The Blues are looking to replace St. Andrew’s with a sizable new home field, but veteran manager Tony Pulis says more is required to keep the supporters engaged.
Prioritising the organisation of their first-team roster should come before considering the construction of a new stadium for Birmingham City.
Tony Pulis claims that if the Blues don’t start getting good results, they will find it difficult to gain any ground.
Last July, American billionaire Tom Wagner completed the club’s ownership through his company Knighthead. Notable American football player and multiple Super Bowl winner Tom Brady is now a shareholder in Birmingham City.
Since he assumed leadership of the Blues, Wagner has demonstrated a strong desire to develop and grow the team.
The clearest example of it was when he recently revealed that his team would be building a new 62,000-seat stadium at Birmingham Wheels Park.
Though the Blues have ambitious off-field goals, the team also has a number of pressing on-field problems that need to be resolved.
Birmingham City are battling to avoid Championship relegation
In terms of Championship results, Birmingham’s season has been challenging on the pitch.
With two games remaining in the season, the Blues are now one point from safety in 22nd place in the second division standings.
The team’s next game is a Saturday lunchtime trip to fellow struggling team Huddersfield Town, and they close the season at home against Norwich City, who are expected to make the playoffs.
But rather than constructing their new stadium, Pulis thinks Birmingham should be more focused on staying in the Premier League and fielding a competitive squad.
Birmingham City receives a stadium warning from Tony Pulis.
Wagner’s proposals for a new stadium are striking and ambitious, and they have generated a lot of discussion.
However, given Birmingham’s standing in the Championship table, Pulis feels that there are more pressing issues to be concerned about at the moment.
The former West Brom manager stated, via OLBG, in response to a question on the plans to construct a new stadium for the Blues: “They’ve got rich owners there now and it sounds as if they want to be progressive.”
“But even with the greatest stadium in the world, it won’t fill up if your team isn’t winning games.
“The owners’ and Tom Brady’s first focus must be staying up. In order to stabilise in the Championship after staying up, they must consider bolstering the team on the pitch.
“I know the fans are excited about the talk of building stadiums and doing this and that, but most of them will want the team to get resolved before anything else,”
Birmingham City’s primary concern is their championship standing.
These remarks from Pulis regarding Birmingham’s current priorities being avoiding relegation and developing a squad are difficult to disagree with.
Wagner has lately stated that the club will not be able to afford to build this new stadium.
It goes without saying that funding for this will need to come from some source, which could have an effect on the amount of money allocated for other areas like the playing roster.
But that might be a bit of a gamble given the club’s current extremely precarious place in the Championship standings, as this season has arguably proved.
The financial losses from falling to the third tier would make it far more difficult for them to fund the same if they fail to stay up or permit themselves to fall into this situation once more.
This seems like a vicious loop, whereby Birmingham will find it difficult to build this stadium if they are not in a better position than they are, and building the stadium will make it more difficult to assemble a team that can help them.
It seems like the Blues need to make sure they are not in danger as a result before they consider starting construction on this new stadium, they must first consider demotion.
