Tom Wagner is still aiming for a 2029 move-in date to Birmingham City’s new 60,000-seater stadium, despite him self-admittedly describing that goal as “incredible lunacy.”
Even with Sunday’s surprising and disappointing 2-0 loss to Peterborough United in the EFL Trophy final, the trajectory of Blues is still a very upward one. They were confirmed as League One champions at the weekend and are on course to break the league’s points record of 103, which is currently held by Midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers.
They have a new Amazon Prime documentary coming out this summer which will give people the chance to peak behind the curtain at Birmingham’s bounceback campaign, and they are expected to at least be a competitive side once they get back to the Championship for next season.
| 2024/25 League One table (as of 14/04/25) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | P | GD | Points | |
| 1 | (C) Birmingham City | 40 | 44 | 95 |
| 2 | Wrexham | 42 | 27 | 82 |
| 3 | Wycombe Wanderers | 42 | 30 | 81 |
| 4 | Stockport County | 42 | 26 | 77 |
| 5 | Charlton Athletic | 42 | 20 | 76 |
| 6 | Reading | 42 | 8 | 69 |
As part of this revolution of the football club that has taken place over the last year, Birmingham have plans in place to build a brand-new stadium which is going to cost £2-3 billion. It will be part of a ‘Sports Quarter’ which is set to be built on the old Birmingham Wheels site in the east of the city.
Problems have been encountered along the way, like cuts to transport links from the city centre to the site of their new ground, which has delayed work going ahead, but the chairman still aspires to see his side playing football in their new home by the originally set deadline.
Tom Wagner provides an update on Birmingham’s new stadium
Wagner has admitted that it won’t be an easy task to get everything ready in time for when they had originally planned to move in, but he’s certainly not going to be left wondering what if.
“This is an important project for Birmingham and the West Midlands and arguably for England and I say that because we can take one of the most deprived areas in all of England and really turn it around economically,” Wagner stated via Birmingham Live.
“So that in and of itself makes it a project worth pursuing for us. For us it’s important not solely for the club, but demonstrating a true commitment for Birmingham.
“We have different designs on different clubs or different objectives, at the end of the day we’re about Birmingham. It’s why we’re supporters of the Birmingham Panthers. It’s why we made an investment in the Edgbaston Hundred team, all of those things are really important to us to demonstrate a true level of support for Birmingham.
“So my hope is that you know when we’re not competing head to head on the pitch, we can pull all of Birmingham together for a project that will benefit everyone.”
Wagner originally described his desire to be in the new stadium in six years – the club announced its plans in 2023 – as “lunacy.” He doesn’t believe himself to be anymore sane now, describing his current hopes as “incredible lunacy.”
“We are still pushing ahead as if nothing had stopped us or slowed us down, which I think is a fair statement,” continued Wagner. “We’d like to be in that stadium 4.5 years from now or sooner and that’s the objective and I’ll certainly die trying if I can’t get it done.”
Birmimgham’s new stadium would be revolutionary
The move from St Andrew’s to a new base would have an earthquaking impact, not on the club itself, but on the surrounding area. Sure, Birmingham will certainly benefit from being able to sell double the tickets for games as they currently can. The most important thing, in the bigger picture, would be that the new Sports Quarter would breathe new life into a currently deprived area of the city.
The football club will be more than fine if these plans do somehow fall through. That same thriving confidence can’t be applied to the region surrounding the Wheels site. For there, it is essential that this goes ahead.
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