Birmingham Sports Quarter - what you need to know

BBC News

4 days ago

Plans for a new Sports Quarter in Birmingham are moving forward, with billions of pounds earmarked for the project and excitement growing in the city. The project is being led by the US owners of Birmingham City Football Club (BCFC) and at the heart of the plans is its new 62,000-seat stadium.But Tom Wagner, co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management, says the benefits will be felt far beyond Blues fans, with transport links transformed, thousands of jobs created and a super stadium to hold world-class events.Birmingham City Council has stated the quarter would be a "sporting centre of excellence". Here we explore where the Sports Quarter will be, what will be in it and when it might become a reality.
What will be in the Sports Quarter?
Wagner told BBC Sport in June his vision was to create "an entertainment venue unlike many others in the world". The plans include a 62,000-seat stadium, more than double the capacity of the current Blues ground. Wagner said it would also include a 15,000 to 20,000-seat arena and a show pitch."The goal will be to host a whole range of international events not solely in football but [including] American football and rugby," he said. Birmingham City FC has said the multi-use stadium will include a retractable pitch to allow for concerts and other non-sporting events to take place.Blues will build a training complex for their professional senior teams and academies, and the site is set to also include community pitches, retail and education. "There will be provision for housing and hotels, recreational facilities and plenty of green space," the club said. Wagner told the BBC it was a "unique opportunity"."If you were to look across western Europe, you would be hard-pressed to find another city with that much land available within walking distance of the city centre, where a project of this magnitude can be created and done so in an economically viable way," he said. Alongside these plans, Wagner and his team have strong ambitions for the Blues, who were promoted from League One last season with a record 108-point haul.
Where will the Sports Quarter be?
When Knighthead bought Blues in July 2023, they told fans they believed the club's potential was "unlimited".Less than a year later, in April 2024, they completed the purchase of the 48-acre former Birmingham Wheels motorsport site in Bordesley, less than a mile away from St Andrews, the club's home since 1906.Birmingham Wheels closed in 2021, after 40 years of hosting go-karting, stock car racing and skating events, and was once the home of the Birmingham Brummies speedway team. The city council-owned site had long been touted as a potential development site for Birmingham City, and its future had been hanging in the balance for some years.More than £17m of the government's Levelling Up Fund was allocated to it for remediation works.The site off Adderley Road is in a key - but deprived - location, ripe for redevelopment. It is less than a mile from the city centre, just off the ring road and close to Adderley Park railway station.Wagner has said the site was "not serving the local community" despite being surrounded by hundreds of homes.
How will transport links be transformed?
The project really gained momentum last month, when Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited St Andrews and announced a £2.4bn investment in West Midlands transport links, with the Sports Quarter at the heart of the masterplan. A planned extension of the Midland Metro would mean a direct tram route to the Sports Quarter.Called the East Birmingham Metro to North Solihull Metro Extension, it will take people from the Eastside area of the city and serve the likes of Millennium Point, Birmingham City University, the Curzon Street HS2 station and Digbeth. Digbeth is home to the Digbeth Loc. Studios, set up by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, and construction is under way for the BBC's new Tea Factory base. Longer term, this tram line is planned to take passengers to North Solihull - including to Birmingham Airport, the NEC and the HS2 Interchange.
How will the community benefit from a Sports Quarter?
The government has estimated the project would transform the Bordesley area of Birmingham, creating 8,400 new jobs and driving further investment from private firms. Wagner is expected to invest up to £3bn.Mayor Richard Parker told BBC WM presenter Ed James many of the jobs were expected to be the first jobs of young people from the surrounding communities. starting out in employment. He explained this was "really important because this part of the city is one of the most deprived", and he and Wagner hoped to open up job opportunities for young people.The Blues chairman has said the club had a proud history of giving back to the local community and the project would deliver opportunities "and prosperity lasting generations in one of the poorest parts of the whole of the country". "And that's something in which we should all be very proud," he added.
Who is behind the project?
In June 2023, the English Football League approved US-based Shelby Companies Ltd's takeover of Birmingham City.Shelby Companies is a subsidiary of Knighthead, which was co-founded by Tom Wagner and Ara Cohen in 2008. Wagner told Blues supporters in an open letter that Knighthead's expertise was in "turning around and transforming organisations that are experiencing difficulties". He wants fans to be involved in the journey.
Parker said Wagner had been looking to get a foothold in the sports industry in the UK and "had made his money by investing in what have been unloved and neglected" assets, adding, "Let's be frank, the football club had been for a number of decades." Excitement grew when Tom Brady, the NFL quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner, became a minority owner of the Championship club months after retiring in 2023. Wagner said Brady was investing and "committing his time and extensive expertise".
When will the Sports Quarter become a reality?
Wagner told BBC Sport they expected the club to be using its new stadium in the 2030/31 season, which was the timeline that looked "most achievable at present". Certainly, the government investment was a turning point when many started to believe the Sports Quarter would become a reality.Gary O'Neill and his son Matt, who co-host the BCFC Royal Blue podcast, told followers it was a "huge" day for the club which would sway "even the most sceptical fan" who had not dared to believe it would happen.Matt said the proposal was initially "laughed at" by some people on social media and attracted lots of comments from other fan bases but now felt real."This just feels like something special," he said. The Midland Metro Alliance said initial development for the East Birmingham to Solihull link was under way by Transport for West Midlands. "As with other new light rail schemes, the extension will require a Transport and Works Act Order application to be submitted, providing the powers to construct, maintain and operate the tramway" on that route. Richard Parker said the owners were aiming to secure outline planning permission soon and after that were looking to make "real progress" with the stadium by 2028/29.He also told the BBC a task force was put together to drive the Sports Quarter project and help the key stakeholders work together with clarity about their objectives. "The pace of this is phenomenal," he said, adding the sense of ambition shown by Wagner, Steven Knight and others committed to the city had "captured the imagination, not just of people in this region, but of government too".
Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.