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New Birmingham Stadium - 60k+

LDNCCFC said:
No, because the potential fan isn't there unless Birmingham are serious top half PL contenders.

West Ham have an even bigger catchment area than Birmingham.


You only have to go to a Villa game to see the stark differences.

Keen to say how all the other Midlands clubs are tinpot but Villa haven't won anything in donkeys years. Massively under achieving.
It's not me who calls them a proper club, it's their own fans. They are desperate to tell each other that.


The atmosphere from a home perspective is dreadful at MK. Partly because of the top tier being shut. Open air stadiums are always worse than those with a low roof.
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I’m sure you go to lots of Villa games.

Stop talking crap about something you know FA about.

All tinpot midlands clubs obsess with Villa thinking we’re bothered about or interested in them. Coventry being one of the biggest culprits.
 

joop said:
It could well be built to host a variety of events but no way is it suitable for Birmingham FC. They’ve always been a reasonable sized club but could never ever fill that stadium.
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Everyone is saying that, and certainly they do not appear to have the fan base to do so at present, but recent history suggests it all depends on performance. There is the odd case like Coventry, where the new stadium failed in the short term because it coincided with a period when the team was crap, and the odd case like Darlington that was just mad. But I’m struggling to think of any club that has built a new stadium comparably sized to its 1950s attendance record and not succeeded in filling it if they got established in the Premier League. Football at the top level is more popular now than it has ever been, even in its 1950s heyday. It will be getting to the top level that would be the key.
 
Wakoro said:
Modern stadiums are a huge money spinner, they have shops, bars, restaurants, entertainment like cinemas, bowling alleys.
It's basically like building an entire entertainment quarter, that's why outside private investors are putting the money in. Birmingham is a huge city with plenty of money about it, this stadium will have people in it all week long spending that money. It will have all the big concerts on too and probably other sports occasionally.

Look at spurs increase in revenue since they built their stadium, it's the biggest in London now. Birmingham will see an increase too and with that money they can build the club into premier league regulars. That success will bring more fans. There are still masses of untapped potential fans in that area despite having a few clubs.

All yous sneering have no idea about business. I wish Sunderland had investment to build our concourses out to increase revenue, our stadium is a good size but it's not a money spinner. Very dated.
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I agree with all of the above, I personally feel with the American investment in bham, An few NFL matches maybe the target longer term, given its got a fanbase over here, of course the euros coming up in 2028 as well, and maybe a world cup within a decade or two and that new ground pays for itself. add in concerts and other stuff and its a money maker.
 
CissesUnderpants9 said:
I agree with all of the above, I personally feel with the American investment in bham, An few NFL matches maybe the target longer term, given its got a fanbase over here, of course the euros coming up in 2028 as well, and maybe a world cup within a decade or two and that new ground pays for itself. add in concerts and other stuff and its a money maker.
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Chuck a casino in there as well. Folks have to get their heads around a football ground isn’t just a football ground, it’s a 365 days a year money maker if done right
 
Boz33 said:
Chuck a casino in there as well. Folks have to get their heads around a football ground isn’t just a football ground, it’s a 365 days a year money maker if done right
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It depends I think.

It works in certain areas/big conurbations, especially if there’s plenty of expendable income.

In Sunderland though I expect that most matchday fans are happy to drink around the ‘town’ before and after the match.

The club could possibly do more before the match e.g. the fanzone stuff is decent for kids, but I can’t see how people would want to dispose of more £££.
 
All about location, location, location.

When up and running HS2 will mean its less than an hour commute from London for the tourists who want to get a trip on the new train and maybe catch a game at non-london prices.
 
Ned Land said:
It depends I think.

It works in certain areas/big conurbations, especially if there’s plenty of expendable income.

In Sunderland though I expect that most matchday fans are happy to drink around the ‘town’ before and after the match.

The club could possibly do more before the match e.g. the fanzone stuff is decent for kids, but I can’t see how people would want to dispose of more £££.
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In truth a kids fanzonr wont bring in much revenue I suspect.if we are talking pure numbers to bring money into the clubs to grow them financially, clubs are gonna have to be a lot more pro active going forward to entice money year round.
And if the offerings are good enough folks will go…. who’d have thought people would sit in areas constructed of container crates years ago to have a drink😂
 
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Grumpy Old Man said:
That's about twice their record attendance, Talk about a vanity project. Even Villa would struggle to fill that, and they've always been way better supported.
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To be fair I think they’ve had some decent attendances historically. I’ve seen plenty old pictures of a quite impressive looking St Andrews packed to the rafters with 60k plus in.

But aye seems a trifle excessive given their recent history 😂
 
Love the detail of the cost...seems they have really done their feasibility and planning studies in real detail

'two to three billion ponds' cost, right lads its gonna cost 2 billion but we have 1 billion contingency if owt goes wrong
 
matt228 said:
Who said anything about being "allowed to" say anything? :lol: It just tickled me, the idea that a whole religion of people would somehow be predisposed not to like football.

How do you know what religion the people at Birmingham or Villa matches are? I've never been, do they take their Qu'rans with them?
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I wouldn't bother mate. You can't change the views of some people. They just probably old people who know no better. Casa in point @Grumpy Old Man post on last page. He's probably not a raging racist, just a bit thick. Generalising so many people.
 
If the investment can inject some improvement to the area (Bordesley Green), a bit like Citey did, then it might help. Very deprived area when I was last there
 
LDNCCFC said:
It's mental really.

Obviously being from Coventry, I have a lot of mates who are Birmingham fans. They are very similar to Millwall in the sense that they like to be seen as a 'proper club'. Very few football shirts in the stands, a working class club, no bowl stadium with a drum etc. Little success but a famous reputation off the pitch.

Villa are different. More middle class and attract fans from many of the towns and villages outside Birmingham and wider area.

What is funny is seeing their reaction to this. Since the takeover they've slowly made changes like adding light displays and fireworks before matches. They are now aiming to build a modern bowl which will very Americanised and with zero atmosphere.

We've seen what can go wrong with projects like this. Darlington and ourselves the two most famous examples. Both completely collapsed after moving to stadiums that at the time were too big for our struggling teams.

Even West Ham. On the pitch things have improved but you ask any of their old school fans and they completely despise the place. They've filled it because they are a big club with basically the whole Essex as a catchment area and being in the middle of one of the world's most visited cities.

At least if things go wrong, they can rent the place out to us when Mike Ashley inevitably falls out with us in 5 years time 😂
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You say that about West Ham, but living in London I know plenty of West Ham fans who have season tickets now who never would of in the past, and so like the new bowl. Also it's obviously gonna take him to get used to, but in a generation or so when it's all people ever know they're gonna be thankful they moved.

As for Birmingham, if they build it right and it coincides with on the field success I have no doubt they will fill it like. Birmingham and the surrounding area is absolutely massive. Who gives a fuck about the "old school" fans opinions, they were never going to like change.

You've got to think in decades not a few years.
 
Ned Land said:
It depends I think.

It works in certain areas/big conurbations, especially if there’s plenty of expendable income.

In Sunderland though I expect that most matchday fans are happy to drink around the ‘town’ before and after the match.

The club could possibly do more before the match e.g. the fanzone stuff is decent for kids, but I can’t see how people would want to dispose of more £££.
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If we had decent enough bars/ food places around the stadium they'd be absolutely rammed. The Tavern is always out the door, and that's an awful pub.

Unfortunately, Sunderland AFC never took advantage of the land around the stadium, or even relatively cheap rents in the city, to build our revenue streams while we were a PL team.
 
HarrogateMackem said:
If we had decent enough bars/ food places around the stadium they'd be absolutely rammed. The Tavern is always out the door, and that's an awful pub.

Unfortunately, Sunderland AFC never took advantage of the land around the stadium, or even relatively cheap rents in the city, to build our revenue streams while we were a PL team.
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There’s the hotel, although short retained ownership of it.

You’re right though, we could have built a lot more.
 
Fleagle said:
There is the odd case like Coventry, where the new stadium failed in the short term because it coincided with a period when the team was crap
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is the location of the ground not a massive put-off ?

i always get the feeling that these out-of-town stadiums are a massive turn off for young lads or dad/son duos who just want to leave their house, go to the pub, go to the match, then go back to the pub (or similar)

a bit of generalisation going on there, but as with anything, the more convenient it is and the less hurdles there are, the more people will come . Coventry's stadium just feels like an awful location. there are loads of examples in the lower leagues

if i were building a stadium i'd build it as close to town centres, built up areas, loads of housing, pubs, people, transport links etc.. are
 
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