'Won't happen again' - Tom Wagner makes new Birmingham City pledge and confirms plan 'unlike any other'

Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner has made a pledge to fans about the club’s future and has provided an update on plans for a new 62,000-seater stadium.

Blues’ record-breaking 111-point season to win the League One title and earn promotion back to the Championship is just the first step of many, with Wagner aiming to build momentum. Birmingham’s owner is determined to ensure the upward trajectory of the club doesn’t stagnate and instead continues for many years to come.

As well as securing promotion, Birmingham recently announced another big step. Blues’ academy has regained the Category One status it had lost under the previous ownership, a significant moment in Blues’ mission to source and develop some of the country’s best young talent, just as they did with the Bellingham brothers.

Wagner recently spoke of his delight at the club’s progress at Birmingham’s title celebration evening at the International Convention Centre (ICC). The American addressed around 1,000 supporters and confirmed plans for the new ‘Sports Quarter’ is set to include a new 62,000-capacity stadium. He hopes the prospect can inspire the next generation.

“For every young person who walks into that training ground to become a member of our academy, soon they will see images of where they will play when they come of age. It will be a place unlike any other that exists in European football,” Wagner said.

It certainly won’t be straightforward for Blues’ ambitious stadium plans to go ahead as there are several complex hurdles to overcome. Discussions are underway with local and national government, though, with Wagner determined to build a brighter future for the community as well as the football club.

When updating fans on the stadium situation, Wagner revealed there have been pushbacks he’s actively trying to navigate, as he admitted: “I was talking with one of our consultants who represents us in our project. I asked for some advice and he said, ‘I think you need to tone it down. Some of what you do isn’t in line with traditions here’.

“I replied, ‘Why do you say that? Because I don’t really care’. He said, ‘You are drawing the ire of some of the biggest clubs in England’. I responded, ‘How? We have only just come out of League One?’. And, do you know what he said? He said, ‘It’s because they know that you’re coming’.

“So, I will say this and I’ll say it right now – we all know where we are going and we will get there. We cannot be afraid to show our pride. We lost a generation of fans to poor results and that won’t happen again.

“I’m proud to be a blue and I will be for life. We are only getting started. Birmingham is on the rise and anyone who doesn’t believe me, well, they know our answer.”

Read on: Predictions have already been made for how Birmingham will get on in their return to the Championship next season, with likely points totals already calculated.