Featured image credit: Birmingham City
English League One football club Birmingham City has been given the green light for a new fan park at its St. Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park stadium ahead of its scheduled opening next month.
Birmingham City Council has granted approval for the scheme for a temporary period of two years. In providing an update on the project earlier this month, City said it was due to open for the club’s next home match, a league fixture against Stockport County on December 4.
The project includes the use of shipping container style units and canopies for the sale of food, beverage and merchandise, external seating areas, a stage with a big screen, perimeter fencing and netting and associated works.
It is divided into two parts, with a ‘family zone’ offering single stacked shipping containers, with seating and table tennis and pool/snooker tables. Other “interactive activities” will be provided.
The ‘adult zone’ consists of single and double stacked shipping containers, a stage with a big screen and seating arranged centrally, with the view towards providing a “dynamic and immersive social experience”.
Knighthead Fan Park will be in use for home games, along with being granted permission for up to 15 non-match day events per year. Its introduction is part of ambitious infrastructure plans being drawn up by City’s American ownership group.
In April, City’s owners acquired a 48-acre site in Bordesley Park with a view to creating a new sports quarter that can house a “world-class” stadium for the club currently sitting third in League One following relegation from the Championship last season.
Knighthead Capital Management acquired the former Wheels site in the east of the city and plans on building a new multi-use stadium, high-performance training facilities and other mixed-use real estate development including a range of entertainment opportunities. The Bordesley Park site is less than a mile from the club’s current home, St. Andrew’s.
Birmingham is owned by US investment firm Knighthead Annuity & Life Assurance. In January, the company furthered its investment in the club by announcing a multi-year stadium naming-rights deal that could be worth as much as £25.4m (€30.4m/$32m) over the initial three years.
The deal, described as the largest commercial agreement in the club’s history, officially renamed the stadium as St. Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park. City has played at St. Andrew’s since 1906 but Knighthead is targeting a new stadium with an expected capacity of around 60,000.
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