How Birmingham City's new Sports Quarter would compare to Man City - The size difference is scary | OneFootball

The power-brokers at Birmingham City have exciting new plans for the Blues

Birmingham City will soon have facilities to rival those of Premier League heavyweights Manchester City, according to recently released plans.

The Blues, under the ownership of Knighthead Capital, fronted by Tom Wagner, have announced ambitious new plans for a campus facility, named the Sports Quarter, to be constructed in the heart of Birmingham city centre.

The vast site, under the proposals, will be centred around a new 62,000-seater stadium that will house the men’s first team.

Should the plans come to fruition, the Blues could own the largest sports facility of its type in the country.

The Sports Quarter will be bigger than the Etihad Campus, plans propose

Under the current plans, the Sports Quarter will comprise multiple stadiums, training pitches, accommodation, offices, green space and recreational facilities.

It will be set on a site exceeding 125 acres, which could rise to 135 acres, according to BirminghamLive.

Given that City’s Etihad Campus, one of the only facilities of a comparable scale, sits across 80 acres, Birmingham’s would instantly become the largest such site to be used by a football club in the United Kingdom.

If that were not enough, the bulk of the project will be housed just a stone’s throw away from the Blues’ current home in east Birmingham.

Birmingham will boast similar facilities to Tottenham Hotspur

The men’s 62,000-seater stadium will be the centre-piece, but plans also show the site is set to include a smaller stadium, around 10,000 in capacity, to host the club’s women's and academy teams.

Alongside those two venues, there will also be a 15-20,000 capacity indoor venue to host concerts, events and potentially even Birmingham Panthers, a local netball team acquired by Birmingham’s owners this year.

The men’s stadium is set to include the latest technology, including a retractable pitch, similar to the one at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, so that other events can be held in the main venue with ease.

The training facilities will encompass separate areas for men’s, women’s and academy teams to work across 19 pitches, up from the 13 pitches their current base boasts.

A timeline for the Sports Quarter is already in place

There’s no doubt about the seriousness of these plans, with the government recently announcing funding for improved transport links between the proposed site and the centre of the city.

The full plan is currently scheduled to reach the council in 2026 and, given the scale of the plans, the club don’t expect to have authorisation to proceed until late next year.

They then project spades to hit the ground at some point in 2027 or 2028, with a currently projected finish date of 2030, which some insiders told BirminghamLive is ambitious but possible.

It was already an exciting time to be a Blues fan under Knighthead after their recent return to the Championship and their strong strides in the transfer market, but these new plans will elevate the mood around the club to a whole new level.