Fresh update emerges involving new Birmingham City, 62,000-seater Powerhouse stadium | OneFootball

Blues are looking to maximise revenue streams at their upcoming home

A fresh update has emerged regarding plans for Birmingham City's upcoming 62,000-seater Powerhouse stadium, which will become the centrepiece of a multi-billion pound regeneration project in East Birmingham.

According to GiveMeSport, the Championship side are considering becoming part of a potential rebrand of the Rugby Union's PREM Rugby division, with Blues looking to maximise the amount of revenue generated by their new home.

Birmingham have called their current ground - St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park - home since the year 1906, but are expected to move into the Powerhouse stadium by the summer of 2030, by which time, the frontman of American ownership group Knighthead Capital Management, Tom Wagner, hopes to have returned the Second City club to the Premier League for the first time since May 2011.

The Blues owner has not been shy about backing current manager Chris Davies in the transfer market in a bid to quicken such aims, although they currently find themselves 14th in the Championship, having racked up a total of 34 points from their opening 26 matches.

It has been well-documented that the club's future home will be a hub for the local community in East Birmingham, with several commercial and retail projects planned as part of the Sports Quarter project, which will reportedly cost between £2-3bn.

With Blues also having NFL icon and seven-time Super Bowl winner, Tom Brady, as Advisory Board President, NFL matches are expected to be held in the West Midlands in the future, as well as high-profile concerts.

It was mooted last month that a Birmingham-based rugby union side could also play their home matches at the Powerhouse, and a further step has been taken as part of those potential plans.

Image supplied through Grayling

It is fair to say that Rugby - of any code - is not the most popular of sports in the Second City and the wider West Midlands region.

At present, the only Rugby Union club within the city boundaries are Birmingham Moseley, who currently feature in the English National League One, and play their home fixtures at the Billesley Common stadium, a 5-000 capacity arena in the suburb of Yardley Wood.

Features such as a retractable pitch have been mooted as part of the Powerhouse development, which would allow for a multi-sport usage, whilst it was reported that Birmingham are keen to liaise with the Football Association regarding the potential of Lionesses matches becoming a regular occurrence in this part of the world.

It was later claimed that the RFU (Rugby Football Union) had also been approached over the possibility of a top-flight rugby side being based in the city, and a fresh update has emerged on this front.

GiveMeSport now claim that Blues are showing an interest in becoming part of a restructure of PREM Rugby, as they look to bring in as much money into the club's coffers as possible.

The publication outline that enquiries have been made as to whether the top division of Rugby Union in the country will become a closed-franchise division.

Those overseeing matters in the division are said to be engaging with investment bank, Raine, and accountancy firm, Deloitte, over the prospects, with new funding required after 27 percent of its commercial rights was previously sold off.

Three clubs in the division have all filed for bankruptcy in recent times, including sides not too far away from Birmingham in the form of Worcester Warriors and Wasps.

The latter, of course, were involved in long-standing controversies with Coventry City after groundsharing at the CBS Arena for a handful of years, before Blues, ironically, took control of their former Elite Performance and Innovation Centre facilities at Henley-In-Arden after their previous base at Wast Hills - now the Knighthead Performance Centre - was the site of a fire in March 2023.

Tom Wagner's previous claims on Birmingham City revenue from Powerhouse development

It has been suggested that whilst Rugby Union crowds may struggle to reach a 60,000+ figure, matches would help grow Blues' revenue streams significantly.

On the day the Powerhouse was unveiled at Digbeth Loc Studios, the aforementioned Wagner made a prediction on how much money the stadium could make each calendar year.

“I want to say it’s three quarters of a billion pounds per year, my gut tells me that we’ll do better than that because we keep seeing more interest in what we’re doing,” said the Blues chief.

“Different types of entertainment venues, different types of acts and different forms of teams and entertainment that want to come and be a part of it.

However, previous claims