00:00Hi, Tom Wagner, Chairman of Birmingham City Football Club and co-founder and co-managing
00:15member of Knighthead Capital Management in New York.
00:18Well, I think first and foremost, it would be fantastic to have the support of our entire
00:22community because this is really a project that is about Birmingham, the city, specifically
00:29East Birmingham where we're doing our development, but more notably the West Midlands broadly
00:34because this is a scope and scale that will benefit not just the club or our immediate
00:40neighborhood or the city, but really the entire region.
00:43And we hope that it becomes something that is a justification for a number of other projects,
00:48not the least of which is HS2.
00:50And so very much would like to see that level of support from our entire community.
00:54More broadly, we'd love to get national government to lean in on solving some of the transport
01:00challenges that we face as a project and certainly that our neighborhood in East Birmingham faces
01:06and the city as a whole faces.
01:07So getting that commitment and spending that capital to unlock not only a three billion
01:13pound investment, but ultimately a project that will generate hundreds of millions of
01:18pounds of economic development and growth every year and nearly 9,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
01:25So the benefit of this project clearly outweighs the cost many, many, many times over.
01:31So I think that we need to be creative in thinking about long-term solutions.
01:34First and foremost, extending the tram is something that's been talked about for a long time.
01:38And if we can be the catalyst to bring that to an incredibly underserved community, so be it.
01:42Ultimately, it's not about doing it simply for the development of the sports court, it's
01:46about doing it for a neighborhood in the section of Birmingham that is in desperate
01:50need of public transport to ensure that they have the economic opportunity that is enjoyed
01:55by so many others.
01:56As it relates to the idea of pursuing a underground solution, subways or metro systems are very,
02:03very expensive to develop, very, very complicated.
02:06We thought of an idea to simply dig a tunnel in an existing railway and secure a new street
02:10station to the sports quarter and use electric buses running underground.
02:14We think the tunneling system would cost 20 million pounds, roughly, and then a relatively
02:20modest investment to bring that to fruition.
02:23And if that becomes a broader system over time, fantastic.
02:26But let's at least start by solving the easy problems that sit in front of us today.
02:30And I think that's the right way to take the first step.
02:33No, we've not had any other investments that are quite like this.
02:37I think it's a function of the nature of our organization as people, certainly myself included,
02:44that grew up as sporting fans.
02:47And when you're a sporting fan, you want ownership that reflects who you are as a supporter.
02:53And for me, that meant turning up at away matches and sitting in the terraces and enjoying
02:59the entirety of the experience with our most fervent supporters.
03:04And if that means sharing a pint with them or buying a pint for them, pre-match or at
03:09halftime, well, then those are pounds well spent, because I think it demonstrates a real
03:15and genuine commitment to the club, to our supporters, and shows that we understand why
03:21this is so important to them.
03:22Because it's more than sport.
03:24It's a part of their life.
03:25It's a cultural phenomenon and one that we think is incredibly special.
03:29So why not fully immerse oneself into it?
03:32Look, I think I'm a terribly optimistic person, maybe to a fault.
03:37And so one of the things I think that we recognized early on is that success in football
03:43is very often tied to the revenue that you generate.
03:46So we're looking at every mechanism of generating excess revenue, with the exception of simply
03:52raising match day prices.
03:54That's not something that is in the cards.
03:55It's not something that we're intending to do.
03:58What we want is a better product.
03:59What we want is for people to spend more of their free time supporting the club, pre-match,
04:04post-match, visiting the club in our fan zones and away match days.
04:09All of those things, coupled with a real estate development project that I think will give
04:12the club the foundation to be persistently competitive.
04:15That's the key for us, right?
04:16Achieve a level of revenue that is commensurate with Premier League clubs before we get to
04:21the Premier League, so that we're already competing with them on an economic basis before
04:26we enjoy the wonderful fruits of being in the Premier League and getting all those additional
04:30media rights and revenues associated therein.
04:33And we'll continue to do that.
04:35And my firm belief is that if we continue to show success and development on the commercial
04:39side, it'll just be a matter of time before we attain our ultimate objectives from a competitiveness
04:44standpoint.
04:45I was very fortunate to have an incredible coach in high school that ran the program
04:52and instilled some unbelievable values in me at a very young age around sport and commitment
04:59and effort that have stayed with me my entire life.
05:02I was very lucky to have him attend a match last spring shortly after he retired after
05:0753 years of continuous coaching in my high school.
05:11But I think it was really due to the lessons that he taught us and his love of sport and
05:18competition that happened to be in the realm of soccer for me in the US.
05:23And so it was an easy step to fall in love with English football, which is where it all
05:28began.
05:29And I think that the top leagues in English football are the very best in the world.
05:34I don't even think it's up for debate.
05:36And so why not want to be connected to something that is such a deep part of the community
05:41and such a deep part of people's lives?
05:43That's what makes it fun and worthwhile.
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