{"id":687471,"date":"2026-01-10T20:33:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687471\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T20:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:33:25","slug":"birmingham-could-play-alongside-new-team-at-the-powerhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687471\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham Could Play Alongside New Team at ‘The Powerhouse’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City are showing interest in becoming part of the new Prem Rugby franchise.<\/p>\n

The top-flight of English rugby is mulling over a re-organisation and the ambitious Second City club sees any change as a chance to advance plans for its \u00a32.5bn sports\u2019 quarter.<\/p>\n

Birmingham<\/a> are drawing up plans for a new 62,000-capacity stadium as the flagship of its development, near to Eastside.<\/p>\n

And they see rugby union as one potential revenue stream that is worth pursuing as it seeks to turn the arena, one that has already been named \u2018The Powerhouse,\u2019 into a 365-day-a-year operation.<\/p>\n

Birmingham Have Made Enquiries<\/p>\n

\"tom<\/p>\n

Tentative enquires have been made as English rugby considers whether Prem Rugby, the top division, will become a closed-franchise league.<\/p>\n

A huge geographical hole exists in the West Midlands for a club to fill that space.<\/p>\n

The region does not have top-flight representation in the sport – and hasn\u2019t for some time. Both Moseley and Coventry were of significant national interest over 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

Rugby is going through a transformation with the English top division engaging investment bank Raine and accountancy firm Deloitte to undertake a review and suggest funding opportunities.<\/p>\n

A 27 percent chunk of the commercial rights was sold off several years ago to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and new cash is needed to prop up the top division.<\/p>\n

Three clubs – including Wasps, London Irish and Worcester Warriors – have filed for bankruptcy in the last few years and the closed-shop franchise idea is aimed at building a solid platform, avoiding any financial rollercoaster that has dogged the sport at club level in England for years.<\/p>\n

Birmingham Eyeing Multi-Sport Venue<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Birmingham want to turn \u2018The Powerhouse\u2019 into a multi-sport venue.<\/p>\n

They have already signalled their intention to offer the stadium as a permanent home for the Lionesses.<\/p>\n

This would make practical sense as it would be the nearest stadium to St George\u2019s Park capable of housing more than 60,000 spectators.<\/p>\n

And Birmingham\u2019s American owners, Knighthead Capital, have already taken a 49 percent stake in the Hundred franchise, the Birmingham Phoenix, who are based at Edgbaston.<\/p>\n

The stadium is also being constructed with the NFL in mind, to boot.<\/p>\n

The NFL\u2019s rules stipulate that any game must be played in an arena that is capable of housing 60,000 spectators.<\/p>\n

While any rugby union clash is unlikely to pull in anything like those numbers, Birmingham will see this as a further opportunity to maximise the revenue from a stadium which will be the flagship development in the sports\u2019 quarter.<\/p>\n

\"Birmingham<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tExclusive: Birmingham Respond to Kyogo Joining Celtic Reports
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The Japanese striker has been linked with a sensational return to Parkhead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City are showing interest in becoming part of the new Prem Rugby franchise. The top-flight of English…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-687471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115872714592443102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}