Tom Brady brings far more than celebrity status to Birmingham – Tom Wagner

Tom Brady’s value to Birmingham is “immeasurable”, co-owner Tom Wagner has said.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion became a minority owner of Blues in August 2023, following the takeover of the club by Wagner’s Knighthead Capital Management.

Wagner insists Brady is more than just a celebrity symbol who can attract attention to the project and said his sporting experience and pedigree had already been valuable to the club.

“(If) you have a bad match and somebody on the football side is calling you, asking you for your thoughts, I know I can pick up the phone, call Tom, and say, ‘What’s the right way to answer this question?’,” Wagner said at Leaders Week London at Allianz Stadium on Wednesday.

“Or (it could be) so and so on the football side could use a conversation. Or we’re trying to recruit this player, can we jump on a Zoom with them together and have (Tom) articulate his view and vision for what we can become?

“That’s his value and it’s immeasurable.”

Wagner spoke at length about the importance of generating further revenue to improve Birmingham’s chances of success, with the development of a new sports quarter in east Birmingham and the building of a 62,000-capacity stadium central to that ambition.

Wagner does not believe the growth of Birmingham – or any other club – should come at the expense of the existing top sides in England, however.

Debate continues to rage about the financial flows between the Premier League and the rest of the pyramid, with the independent regulator set to conduct a ‘State of the Game’ review which will examine this issue and talks between the top flight and the EFL stuck at an impasse.

Wagner said: “I think that the top clubs in English football have to be protected at all costs.

“We can’t take too much from the top clubs to support the pyramid, because if you end up in a situation where there are not dominant teams at the top of the Prem – and by dominant, I mean dominant internationally, with the very best players and the very best product – the interest will wane, particularly in the US market, which is going to drive the increase in value and the increase in capital flows into English football.

“I love the pyramid. We’ve experienced a lot of it. It’s all great. It makes for a super-interesting story. But those top clubs, the ones that are highly successful and really have the significant brand value, we’ve got to protect them, to ensure that they draw the interest.

“There are six – which I would argue is now eight – really fantastic organisations. And I think there’s space for 10. And we’d hope that we can position ourselves to be there.

“As we explore new ways to improve the competitiveness of teams down the pyramid, let’s make sure that we do it in a way that grows the pie, as opposed to redistributes the pie.”