Birmingham City’s summer spending has set tongues wagging throughout the EFL. Be it through jealousy that their own club isn’t able to compete or sheer bewilderment as to how a League One club is smashing a load of transfer records despite relegation, almost every fan in the EFL has had something to say about Blues.
Knighthead chief Tom Wagner and his cohorts are probably happy to be dominating conversations up and down the land. Blues’ American owners have been quite consistent in their message that they want people to be talking about the club.
The more people that talk about Blues, the more media attention the club gets. In Knighthead’s world, media impressions equates to cold hard cash.
For those who are unfamiliar with the naming rights deal Knighthead agreed with Blues in January, for every 20 million verified social media impressions the club’s channels receive, £100,000 goes into the bank. It is capped at £3 million per season – a healthy budget for most League One clubs.
The fact of the matter is that Blues’ revenue has increased tenfold since Knighthead pitched up last year. Every effort has been made to increase commercial partners and there is now a list of brands queueing up to work with Blues.
Then there’s the club’s existing stadium, St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park, which has undergone a transformation to make it a place supporters want to flock to at weekends once again. Let’s not forget, infrastructure investments won’t count towards Blues’ Profit and Sustainability (P&S) totals when they are back in the Championship.
If they return to the Championship at the first attempt, Wagner predicts Blues will be able to compete with clubs receiving parachute payments. “Every time I talk about revenue it’s just my geek speak for more money for players,” Wagner told supporters at the Open House event in April.
“We struggled to generate £20m last year, our goal for next year (2024/25 season) is to do more than double that and we’ll get there. That will put us just a bit below the clubs at the bottom tier of those receiving parachute payments. The season after next, we will be right in the middle of those clubs. That has never happened before. No one has ever achieved that level of revenue without receiving parachute payments.
“Why is it important? If you look at the data over the last decade, roughly, if you have that level of revenue your odds for promotion are one in four. If you don’t have that level of revenue your odds for promotion are one in 16.”
When Knighthead completed their takeover in 2023 they set a three-year target to reach the Premier League. Relegation is a stumbling block, but their timeline is still achievable and this is what planning for the Premier League looks like.
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