Birmingham City New Stadium: Capacity, Political “Posturing” And Tom Wagner’s Vision Revealed:

Birmingham City owners Knighthead have pledged to build a new Sports Quarter in the heart of the city

Almost a year ago Birmingham City announced the purchase of a vacant 48-acre site in east Birmingham for £51m, formerly known as Birmingham Wheels, and unveiled plans to build a new Sports Quarter and super stadium.

Knighthead also acquired another 12 acres of land adjacent to the Wheels site, excluding St Andrew’s, to take the total holding to 60 acres. Blues have taken inspiration from Manchester City’s stunning Etihad Campus and plan to create a Sports Quarter that comprises a stadium, training and academy facilities.

There are also plans for office spaces, restaurants – or ‘eatertainment’ areas as Tom Wagner calls it – and hubs to socialise. Knighthead intend for match days to make up a fraction of the Sports Quarter’s revenue.

Wagner wants the new stadium open by 2029 – but admits that is slightly ambitious. “My timeframe is lunacy but we’d like to get this completed in five years,” he said. “That is the perfect world if everyone works with us at the same pace we’re willing to work. Five years from August and we could be in. I’m going to keep saying that even though it makes everyone around me sweat. A lot of it is outside our control but that’s the goal.”

The likelihood is that the Sports Quarter won’t be open by 2029, with a timeline of a decade more realistic.

Knighthead are keen to stress that the stadium is only the centrepiece of the Sports Quarter, the other cogs are equally important and will be used more frequently. Wagner showed supporters a mock up at the Open House event last April but warned them: ‘Don’t get wed to this!”

The stadium is expected to have a capacity of around 60,000 – a figure which would make it the largest facility of its type in the Midlands and rank among the 10 biggest stadiums in England.

That figure would provide Blues with room to house more supporters than St Andrew’s currently can and it would make the venue suitable for large scale non-football events. For instance, an NFL fixture in Birmingham would be a possibility.

new stadium, has promised supporters will have a say on the design. Smith said: “I want you all to be assured that you will have a voice about what the design will look like, what we take from here, what we make new, what the new family area looks like, what the new home end looks like. You will absolutely have a voice.

“We have started the masterplan and what some of the blocks might look like. We definitely don’t have the same AI programme that have shot out four or five designs you’ve seen!”

Wagner insists there will be ‘nothing else like it in the world’. There will be a hotel, with easy access, and office space. “We want the site to be used 365 days a year,” says Wagner. “Restaurants, pubs, mini golf… All those types of venues will be incorporated.

“That revenue from every one of those things is going into your football club. Look at Tottenham and how much money that stadium is making. If you think that stadium is generating a lot of money, wait until you see what we’re going to build.”