Exclusive: Ex-Aston Villa star questions if Birmingham City will fill new 62,000-seater stadium | OneFootball

Lee Hendrie exclusively tells FLW whether he believed Blues would be able to sell it out as often as Tom Wagner thinks

Former Aston Villa midfielder and Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie has suggested that Birmingham City may struggle to fill their ambitious new 62,000-seater stadium unless Blues push towards the very top of English football.

This comes after Birmingham’s chairman Tom Wagner has been vocal about his vision for a new state-of-the-art £3b stadium as part of the club's Sports Quarter development in Bordesley Green.

The project is also featuring input from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, and is set to more than double the capacity of St Andrew's - where Blues have called home since 1906.

As you can see by this above tweet, Knight has been brought on as a consultant to help shape the stadium's design and fan experience.

What Lee Hendrie has said about Birmingham City filling out their new 62,000-seater stadium

Speaking exclusively to FLW, Hendrie was asked whether he believed Birmingham would be able to sell out their new 62,000-seater stadium on a regular basis.

"This is a big thing," Hendrie began. "I mean you talk about a 62 thousand seater stadium, and listen, there's obviously bigger plans that roll round Birmingham City and yes, totally get it.

"You know, I think having success comes with a whole lot of things, and that’s where that would certainly help - filling an all-seater stadium at that sort of figure," he added.

Basically, the Sky Sports pundit was clear in his view that Birmingham's ability to pack out their new home will be directly tied to competitive success.

Hendrie acknowledged that the club and its ownership group have the financial resources to pursue their ambitions, but success on the pitch remains the crucial part.

"That’s the problem, they probably need to get to that sort of success beforehand or quite clearly, they are working towards that because they’re a big club and they’ve got the finances to do that," Hendrie continued.

There needs to be a "balance of getting it right" at Birmingham City for their new stadium

Wagner has repeatedly stressed that the Sports Quarter represents a big opportunity for both the city and the club - and it does, there’s no denying that.

The development is set to include not just a 62,000-seater stadium, but also a 15,000-seat arena, training facilities for all of the club's teams, a mini-stadium with approximately 10,000 capacity, retail spaces, hotels, and community facilities.

Take for instance the home of MK Dons, Stadium MK. Albeit very, very minimal compared to Blues, as part of a new £56m retail development on the site in 2011, the capacity of the ground was expanded to over 30k. Their former chairman, Pete Winkleman, said it was aimed at the "cultural infrastructure of Milton Keynes" and not "football."

And you could argue to some extent that has worked somewhat, seeing as the highest ever attendance there was 29k for a game of Rugby.

But Hendrie's comments reflect a somewhat wider concern about whether ambitious stadium projects can succeed without corresponding success in the football league - and in Birmingham, everyone only really cares about football.

"You need to be pushing more to the top end of the scale for that to happen. You know, when things aren’t quite going right at the football club, as we’ve seen with many football clubs, you don’t fill stadiums," the former Villan continued.

However, Hendrie was not entirely dismissive of Birmingham's chances. He suggested that if the club can achieve and maintain success, filling the stadium would become far more realistic.

"So, there has to be that balance of getting it right. But yes, it's a big football club and when things are going well i'm sure that they would be able to fill that,” he concluded.

What we can take from Hendrie’s comments is that if Blues achieve success on the pitch, the question of filling the new 62,000-seater stadium will largely answer itself.