walls,  

before you come to the Sir Jack Hayward  Suite. And what a suite this is! It's so  

big that they can actually divide this into two  and form two suites with it. It's definitely  

the finest suite here in the stadium and I  wouldn't say no to corporate hospitality here. 

You'll then walk down some corridors with some  historic memorabilia on the walls, you'll go  

past Billy's Boot Room, which unfortunately  has some kind of conference going on in there.  

Before you get led into the press conference  area. And once again it's immediately obvious  

that the branding is pretty much A1. Look at that  branding right there! So this is where all the  

press conferences happen it's a decent opportunity  for photos and videos right up here on the table.  

You get a short talk as to what goes on here  on a typical match day, and for those of you  

fans who are struggling to get reception  in the stadium - here's the wi-fi password! 

You'll then get to visit the TV studio, this is  where Sky Sports and BT Sports will broadcast from  

on a typical match day. On TV the room looks  massive, but in reality the room is tiny  

and it's pretty bare bones. You can actually see  the rigging in the ceiling where they hang the  

lights and microphones, so it's actually an  eye opener, it's actually a lot smaller than  

what you think. But even though it's small  you still get a nice view of the stadium  

and you can still see all the men hard  at work preparing for tomorrow's game. 

You then get led downstairs  back into the reception area.  

You get a short historical talk as to some of the  things that's in the reception, including the FA  

Cups that they've won and believe it or not the  Queen's actually been here. Ah that's surprising,  

I wonder if she's actually a Wolves fan? But next up is the players area where you'll  

get to see some of the press conference bits  where they get quizzed after and before games.  

This mural saying this is Molineux, which  is kind of cool. And you'll get to go into  

the away team's dressing room which even though  it's a little plain, it's still not bad. It's  

still nicer than some of the changing rooms that  I’ve actually been to, so overall really not bad. 

But then you'll get led into the home team's  changing room, and at this point something's  

amiss. The tour guide keeps us waiting out there  for a few minutes while he's trying to argue with  

the kit man to let us come in. The kit man finally  relinquishes but he tells us under absolutely no  

circumstances that we can take photos and videos,  which is odd given that this is a stadium tour,  

and the changing room is one of the main draws.  So if they have things like team sheets and  

tactics out, then yeah, I can understand why  they wouldn't let you take photos and videos. 

But from as far as I can see … nothing. They're  really just setting up for a football match.  

I took some sly video anyway, but unfortunately  I don't get to show you all that much.  

But it is a very nice changing room  and it would have been nice to take  

pictures with various shirts etc. But  hey ho unfortunately that's your lot. 

But now it's time for a tunnel walk. I say  “tunnel” loosely it's basically a big giant  

door that leads onto the field, so not really a  tunnel. But the view from out here is pretty sweet  

you can still see everyone working very hard to  get this place into match shape. But now's a good  

opportunity to take photos of yourself with the  pitch or sit in the dugout seats, and generally  

just enjoy the view from the pitch side. The  tour guide keeps the information short and sweet  

mainly because it's hotter than the freaking sun  here, so we end up walking around the stadium. 

You'll even get to see stuff that most other  stadium tours hide, like big giant piles of crap,  

the photographer's room and we even have a  look at some of the concourses. Way bigger than  

Old Trafford! After another short history lesson  outside, you then get led into the Wolves museum.  

Now technically you could do the museum all  on its own if you want to, but why would you? 

The tour itself was actually very good  and the museum actually comes included  

with the tour, so you're better off  doing them both at the same time.  

And the museum itself is actually quite modern.  In fact, I’m actually shocked as to how good  

it actually is. If you take your time, you can  walk around the exhibits and learn a lot about  

Wolverhampton Wanderers. What they've won, some of  the more priceless artefacts in their collection,  

like this world cup winners medal. Connor Coady’s  300th game match worn shirt, the evolution of the  

Wolverhampton Wanderers kits, because they  used to wear this colour and look like this. 

And overall it's actually quite educational. I  honestly didn't know this about their current  

owners but it looks like they've got their heads  screwed on, they're willing to spend the money and  

they're willing to invest in the club. Which is  a shame because most other owners don't do that.  

You can wander around this place at  your leisure, but once you're all done;  

go through the exits where you'll  go down a flight of stairs,  

past this picture of Sir Jack Hayward, where  predictably you'll end up in the club shop. 

And once again it's a very nice club shop.  It's got a lot of stuff that you can buy.  

I probably won't be buying this shirt at this  price anytime soon. But yeah if you're a Wolves  

fan, this is definitely a nice place to shop.  It's got pretty much everything that you're after.

Okay guys, so I’ve just completed the tour  here at Molyneux Stadium and I got to say;  

I’m shocked it was actually pretty damn good!  Not only was the tour guide very very personable,  

but you actually got to see quite a lot of stuff.  As mentioned many times in this video before,  

I love the branding! As a graphic designer,  I love anything to do with branding  

and the fact that they've branded it to holy  hell is extra brownie points in my book. 

So Ninh, where does this rank on the hierarchy  of your stadium tours? Well I’m actually going  

to be very generous and mark it quite high. The  reason why I’ve marked it high, is just for the  

overall experience. You get to see a lot of stuff,  the tour guide was really good and the museum was  

an added bonus, so definitely definitely worth  checking out. If you are a fan of Wolverhampton  

Wanderers, or if you're a fan of English football  and you're here in the Wolverhampton area,.  

this definitely comes highly recommended.  Definitely add this to your bucket list. 

Okay Ninh, I’m sold, what do I need to do? Well  you need to come here to the Molyneux Stadium.  

Fortunately for you guys, it's easy to  find. It’s located about a three minute  

walk away from Wolverhampton City Centre, and  the easiest way to get here is to drive yourself.  

You can park for free at the Stan Cullis car park,  

which is opposite the big giant ASDA,  so you really can't miss this place.  

Alternatively, if you want to use public  transport, I’ll leave the public transport details  

right there on the screen. And if you're a local  it's easy to find because you can just walk here. 

The cost to do the tour? It's about £20 which  seems quite expensive compared to the other  

tours that we've done around this area. But  for that you get a very detailed guided tour,  

took about two hours, I think? And you  also get access to the museum afterwards,  

so it's definitely worth the money. Is there anything else I need to know? Yes,  

because Molyneux Stadium is actually quite big,  you'll be walking around a lot. If you can't  

walk up and down the stairs for some reason, or  if you have trouble walking or mobility issues,  

ask the tour guide to use the lifts  instead of climbing up and down the stairs.  

Also, the entrance to the stadium tours isn't  at the Stan Cullis Stand where you park,  

it's actually on the west side of  the stadium: the Billy Wright side,  

and you'll need to go into reception to check  in. Ideally you'll need to check in about five  

to ten minutes before the actual start time.  And apart from not being able to film in the  

home team's dressing room for some reason,  can't imagine what that reason would be,  

you got to see pretty much everything that  you would want to see out of a stadium tour.  

So, it definitely comes recommended and if you are  at all interested add this to your bucket list. 

If you have enjoyed this episode, please be  sure to like share and subscribe. Comment  

on that comment section below, and if  you've got any other bucket list ideas,  

you know what to do. If I get enough suggestions,  I’ll go ahead and do that. But guys thanks very  

much for watching. From here at Molineux  Stadium, we'll see you in the next episode! 

Ninh Ly - www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK