How Birmingham City's minority owner Tom Brady created a net worth of £350m | OneFootball

The future of Birmingham has been revolutionised by the American takeover.

Birmingham City's fortunes have turned around since Tom Wagner and Knighthead Capital acquired 45.64% of the club in May 2023.

Any wealthy new owner of any sort of business, whether it be a sports team or a more regular company, expects that they will come in and have a positive impact. Well, that's not how Wagner's first months at St Andrew's went.

With John Eustace at the head of the first-team, and NFL legend, and now minority owner, Tom Brady drinking in pubs with fans, City were in the play-off places in the early parts of the season.

But, for a still mind-boggling reason, they elected to get rid of the now Blackburn Rovers boss in favour of bringing in Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney, with an aim of implementing a more attractive style of football.

It didn't work.

The appointment of Rooney started Birmingham down the slippery slope which ended up with them being relegated to League One on the final day of the 2023/24 Championship season.

Despite the initial despair about going down, there was still a lot to be hopeful about.

Knighthead's investment into Birmingham City

On top of the stake that the New York hedge fund purchased back in 2023, Knighthead have committed a further £2-3 billion to building a new 'Sports Quarter' in the east of the city, including a new stadium, first-team and academy training facilities. However, there could be problems with this project if local transport links don't improve, according to Wagner.

The costs of this proposed project at the old Birmingham Wheels won't all be covered by the American and the rest of the members of his consortium. As any well-run club would try and do, they have secured lucrative sponsorship deals to help pay for things.

They have signed deals with Delta Air Lines, Nike and UNDEFEATED which they are expected to bring in £20-30 million to the club.

That money would have covered the costs of the transfers made in the summer. A huge overhaul of the squad was carried out. They broke all sorts of League One spending records in the process, with £20-25m being spent in total by the Blues, according to The Athletic.

Brady very much lives up to the minority owner title. He only has 3.3 pence worth of shares in the club, as per Kieran Maguire, and he has no voting rights, so he's certainly not the one bankrolling this team. That's not to say that he wouldn't have the funds to do it.

How Tom Brady made his millions

According to Birmingham Live, the ex-New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback has a net worth of £350 million.

Much of his earnings, of course, come from his playing days. His final contract as an American footballer was worth £38 million. He was notorious for taking less money than he was worth in order to allow his team to spend elsewhere, which is so essential in a league with a hard spending cap.

Had he been more willing to take the millions that would have otherwise been on offer, his current net worth would be much higher.

Brady has had sports-related ventures since retiring. He owns stakes in many Las Vegas sports teams, including a deal which saw him and the Birmingham chairman snap up 10% of the Las Vegas Raiders NFL team, with Brady owning 5% himself. That purchase has now been approved by the NFL's owners.

On top of his involvement in sports teams, he has now ventured into the world of sports media. He has a 10-year, £285 million contract with Fox Sports to be an analyst for their American Football coverage, as per Birmingham Live.