How Birmingham City's incredible new 60,000-seater stadium could look - according to intriguing AI designs
With plans ongoing for a new 60,000-capacity Birmingham City stadium, we asked AI to come up with some concepts.
Blues chairman Tom Wagner is determined to well and truly get Birmingham City on the rise again and one of the ways he hopes to achieve that is by building a new multi-sport stadium, not only to captivate Bluenoses but to transform prospects for the entire city.
Chris Davies and his team are doing a great job of re-energising the fanbase with their performances on the field with Birmingham recently breaking the League One, EFL and world records for the most points in a 46-game season. Wagner is getting in on the act with his off-the-field measures, too.
St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park has undergone some major transformations, for starters. From a fresh lick of paint throughout to an incredible new fanzone and an improved matchday experience, the feel-good factor has certainly returned. The relegation to the third tier weirdly helped, too, with victories most weeks lifting the mood exponentially.
But how about a new stadium? How would that change things? Quite a lot, you’d suppose. Knighthead, the US company overseeing Blues with Wagner at the helm, have already bought the 48-acre former Birmingham Wheels site in Bordesley and have begun the process of regenerating the plot. The idea is to have a 60,000-seater stadium with extra sporting facilities, shops and homes on the site.
The initial plans have been welcomed by the government and Wagner has promised up to 8,400 new jobs, encouraging further investment in the east of Birmingham. But what might the new stadium look like? As of yet, there are no official plans drawn up, so purely out of excitement really, we thought we’d ask artificial intelligence to come up with some ideas.
How Birmingham’s new 60,000-seater stadium could look
Meet Grok, our AI tool of choice for this experiment. Built into X (formerly Twitter), the robot can come up with an answer for pretty much anything you ask – and it can also draw up images from scratch with very few prompts. For the purpose of this article, we asked Grok: “Create some images of a new-look and modern stadium for Birmingham City FC with 60,000 seats”. Here’s what it came up with.
The first photo generated is actually a decent attempt. Fair play, Mr Grok, you’ve nailed it with the modern look and the royal blue theme throughout. It has to be said the seats spilling out of the back of one of the stands is a strange design feature, but maybe Grok’s a step ahead of us with plans for an outdoor fanzone. Either way, not a bad start, and some nice greenery in the background.
A second look, this time from inside, really emphasises the sheer size of Grok’s design. It’s maybe a little too bog-standard for many supporters’ liking, and very similar to Everton’s new bizarrely-named Hill Dickinson Stadium, but it’s at least a practical look. There seems to be a retractable roof, too, which is oh so Bernabeu-esque! Now all we need are some royal blue galacticos and Birmingham are good to go.
Now into the concourse and there appears to be some strange Roman theme going on here. What are those archways all about? And where have they suddenly appeared from as they couldn’t be seen in the other images? We’ll let you off here, Mr Grok, as you’re clearly getting creative. At least Bluenoses would have a big space to chat before the match and at half time. And there appears to be plenty of choice for food and drink.
A mural of the Bellingham brothers? Now you’re talking, Grok! Jude and Jobe have both played a key role for Birmingham in recent years, especially financially. Jude of course is the more reputable of the two as he left for £25 million to Borussia Dortmund and has gone on to be a star man for Real Madrid, but Jobe deserves a mention too. All we need is a new Trevor Francis mural and Bluenoses should be content with Grok’s thinking.
Last but not least, Grok has given a night view of the outside of the stadium to showcase what it could look like on a big evening under the lights. Whether it be in the Premier League against bitter local rivals Aston Villa or perhaps even in European competition, Blues could make use of fireworks to really get their new stadium popping. Not a bad idea again, Grok, and a decent attempt overall, it has to be said.
What do you make of Grok’s designs, then? Let us know in the comments section what you like and what you would change.