Sport
Birmingham City Stadium St Andrew Never A “Bad” Place, Coach Gave His Reasons
Disgraceful” – How Birmingham City stadium St Andrew’s is rated on Tripadvisor
There’s an expiry date on St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park, giving Birmingham City only a certain amount of time to achieve success at their historic stadium.
Where the Blues play their football has been their home since 1906. But, with Tom Wagner and Knighthead’s plans to build a new ‘Sports Quarter’ in the east of the city, the ground is not expected to hit its 125th-year anniversary before it is abandoned by the Blues.
2029 is the targeted opening date for the Sports Quarter, which will be at the old Birmingham Wheels site that Knighthead acquired for £51 million six months ago. As well as a brand-new stadium, they want to build new facilities for the first-team to train at, as well as for the academy to use.
It’s not just going to be a sporting landscape. The plans also include the construction of restaurants, office spaces and social hubs.
For the huge £2-3 billion project to go ahead, Wagner, the Birmingham chairman, has stressed the need for improved transport links to the area of the city that the Sports Quarter will be built in. If this doesn’t happen, the chairman their plans could be scuppered.
How St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park rates on Tripadvisor
On the rating and reviewing services website, St Andrew’s has 184 reviews, 91 of which gave the stadium an excellent rating, with an average score of four out of five.
One reviewer, a Blue, absolutely loves going to their home ground. They recently said: “Me and my family have been coming to the Blues for years, and ever since Tom Wagner and his team took over it has become a whole new place.
“The atmosphere is fantastic and there are plenty of facilities from street food, indoor bars, and outdoor fan parks. The football is at a new level now and the games are fantastic to watch. I recommend it for any age group – there is something for everybody.”
St Andrew’s even impresses the travelling supporters, as is shown by this Plymouth Argyle fan’s experiences of the ground in August 2023. “The ground is a great size and the away end is behind the goal, which is always great. The home atmosphere was okay but seen better.”
Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews about the place, there’s no guarantee that everyone will be happy with things. One reviewer, who left this comment last December, was shocked by the state of the ground. In fairness to Birmingham, this review came before the major revamp of the hospitality facilities that have taken place at St Andrew’s.
“Very disappointing,” they said. “Seats we were sold on the front view meant you couldn’t see the pitch. Stewards were useless with abuse being shouted towards players and nothing done. No opportunity to buy food or drink. A truly disgraceful way to treat fans.”
Leaving St Andrew’s will be a sad time for many Birmingham fans
As much as, up until this season, there hasn’t been plenty of success at City’s home, there are, and forever will be, a lot of good memories of the place.
League One’s current biggest stadium, in terms of capacity, is where they have won league titles, celebrated winning the EFL Cup, played Europa League football.
Moving to a new stadium and all the extra influx of cash that it’ll bring will be a good thing for Birmingham, but it will be a sad time for those that have held the same seats in the same stands for many years