West Bromwich Albion have put ambitious plans to redevelop the Halfords Lane stand at The Hawthorns on hold - a casualty of their failure to secure promotion to the Premier League at the end of last season.

The loss of major employers in the region including Rover and the saturation of football on television were also blamed for falling attendances and empty seats.

It is this reduction in the number of fans attending matches at The Hawthorns which has meant plans for the redevelopment of the stand on the west side of the ground have now been shelved.

But chairman Jeremy Peace yesterday assured fans the scheme may yet be resurrected if and when Albion win promotion back to football's elite division in the future.

For now, the stand will be given a facelift and a full refurbishment over the next 12 months with the majority of the work being completed in the closed season between May and August.

The decision was revealed as the chairman unveiled the club's annual accounts for the last season which were being distributed to shareholders today.

Peace revealed the club had made £17.7 million from the initial sale of players, excluding add-ons, and approximately £12 million had been reinvested in ten new signings and three loan signings.

He said that left a gap of £5.7 million but the club was now facing an increased wage bill of £76 million over the next four years with several players on longer contracts.

And while the club had sold a record number of season tickets this season - more than 15,000 - prices had been dropped to encourage families.

Peace said: "Essentially the increase in season ticket numbers has been matched by the decrease in revenue.

"Having said that we've got a better atmosphere inside the ground with more regular attenders.

"We have however decided that because of what we've called continuing levels of excess capacity, we will shelve plans to redevelop the stand completely.

"The stand will be completely refurbished as the existing Halfords Lane stand.

"We had looked at plans to rebuild it but we're going to go now with the refurbishment. I think it needs it. It is 25 years old and with the facilities at the back of the stand and the concourses being a bit narrow it's all a bit tight now."

"It would be very nice to get that generational support but the Midlands has been pretty badly hit in recent years with things like Rover, all the big industry closures, and money has been tight.

"I think we have to be realistic, football as an industry on the whole with all the live televised matches has seen attendances decline.

"But there is a positive mood within the industry now to try and turn the tide and get more people into grounds.

"We are spending a lot of money on redeveloping a stand which could be completely reconfigured."

Peace said the club's next move was to try and appeal to some of the 2,000 "floating fans" in the Midlands region who are not affiliated to any of the area's top football clubs, starting by attracting youngsters who, if won over, would support the club for life.

He said: "Having been up and down for the past four or five years between the Premier League and the Championship - that's where we think we're at and why perhaps it's not worth building a spanking new stand and ending up with a lot of empty seats."