Crazy £15 million developments on the horizon for Birmingham City

admin | April 22, 2024 | Other Clubs | No Comments

Knighthead, the American investment corporation that owns Birmingham City, has announced that it will invest an additional £15 million in enhancing the club’s current facilities, in addition to the funds pledged to create the club’s Sports Quarter.

The City has revealed intentions to develop a brand new Sports Quarter. According to the Birmingham Mail, they have purchased a 48-acre plot of land formerly known as Birmingham Wheels and intend to develop a new stadium, training facilities, and an academy there, with the goal of having it operational by the start of the 2029/30 season.

On top of these new initiatives, the investment group has announced that they intend to improve the club’s existing facilities.

Birmingham’s £15m investment in current facilities

Knighthead intends to invest £15 million on renovating St Andrew’s as well as the club’s two training sites, the Elite Performance and Innovation Centre (EPIC).

According to the Mail, the majority of the money will be spent on the stadium’s two new supporter zones. There will be a temporary pop-up solution in the Kop car park and a permanent one in the Main Stand car park. The hope is that the permanent setup will be ready for the Euros.

Nick Smith, the club’s head of infrastructure, who has supervised the work on the stadium and training areas over the past year, told fans at last week’s Open House: “Over the summer, we want to deliver a further 22 projects with a £15 million investment. Obviously, some of that investment is going into the training field, but I want to focus on the fan experience sections.

“When you arrive back at St Andrew’s at Knighthead Park next season there will be two new fan parks that will be free to access. One will be in the Kop which will be a pop-up fan park. Onto the Main Stand car park, this will be our second and permanent fan park. Over 1,000 people per match day will be able to attend this fan park.

“We will welcome families, we have a kids play area, five-a-side and teqball. We have an adults area with food and bars and a stage where we will be putting on local bands, acts and comedians.

“We will have a hospitality area with a TV studio. We will have an area for match days and, hopefully if all goes well, and I can get this done before the end of the Euros, you’ll have somewhere to come and watch the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final and England go on to win the Euros.”

Smith also touched on the work that has gone into getting two available training pitches at the EPIC for Gary Rowett and his players to use and alternate. “In the summer when we moved the first team across to EPIC there was only one pitch and it was a rugby pitch, not a football pitch,” said the head of infrastructure, via the Mail.

“They are different constructions and it had taken a lot of beating through studs and scrums and everything else. We have a fantastic grounds team over there and they managed to get it football ready for the summer.

“But we knew that when we entered into the winter period we were going to face challenges with the usage of this pitch because it was constructed differently to what we would have in a football stadium.

“The foresight was to start growing a pitch in a turf farm in the north of England. As we entered winter, we harvested that pitch and reconstructed a new pitch on top of the artificial pitch at EPIC.

“Harvesting a pitch in winter – if any of you have tried to grow grass in your gardens in winter – transporting it across the country and constructing it on top of a synthetic pitch is very, very ambitious. Today the first team have two pitches which they can train on. I think this is a huge achievement and a distinct display of how we want to operate at Birmingham.”

Birmingham City news puts club in good position, regardless of relegation

Wagner has made it clear that even if the club is relegated to League One, the plans for the new Sports Quarter will not be postponed. Their odds of staying up are substantially greater now than they were when the news was initially disclosed less than two weeks ago.

The Blues are currently out of the relegation zone, with two vital meetings coming up against Rotherham United (24th in the Championship) and Huddersfield Town (22nd).

A win over the Terriers would certainly secure Birmingham’s safety, assuming they don’t lose to the Millers and Huddersfield don’t beat Swansea City this weekend.

Even if they get relegated, the club is in a very strong position due to all of its off-field investments. Yes, it won’t help them stay up right now, but it will make the club’s future much brighter, regardless of the division they play in.

These improved facilities will not only increase revenue for the club, particularly the new fanzones, but also assist them attract better players.