BLUE-print for the ideal new stadium ahead of big club unveiling

KNIGHTHEAD will unveil the design for Birmingham City’s new home at the Sports Quarter on Thursday.

- 

Anticipation has been building from the moment Knighthead put £47million down to buy the vacant Birmingham Wheels site 18 months ago and the Government's pledge to build a tram-line between the city centre and the Sports Quarter in the summer was the green light Tom Wagner had been waiting for.

The Blues chairman, along with his Knighthead cohort and Blues’ head of infrastructure Nick Smith, have been working tirelessly to accumulate land in east Birmingham.

It is estimated the Sports Quarter will be around 135 acres, more than five times the size of St Andrew's and 55 acres bigger than Manchester City’s impressive Etihad Campus.

Wagner has confirmed multi-award-winning British designers Heatherwick Studio will partner with Kansas-based architectural powerhouse MANICA to design and complete a project that will change the landscape of Birmingham. Peaky Blinders creator and Bluenose Steven Knight is also on the design team.

Ahead of the unveiling, our Blues writers have explained what they hope to see at the new stadium. Here’s what they said...

BRIAN DICK

Well, the first and most obvious point is it has to be blue, Royal Blue too, an exact match with the club's traditional colour scheme.