Tom Wagner takes action as Birmingham City move closer towards 62,000-seater stadium | OneFootball

Blues have made a big announcement regarding their progress of their Sports Quarter stadium.

Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner has revealed the identity of the design and architect team who will bring the club's proposed 62,000-seater Sports Quarter stadium to life.

Despite a somewhat mediocre start to life back in the Championship on the pitch, Birmingham City are still very much a club planning for a future among English football's elite.

Indeed, Chris Davies' side have taken just 12 points from their opening 10 league games ahead of their clash away at Preston North End this evening, and as such, are scrapping away at the opposite end of the table of where they would like to be.

However, with a highly ambitious ownership group and a playing squad that has seen significant investment put into it, Blues' hierarchy will be banking on the team to eventually start ascending the second tier table, and bring the club back to the Premier League in the near future.

Birmingham City chief Tom Wagner announces Heatherwick Studio and MANICA as Sports Quarter design and architect team

It's been common knowledge for some time now that Birmingham City's owners are looking to bring a £3billion Sports Quarter to the heart of the city.

Alongside a new training complex and a 15-20,000-seater arena that will be used to host a wide range of events, such as American Football and Rugby, the centrepiece will be a state-of-the-art 62,000 capacity home for Birmingham City to move out of St Andrew's for.

Wagner, co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management and Blues chairman, has earmarked the 2030/31 season as the target term for Birmingham to be moved into their new home, in what will instantly become one of the biggest and grandest footballing amphitheatres in the country.

What hasn't been public knowledge up until Tuesday afternoon, however, was who was going to be the people tasked with bringing this stadium and overall vision to life.

However, in a statement published to the club's official website on Tuesday, Wagner revealed while speaking at a Regional Investment Summit meeting in Edgbaston, that Heatherwick Studio and MANICA will form the design and architect team for the new stadium.

Heatherwick Studio are a multi-award-winning British design studio, who are responsible for creating some of the world's most iconic buildings and spaces, such as the BT Tower in London, EDEN in Singapore, and the Jeddah Central Museum in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Kansas-based architecture giants MANICA are responsible for designing some of the world's most recognisable stadiums, including the new Wembley Stadium, the renovation of Barcelona's Camp Nou, and Lusail Stadium in Doha for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Birmingham City have also confirmed that these two groups will also be supported by Steven Knight, who is the local screenwriter and director whose work includes the hit BBC show, Peaky Blinders.

Birmingham have also announced that further details, including some concept design work of the stadium, will be coming over the next few weeks.

With billions of pounds fuelling a burning ambition for success in the Birmingham City boardroom, there is perhaps few jobs in English football right now with more pressure to deliver attached to it than the Birmingham City manager's position.

Blues' ownership aren't building a 62,000-seater stadium and the surrounding Sports Quarter complex to simply watch their team playing EFL football - it's a Premier League-sized project.

Therefore, Davies will know that he probably doesn't have the luxury of patience and time on his hands with this Blues team, as Wagner and co will no doubt be wanting the club to have established themselves in the top flight by the time the proposed 2030 opening of the new stadium arrives.

So, it will be fascinating to see how much time the Birmingham board give the 40-year-old to keep the train on the tracks, as modest and mediocre won't cut it at Blues any longer.