The whole forum was broadcast live on Youtube so that it could be viewed by all fans rather than just those who attended.
With this in mind, I decided rather than offer a blow by blow account of what was said, I would offer some thoughts of my own on what was said, along with what insight I can offer from the conversations I had with various people before and after the event.
Belief
I’ll be honest and admit I was intrigued by the name of this Open House before attending. In the past names have been quite bullish and evocative – names like “Growth” and “Ambition”.
“Belief” is something I think we generally lack; not just as a fanbase but also as a society.
It feels to me that we live in an age of studied cynicism; where it’s considered normal to have a sceptical outlook on life because having hope and belief in good things is seen as being naïve or a “happy clapper”.
There’s a book I love by an American author Jedediah Purdy called “For Common Things” which talks about how this modern ironic manner is a fear of betrayal, disappointment and humiliation.
It’s not hard for me to match this to the way some Blues fans feel about their club. The idea that nothing good will happen to us; that it’s “typical Blues” for things to go tits up and thus that there is no point in hoping for anything better.
It was a viewpoint I saw from many fans during the tenure of the previous ownership and despite the evidence that things are better it still seems to hold sway with some people.
Jeremy Dale made a point when speaking that resonated with this.
He offered the idea that our anthem “Keep Right On” isn’t just an elegy to resilience in the face of adversity but also a song about belief that in the end things will be better; in short that there is a reason for belief and hope.
Dale started his presentation by saying that belief is one of the key characteristics needed by the club to deliver the vision of the Powerhouse and the Sports Quarter.
He talked about how we shouldn’t judge how the club is doing based on a match or even a season but instead judge it on the trajectory it is travelling between the time Knighthead took over in 2023 and the expected delivery of the Sports Quarter in 2032.
There were various metrics offered that showed as a club how much Blues have progressed in the last three years and it was hard to argue with them.
The stadium is in far better shape, the Blues Foundation are fulfilling a hugely expanded role and while relegation was a serious bump in the road it does feel like things on the pitch are tracking in the right direction too.
I want to be a believer and a happy clapper. Life surely would be much easier if I could just trust in things to improve and accept what I’m told at face value.
My problem with all of this is that his presentation felt eerily reminiscent of sitting in an all-hands call at work.
It had all the same ingredients.
The repetition of vision, the one-page slide that showcased the key ideas that were being pursued, bullish numbers and a call to action to be a part of the growth and success.
And if I’m honest, I should know that we are going to get this every time because the message is as corporate as it’s going to be from any other multi-million/billion pound company.
I know all the reasons why Dale has to present information like that – just like I know why it’s that way at work. I haven’t quite figured out yet how to turn off my natural cynicism towards it.
The Sports Quarter
As I expected it to be, the big news of the night was about the Sports Quarter and the decision that the club training facilities as well as the stadium for Blues Women would not be on the SQ footprint.
Although I think the announcement did catch some people cold, it wasn’t a secret.
It had been announced to staff at a Blues all-hands meeting on Monday September 7 and had filtered out to various people and messageboards in the ten days leading up to the Open House forum.
I’ll be honest – it makes perfect sense to me that the training centre isn’t part of the Sports Quarter.
To use 80 acres of an 135-ish acres development for training pitches etc doesn’t make much commercial sense to me regardless of any other argument.
Throw in security concerns, feelings about it causing issues with people accessing other facilities on the site as well as daft things like traffic issues for players arriving to training and it makes sense to seek other land to develop for training facilities.
The rationale for the Women’s stadium being nixed from plans seems to be a lot more glossed over; after all, a smaller stadium could also be used for other purposes in the same way that the main Powerhouse is intended to be a year-round venue.
It doesn’t make sense to me to have Blues Women playing in a stadium attached to the training ground either, especially if that land is bought on the outskirts of the city.
My suspicion is that Knighthead are making a decision that is bluntly based on return on investment (ROI).
Blues Women played their first home game of the WSL1 season on Sunday September 13 in front of a published crowd of 1,405.
In comparison, on the same day Manchester United Women played in front of 4,327, Liverpool Women in front of 2,293 and the mob from across the expressway’s Women’s team in front of 3,079.
Of the WSL1 crowds from last weekend only Arsenal Women were successful in bringing in a five-digit crowd with 23,900 attending the Emirates Stadium to see them draw 0-0 with Crystal Palace Women.
While I keep hearing that Women’s football is the fastest growing sport I think there is still some way for clubs to grow and as such I can see why a club might baulk at the thought of building a new stadium purely for its Women’s team.
Now it might be like “Field of Dreams” – build it and they will come – but I’m not sure the belief is quite there from Knighthead that will come true.
There was some genuinely good stuff to take heart from though.
Nick Smith introduced a video which told the story of the Adderley Park Brickworks, which was sited either on or close to the SQ footprint.
In Victorian times, that brickworks made bricks which were used to build an infirmary on the site of the Birmingham Workhouse, which later became City Hospital. When the building was demolished, the bricks were saved for reclamation.
These strong and heavy-duty bricks looked like an ideal way to preserve some of the city’s history in the new stadium and following successful testing, the club have bought a million of them.
Like many people in the audience, I was entranced by the whole story.
It might not be something I’d normally admit but I’m a little bit of a brick nerd myself. My great-great grandfather owned a brickworks in West Bromwich and while I’ve not seen any of his bricks with my own eyes, I know some survive to this day.
The idea of bricks from that era not only lasting the test of time but also retaining their original strength to be used in something built to regenerate the city fills me with awe.
I get that some people are unhappy that some of the original ideas are having to be shaved down a bit to fit a commercial reality but I think this is the way it always is with big infrastructure projects.
I think we have to draw some comfort from the evidence that genuine efforts are being made to include elements of the city’s past and use that as reason to believe that the SQ will still be what we hoped for; the regeneration of the city we love via the transformation of the club we support.
Finances
Unsurprisingly, one of the main focal points of the Q&A section was about ticket pricing. All questions had to be submitted in writing beforehand and I suspect that more than one would have been about the perceived high cost of match day tickets.
The answer from the club was pretty transparent and comprehensive.
A slide was shown with all five pricing categories, with pricing for each stand and the percentage of home games which would be at each price banding.
Dale was at pains to point out that not only were most matchday categories cheaper than the prices complained about, but that most matchday tickets sold were in the Gil Merrick Lower, which was one of the cheapest options.
He also showed how the club had benchmarked tickets to be at the cheaper end of the scale in the Championship, and how season tickets offered great value – particularly when 48% of STs sold were concessions of one form or another.
Dale went on to offer an anecdote as to why the club have asked ST holders to forward their tickets on or put them onto the ticket exchange if they were unable to attend a game.
He told a story of how his friend who had moved to Los Angeles had kept his season ticket despite making fewer than five games in a season, and his reasonable reasons for wanting to maintain his season ticket.
He said that he understood every single reason and why other fans would have the same ones – and that was why he only asked if people couldn’t make it they would follow the procedures so someone else could have a chance of attending.
And while I agree prices are reasonable based on the evidence offered, I do think one factor was completely missed – the cost-of-living problem.
I appreciate that right now I’m in a fortunate position. I have a good job, and I was able to pay for my season ticket in full this summer without having to use credit. It’s not a position I’ve been in a lot in my life and as such I can empathise that more and more people are having to make painful decisions on what they can and can’t afford.
My personal belief is that things are going to get a little bit worse before they get better and I really do think the club need to be careful that they do not price out too many people when chasing revenue.
The question I submitted didn’t get answered during the main Q&A but I was fortunate enough to speak to Jeremy Dale and Andrew Shannahan afterwards to get their input.
My question was:
Right now, the economy both of the local area and the country appears to be troubled. Circumstances like the war in Iran and in Ukraine coupled with climate change have really impacted the cost of living in the UK and will surely continue to impact both people and businesses over the coming 12-24 months. Are the club still bullish over the revenue projections that they have made in the past and have contingency plans been put into place in the event that those projections cannot be fulfilled?
Both Shannahan and Dale were quick to offer me the thought that they were not worried, even though there are recent examples of issues such as the problem a lot of clubs had this summer getting the money they wanted for front-of-shirt sponsorship.
They explained to me that the club was doing its best to pursue proper partnerships rather than purely commercial sponsorships.
The thinking was that by proving to companies how there were both tangible and intangible benefits from being partnered with Blues, they would retain a better quality of deal and thus be less affected by the whims of decisions on marketing budgets when it came to sponsorship deals.
Both were happy that there was evidence of these kinds of partnerships being built an that as time went on, more would emerge.
This kind of answer is something that should fill us all with a bit of hope and belief that the club can become a financial powerhouse.
It might not have been quite as bullish as past editions of the Open House series but I thought it was good to see and hear progress being made.
Hopefully we won’t be waiting another 12 months for the next one – and that will come with more positive outcomes to help reinforce faith and belief in the