Jude Bellingham is thriving with Real Madrid, but Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner is hopeful that plans for a new stadium will set the stage for a stunning homecoming story
Jude Bellingham was featured in Birmingham City’s launch for their new stadium plans(Image: @BCFC)
Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner says the club’s proposed new stadium will provide a “great coming home story” for Jude Bellingham. The Blues revealed plans for their spectacular new £1.2billion 62,000-capacity venue on Thursday with Bellingham featuring in the promotional launch.
The 22-year-old Real Madrid sensation started his journey at St Andrew’s, and Wagner believes the club’s new headquarters will offer a fitting platform. Bellingham was featured in the launch video for the reveal of the club’s plans and was captured on camera exlaiming ‘Oh my God’ when he was shown the full scale of them.
Wagner said: “I think Jude is the greatest player on the planet today, and I think his potential is not even close…we haven’t seen anywhere near his full potential yet, not just as a player on the pitch, but also what he can do for a community, what he can do as a leader.
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“And so if we can provide him a platform to achieve his full potential, well then that’s a great story. It’s a great coming home story, it’s a great Birmingham story. It’s a great England story.”
The envisioned new ground is situated in Bordesley Green and is scheduled to be completed for the 2030/31 campaign. It will feature a retractable roof and adaptable pitch, enabling it to stage NFL matches and musical performances.
It will be named the ‘Powerhouse Stadium’ but will also carry naming rights. The surrounding development will feature a new training facility, a new smaller ground for the Blues’ women’s side, affordable housing and a hotel.
Wagner acknowledges Birmingham appear like “modest lunatics” by unveiling such ambitious proposals whilst languishing in the Championship, but insists the vision reflects their future aspirations rather than their current circumstances.
When challenged about filling a 62,000-capacity venue given their present average crowds of fewer than 30,000, the American entrepreneur remained defiant.
Tom Wagner has spoken about Jude Bellingham and a potential return to Birmingham(Image: © 2025 PA Media, All Rights Reserved)
He added: “We look, I think, like modest lunatics sitting in the Championship saying we’re going to do this. In our cup final at Wembley [Football League Trophy] last season we sold 50,000 tickets, and when the phone lines closed, we had 26,000 people waiting to purchase a ticket.
“And so I think that illustrates that the fan base is sufficiently large enough to fill the stadium. But we’ve always been very much of a mind to build for the future, not the past, and build where we’re going, not where we’ve been. And I think that’s what this reflects.”
A general view during the unveiling of Birmingham’s proposed new stadium(Image: Dave Benett, Max Cisotti/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Birmingham City Football Club and the BCFC team)
Wagner claimed the proposed ground will be “maybe the most environmentally sound stadium that will ever be built” and will serve as a multi-purpose facility in the city centre.
He continued: “This is going to be able to host not just football, but like every event under the sun, from the world’s biggest touring concerts to boxing matches to the NFL.
“We would love to compete for the right to host NFL events when that next opens up, we would love to compete to host international football, global football competitions of all sorts, men and women. It’s absolutely up there with with the modern stadiums in the UK and the world.”
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