Excitement is building for the unveiling of Blues’ new stadium.
The design of the centre piece of the £2 billion – £3 billion Sports Quarter project is to be revealed in Birmingham on Thursday afternoon.
Blues promise it will be ‘iconic’ and firmly put the club and the city on the global sporting map.
They have appointed Heatherwick and MANICA, with Steven Knight advising, to come up with something special for the 62,000-seat arena.
Did you know that back in November 2005, Blues announced plans for a super stadium and sports village, on the same Birmingham Wheels site and Saltley, that would have cost £217 million?
The club and managing director Karren Brady said it would not only transform Blues, but the city itself through regeneration and tourism.
The whole project was anchored around the Government granting a super casino licence.
Blues went into partnership with American firm Las Vegas Sands, owners of the The Venetian on the famous Strip. The idea was to incorporate the casino into a 59 acre sports and entertainment complex.
Along with the casino, the site would house a 55,000-seat stadium – Blues new home, which would have become one of the biggest grounds in the country – and an Olympic size swimming pool.
It would be capable of hosting football, athletics and rugby tournaments, as well as concerts.
The design was based on Melbourne’s Telstra Dome in Australia. The stadium would have a fully-retractable roof and lower level spectator areas could be taken out to house the running track and cricket pitch.
Las Vegas Sands stressed the regeneration benefits to the Saltley area of the city and Blues urged people to write to their MPs and campaign for the casino licence.
There was opposition from local councillors, who objected on religious and moral grounds.
Unfortunately for Blues – and to their ire – Birmingham City Council backed a rival plan for a super casino at the National Exhibition Centre the following March.
Brady said at the time: “I am hugely disappointed.
“In their blind pursuit to save the NEC, the council might have cost Birmingham the chance of having the super casino and all the regeneration that would have brought.”
In the end, Manchester and Blackpool were chosen to for a licence before Gordon Brown’s Government scrapped the whole super casino concept altogether.
For Brady, and David Sullivan and the Gold brothers Blues, it was a watershed moment.
Stuck at St. Andrew’s, their enthusiasm for Blues waned as the team bounced between the Premier League and Championship, and fans become disillusioned with their stewardship.
