Unsurprisingly, Tom Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion and global sporting icon, is braced for the challenges that await Birmingham City, where he is a minority owner. “Just because you were successful last year doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful this year,” he says, alluding to a season that culminated in promotion and a record-breaking tally of 111 points. “You have to put the same amount of work, commitment and discipline in – sometimes more – because the stakes only get higher. When the competition gets tougher, the margin of error gets smaller.”
It is his final answer in an interview that takes in everything from the “blue-collar nature of Birmingham”, which he compares with Cleveland and Cincinnati, to the Championship landscape and the bubbling rivalry with Aston Villa, which he was educated on during his first visit to England’s second-biggest city after acquiring his 3.3% stake.
It is a moment detailed in the opening scene of Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues, the Prime Video documentary series released on Friday, as he travels past a giant mural depicting Jude Bellingham and Trevor Francis. “What’s the other team here?” he asks. “Fuck them … gonna fuck them up too,” he says, smiling.
Brady and Tom Wagner, the Birmingham chairman, are in bullish moods for our interview. Wagner’s mantra is “if you can’t say it, you can’t do it” and he is adamant Birmingham will return to the Premier League. But when? “The sooner the better,” he replies.
“I think it would be great for the city of Birmingham to have an inner-city derby that brings fans together in a non-violent way; we don’t want it to be peaceful, we don’t want it to be violent either, but we want to allow them the joy of experiencing that great rivalry again. I love reading the comments from Villa supporters, but I think it’s beyond that. There’s so many other great clubs we would love to compete against.”
The series contains colourful characters, differing generations of supporters. “We’ve had so many rebirths,” says one, Paul Collins, “but they’ve all been phantom pregnancies.”
There is a potted history taking in Barry Fry urinating in all four corners of St Andrew’s to lift a curse and other amusing moments. “I fell in love with fixing businesses,” says Wagner, the co-founder of Knighthead Capital, the multibillion investment fund that acquired a controlling stake two years ago.
On their arrival at Birmingham, one-third of the ground had been condemned, there was no hot water in the men’s toilets and no heating in the executive offices. “We’re not even close to being done, and now we’re embarking on an even more ambitious feat,” Wagner says of plans to build a sports quarter on a 60-acre site with a 62,000-seat stadium, more than double the current capacity. “We want to compete at the top level of the Championship [this season].”
After their final home game last season, Wagner enjoyed a mic-drop moment, telling those present: “The best part of the story is just beginning. I promise you this is not the best day we will enjoy together.”
Perhaps the most surreal moment of the series is Sir David Beckham, among the VIP guests for Birmingham’s home win over Wrexham last September, explaining to Brady the insulting chants Birmingham fans are directing at their Welsh counterparts. What else did Beckham teach him that night?
Brady laughs. “A few things that were being said … some of it I couldn’t really fully understand because there’s some thick accents that I’m not 100% educated on yet, but David’s helped me out.” Another time we see Brady mastering his pronunciation of Birmingham en route to the training ground. “I learned that pretty early on. When I first did my social media video [announcing my involvement], they said: ‘It’s Birmingham, not Birming-ham.’”
Wrexham, also promoted last season, have become friendly foes. Wagner says other teams “want in” on Birmingham’s brewing competition with the Welsh club, owned by the Hollywood pair Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.
“Rivalries are very important because they allow you to focus at a different level: your concentration, effort, it all becomes very maximised when you’re playing against these rivals,” Brady says. “The fundamentals of the sport [football], the tactics, are different to American football. It’s a different sport but the values are very much the same.”
After that win over Wrexham, there is a snapshot into the bigger picture, a reminder that this is business after Wagner congratulates manager, Chris Davies, and his staff. “I’m going to go back upstairs, we’ve got 1,000 people we’re trying to get to spend money in the club so that you guys can spend more next summer,” says Wagner, a former certified public accountant on Wall Street.
One of his primary aims is building revenues to close the gap to clubs awarded parachute payments. Asked whether the numbers are where he expected this summer, Wagner says they have smashed this season’s original target. “My team loves it when they achieve a goal and I say: ‘Well, now it’s 10% higher’,” he says. Commercial deals with Nike and Delta Air Lines help.
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“We’ve achieved levels of revenue that no one has ever done in the Championship, save for clubs receiving parachute payments,” Wagner says. “So, if we were to fast-forward a year – if we were fortunate enough to get promoted – our first year in the Premier League, I think we’ll fall mid-table in total revenues, which is unheard of for a club just entering into the Prem. That’s the way we think about the club and that’s what our objectives are aimed towards – not just getting to the Prem, but then being there for good, and then ultimately becoming competitive.”
Birmingham are looking forward but the appointment of Wayne Rooney backfired. The first episode touches on Rooney’s tenure: two wins in 15 matches and 83 days in charge, a run that paved the way to relegation. Wagner says now he “wouldn’t trade that history for the world, because the lessons were invaluable”. We see an awkward, small talk exchange between Brady and Rooney and, later, with Brady stewing in the car after leaving the training ground, comes a telling remark. “I’m a little bit worried about our head coach’s work ethic,” Brady says.
Rooney was sacked in January 2024 and Brady is reluctant to linger on the past: “I have very high expectations for myself and certainly for a club and people I associate with, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Wayne. He’s one of the greatest players to step on to a football pitch. And that was a couple of years ago, at this point Chris is our manager … I love Chris’s work ethic, attitude, determination and humility.”
On deadline day last summer, Birmingham made a splash after signing Jay Stansfield for a record-breaking £15m fee from Fulham. Episode three focuses on the England Under-21 striker’s return to Exeter City, for whom his late father, Adam, also played. We hear from Taylor, one of Stansfield’s younger brothers, who joined Birmingham as kit man during Stansfield’s loan at the club, and their mother, Marie. “As a footballer, he is just like his dad … he even runs like his dad,” she says. “They both run with their pinky finger out,” Taylor says, smiling. Marie is in the stand opposite the one renamed after Adam, which Stansfield blows a kiss towards after scoring a penalty.
Birmingham have been aggressive in the market this summer, too, with the returning Demarai Gray and the former Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi two of eight signings. More new faces are expected to follow. So, how does Wagner reflect on his time as chair? “I think the biggest metric for us is the increased amount of interest that we have in the club from new and existing supporters, where we’re now enjoying record levels of season-ticket sales,” he says of the 20,000 signed up this season and referencing the 15,000-strong season-ticket waiting list, a first for the club.
It is apt that Birmingham host Ipswich, the last team to win back-to-back promotions to the Premier League, in the Championship curtain-raiser a week on Friday.
The final episode takes in one of few hiccups under Knighthead: defeat in the Vertu Trophy final at Wembley in April. “I don’t like losing,” says Wagner. “I’ll back that up,” says Brady. “We sold 50,000 tickets and when the last ticket sold, there were 23,000 people on the phone waiting to purchase tickets,” Wagner adds.
“Whatever we’re doing seems to be resonating with people, in that they want to be a part of the journey. We knew it was a big club with a lot of supporters but I don’t think we appreciated how many live and die with us on match day.”
