A group of investors interested in acquiring Sheffield Wednesday Football Club have announced ambitious plans to build a new stadium with a capacity of 55,000 and make the club larger than Wrexham.

Sheffield Wednesday is one of the second oldest football clubs in England and was a member of the Premier League for the first eight seasons. However, the team has been hovering between the Championship and League One for the past 25 years. The club is currently in crisis. Sheffield Wednesday, owned by Thai businessman Deyong Chansiri, has not paid all wages for May and wages for April have been delayed. Chansiri took over the club in 2015 and invested heavily in the early days to strive for promotion, but his financial support has long since dried up. He has been seeking to sell the club since 2018, and has also encountered protests from fans.

Two groups of American investors are reportedly in talks with the club. One group has kept a low profile, while the other has publicly expressed their interest. John Flanagan, a property investor from Florida, and Adam Shaw, a Sheffield-born businessman, lead a 16-member consortium that includes a former Premier League star, several baseball stars and a well-known figure. Chauncey has lowered his asking price for the club after rejecting a £48 million offer from the consortium.

Shaw outlined the new potential owners' grand plans in an interview with The Athletic, in addition to building a new stadium with a capacity of 55,000 to replace the current Hillsborough Stadium, which can only accommodate 34,000, they also plan to establish an elite youth training academy.

Speaking about their ambition to bring Sheffield Wednesday back to the top flight of English football, Shaw said: "In America, nobody knows Sheffield Wednesday. We don't sell a single shirt there and have no commercial presence, that has to change. The World Cup is in America next year and with the individual resources within our consortium we can easily be the English football team of Florida, we should and can be bigger than Wrexham. Ryan Reynolds would be willing to trade his left leg for the history and fan base we already have. Let's take advantage of that."

The consortium is very eager to bring the club back to the top flight and if successful, Sheffield Wednesday will become one of many Championship teams owned by Americans. The new stadium will hold 55,000 spectators and Shaw has also expressed a desire to reduce ticket prices and offer 5,000 seats per game to ambulance staff, firefighters, NHS staff, police officers and serving and veterans. Shaw stressed that the opinions of fans will be fully considered during their ownership, although he believes the construction of the new stadium is vital.