Birmingham Owner's Vision Could Transform City But Football Clubs Are Not Just Balance Sheets | Jason Stockwood

I grew up successful a Britain coloured grey. During nan 1970s, moreover though memories of nan warfare had faded into nan region and rationing had agelong ended, scarcity still hung successful nan air. Clothes were handed down, treats were uncommon and nan state felt smaller and much muted than nan 1 talked astir successful history books. Geoff Dyer’s memoir, Homework, captures it perfectly, a postwar Britain wherever Airfix models seemed breathtaking and beforehand rooms kept “for best” epitomised a spot looking inwards, somewhat embarrassed astir its ambitions and potential.

America existed for maine successful a play burst of Technicolor connected TV. When Entertainment USA arrived successful nan 1980s it brought news of Disneyland, Hollywood, pizzas nan size of tabletops, Pelé playing for New York Cosmos, and skies that seemed permanently blue. It appealed to each nan appetites of a teenage boy successful Grimsby. Later, discovering Jack Kerouac, nan lure deepened – unfastened roads and escapade felt a world away, but I had to get there. One afternoon, aged 16 successful nan section library, I recovered a book connected scholarships, sent retired 100 letters, and received 99 rejections. That 1 affirmative reply yet sent maine to precocious schoolhouse arsenic an speech student and began a life of transatlantic recreation that continues to this day. Over nan adjacent 3 decades I crossed nan water for work, gathering bosses, pitching to investors and building businesses pinch an American footprint. I person ever admired nan optimism, standard and willingness to return a punt that seems hard-wired into nan US mindset.

It was pinch that narration successful mind that I sat down to watch nan caller Birmingham City documentary connected Amazon. I wanted to for illustration it. Tom Brady is, without question, 1 of nan top athletes of each time, disciplined, relentless and nan embodiment of a winning mindset. I want occurrence for Birmingham fans arsenic I do for each English clubs, but location were moments that made maine wince: nan co-owner Tom Wagner giving his ain squad talk connected nan Wembley steps, Brady talking astir “shit teams” they should person beaten, and a infinitesimal erstwhile Wayne Rooney mentions getting to nan crushed for 9am, only for Brady to flex that his time starts astatine 6am. It had nan swagger of Welcome to Wrexham without nan aforesaid charm. Winning League One aft spending £15m connected a azygous subordinate successful a convention wherever galore clubs’ full budgets are a fraction of that feels nan epitome of what Dr Pippa Grange calls “winning shallow”.

City’s ownership is divided betwixt Birmingham Sports Holdings, which retains conscionable complete half nan club, and Shelby Companies Limited, controlled by nan US-based Knighthead Capital Management, which owns astir 46%. Wagner, Knighthead’s co-founder, is nan driving force, backed by important organization capital, while Brady holds a token number liking but serves arsenic nan nationalist face. His domiciled is not governance aliases strategy; it is brand, visibility and ambition.

Part of that marque has been a deliberate leaning into Birmingham’s world image shaped by Peaky Blinders and nan fictional Shelby family. The moody visuals, nan references to toughness and grit, nan artistic of level caps and difficult stares play into a communicative of nan nine arsenic an embodiment of nan city’s “hardness”. The existent Peaky Blinders were a convulsive thoroughfare pack successful nan precocious 19th and early 20th century, products of business poorness and societal fracture. Today, that history has been polished into an exportable taste commodity, a crisp suit and moreover sharper move of building wherever location was erstwhile existent hardship.

The documentary reinforces this framing. It is only 5 episodes long, yet 1 is devoted to nan Birmingham Zulu Warriors, nan club’s notorious hooligan patient from nan 1980s. I do not want to sanitise nan past, those stories are portion of nan club’s and nan city’s history, but centring them truthful prominently is its ain calling card. It tells you which values nan storytellers and owners want to project. There is simply a quality betwixt acknowledging a history and building a club’s modern personality astir it. Football clubs thrive erstwhile they bespeak nan full of their community, not conscionable nan astir marketable portion of its mythology.

Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates aft scoring for Birmingham against Sheffield United successful nan Carabao Cup. Photograph: Matt West/Shutterstock

Knighthead’s ambitions are big, a multibillion-pound “Sports Quarter” pinch a caller stadium and regeneration. That benignant of imagination could toggle shape parts of Birmingham. But it will beryllium telling to spot really a profit-driven attack collides pinch nan caller independent regulator for English football, whose occupation is to protect nan interests of fans and nan semipermanent wellness of nan game. In a metropolis that declared bankruptcy successful 2023, it is easy to spot nan entreaty for a backstage equity investor spotting what it believes is, successful nan connection of markets, a “distressed asset”, undervalued, pinch scope for a turnaround and important upside if managed aggressively. That logic useful connected a spreadsheet, but shot clubs are not conscionable equilibrium sheets, and I americium wary erstwhile investors want to beryllium truthful overmuch a portion of nan communicative themselves. It is not rather Michael Knighton juggling a shot connected nan transportation astatine Old Trafford, but Wagner’s caller question and reply successful nan Observer, saying, “I attraction much astir Birmingham than I do astir thing else,” does punctual nan mobility – why?

I activity pinch and respect US backstage equity and person seen nan benefits of nan discipline, superior and operational attraction it tin bring to businesses. But I do not judge it is simply a earthy fresh for shot clubs. The exemplary depends connected delivering beardown returns successful a group timeframe and past moving nan plus on. Football, by contrast, is some a business and a semipermanent civic endeavour. With unpredictable results, heavy affectional ties and obligations to communities, doing champion by each stakeholders will beryllium a challenge.

The champion of America has ever been astir believing thing is possible, nan standard of ambition, nan optimism to support trying, and nan courageousness to return risks others would avoid. In business, those qualities tin unlock bonzer value. But shot is not conscionable a marketplace to beryllium tapped aliases a marque to beryllium scaled. It is simply a surviving portion of a community, pinch roots, rituals and relationships that cannot beryllium accelerated to meet nan expectations of investors. The situation for Birmingham’s custodians is whether they tin return nan champion of that American assurance and harvester it pinch nan patience and attraction shot demands. If they can, they will create thing that lasts. If they cannot, each nan money, swagger and communicative successful nan world will not beryllium enough.

Jason Stockwood is nan co-owner of Grimsby Town