Carson Yeung, the owner when Birmingham City were last in
the Premier League, was jailed for money laundering, and points deductions,
transfer embargoes, and a long list of broken promises have followed since
under different ownership models.
Sections of the club’s stadium, St Andrew’s, have also been
closed for over two years due to asbestos. The hope is that repair work will be
completed before the end of the calendar year and the ground’s full reopening,
whenever the exact date of that is, will signal a changing of the times.
To get a full picture of just how bad it has been, only last
month upon completing the takeover, Tom Wagner — co-chief executive of Shelby
Companies, the group which now owns the club — said there was a need to “change
everything”.
On top of all that, Birmingham hold the tag as the
longest-serving club in the Championship: this season will be their 13th
consecutive campaign one rung away from the riches and glamour of the Premier
League. At least they didn’t get
relegated like some other big clubs.
The new owners
Shelby Companies, named after the family featured in the
BBC’s Birmingham-based period crime drama Peaky Blinders, is a UK subsidiary of
Knighthead Capital Management, an investment firm co-founded by U.S.
businessman Wagner in New York in 2008.
Last month, Shelby Companies purchased 45 per cent of
Birmingham City as well as all of Birmingham City Stadium Limited, the company
behind St Andrew’s.
This is not Wagner’s first foray into sports team ownership,
or indeed his first such link-up with Brady. The pair, alongside former women’s
tennis world No 1 Kim Clijsters, bought a Major League Pickleball (yes, it is a
thing) expansion team in 2022.
Wagner stopped short of announcing outlandish ideas or
unrealistic ambitions when addressing supporters through a post-takeover video.
He instead appears to be working on a long-term strategy rather than a quick
fix and recognises the growth opportunity within a city of over a million
people as he starts a long-awaited clean-up the club have needed for years
following the absentee ownership of the past.
Tom Brady
It’s not clear at this stage how much money NFL legend Tom
Brady has invested or indeed the size of his stake in Birmingham, and the main
driver is surely seeing a financial return, but Brady is also likely to have
been attracted by the buzz of playing a hands-on role in an investment
following his recent NFL retirement after 22 seasons rather than just
sitting back and waiting to see if the money rolls in.
Birmingham are not going to benefit greatly from Brady’s
considerable financial resources (Forbes estimated he was paid more than
$530million — £417.1m — over the course of his NFL career).
This is more about his ability to help grow Birmingham City
as a brand and increase commercial revenue. Bringing in a figure of Brady’s
profile seems an astute move from their new owners, but what it means for the
club’s future — and who benefits the most — will only be decided over time.
Shelby Companies have started investing in the facilities at
the club’s Wast Hills training ground and improving the pitch at St Andrew’s,
and Birmingham fans are — for what seems like the most time in years —
optimistic about the coming campaign.
A fan commented: ‘One of the main drivers of Knighthead/SCL
involvement is the prospect of moving to a new inner city site, close to St.
Andrew's, where there is the opportunity to build a stadium and
sports/entertainment complex. An Eastlands lite. They have buy-in from the City
Council.
One of the central thrusts of Tom Wagner's explanations for
buying Birmingham City was the city itself, its young, diverse population and
how it is a city on the rise. Get a foothold in the political and economic
landscape, plus the community, then you can open up more opportunities for the
Knighthead portfolio. It does seem, on the face of it, a long term project and
not a quick fix turnaround.’
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