Alex Dicken investigates Birmingham City owner Tom Wagner’s open letter to Rishi Sunak.
We shouldn’t be shocked that Birmingham City’s new owner, Tom Wagner, is so committed to completing HS2.
According to reports, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will not provide the game-changing high-speed rail solution promised when construction began in 2017. Instead of a network connecting the north to London through Birmingham, it now appears that the network might simply connect Birmingham to London.
The initial proposals were for a 71-minute travel from Manchester to London and a 41-minute journey from Manchester to Birmingham. It’s easy to see why Wagner is anxious about the possibility of that second fast-tracked path being scrapped.
Wagner made it clear in his open letter to Sunak that the Blues would like to host activities other than football matches in the coming years. Football teams are increasingly using their stadiums to host music concerts and other athletic events like as boxing and NFL games. In a game with strict financial fair play laws, a club’s capacity to generate cash off the pitch is critical to its long-term viability and success.
READ: Tom Wagner files an appeal against Rishi Sunak over Birmingham City worries
St Andrew’s will need to be significantly improved before that can happen, or Blues may have to relocate to a more suitable location. These are the factors Wagner and the Knighthead crew evaluated before committing their funds.
They may not have considered the government’s abandonment of the original HS2 plans. The impact on Birmingham is clear: half of the country will no longer have convenient, rapid train access to the second city.
“Knighthead’s goal is to make Birmingham City, and by extension Birmingham, a beacon for excellence that is recognised worldwide,” Wagner writes in his letter. This entails investing in world-class infrastructure and amenities. Making the club and Birmingham a preferred destination for the top talent on and off the pitch. And somewhere people will want to go. We will bring enormous investment into the city, creating new employment and opportunities, using the power of not only football but also world-class sport, media, and entertainment events.”
Sunak has put a minor wrench in the works of “The Project,” according to Wagner’s prompt communication on the subject. Sunak would be stupid to deny Birmingham the chance Wagner and his American colleagues have provided.
