For a while earlier today, Birmingham City, a largely unfashionable club who ranked 37th in the English soccer pyramid last season, were trending on Twitter.
It was nothing to do with what they had done on the pitch. Instead, it related to their announcement that Tom Brady — arguably the greatest ever NFL player — had become a minority owner.
And from England’s second city to the U.S., the same question was being asked: why is a seven-time Super Bowl champion investing in a middle-ranking club in the Championship, the second tier of English football? And why is he doing it now, on the eve of their 2023-24 season?
Here, The Athletic will attempt to explain the strategy behind the headlines.
Who are Birmingham City?
Birmingham City carry the name of England’s second city (ranked by population) but have never had the pull of a giant club within the football system.
There are no top-flight titles to fall back on, or even successful campaigns in the FA Cup, the most prestigious knockout competition in the country. Even when Birmingham won the 2011 League Cup — their victory over Arsenal at Wembley is recognised as the club’s greatest achievement — a disastrous relegation from the Premier League followed just months later.
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Since then it has been a struggle, and the decline has largely been down to financial mismanagement.
Carson Yeung, the owner when the club were last in the Premier League, was jailed for money laundering, and points deductions, transfer embargoes, and a long list of broken promises have followed since under different ownership models.
Sections of the club’s stadium, St Andrew’s, have also been closed for over two years due to asbestos. The hope is that repair work will be completed before the end of the calendar year and the ground’s full reopening, whenever the exact date of that is, will signal a changing of the times.
Parts of St Andrew’s are closed (Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
To get a full picture of just how bad it has been, only last month upon completing the takeover, Tom Wagner — co-chief executive of Shelby Companies, the group which now owns the club — said there was a need to “change everything”.
On top of all that, Birmingham hold the tag as the longest-serving club in the Championship: this season will be their 13th consecutive campaign one rung away from the riches and glamour of the Premier League.
Now, perhaps, it becomes a little bit clearer why there was such a need for left-field thinking.
Who are Shelby Companies Limited, the club’s new owners?
Shelby Companies, named after the family featured in the BBC’s Birmingham-based period crime drama Peaky Blinders, is a UK subsidiary of Knighthead Capital Management, an investment firm co-founded by U.S. businessman Wagner in New York in 2008.
Last month, Shelby Companies purchased 45 per cent of Birmingham City as well as all of Birmingham City Stadium Limited, the company behind St Andrew’s.
This is not Wagner’s first foray into sports team ownership, or indeed his first such link-up with Brady. The pair, alongside former women’s tennis world No 1 Kim Clijsters, bought a Major League Pickleball (yes, it is a thing) expansion team in 2022.
Venture capitalists buying into English soccer are not generally welcomed with open arms, and some have suggested Brady’s involvement with Birmingham is little more than PR gloss.
Here we go! Proud to be part of the Blues family ???????????? @BCFC pic.twitter.com/lSEbzzpcBk
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) August 3, 2023
Unlike other owners, however, Wagner has so far remained relatively reserved at Birmingham. He has appointed an experienced CEO in the former Manchester City executive Garry Cook and will add Hope Powell, a former head coach of the England women’s national team, to the management group.
Hedge fund managers typically have to make cold and calculated decisions to get distressed assets moving again, and already Birmingham’s plans to grow brand awareness, through the use of Brady, are clear.
Wagner stopped short of announcing outlandish ideas or unrealistic ambitions, though, when addressing supporters through a post-takeover video. He instead appears to be working on a long-term strategy rather than a quick fix and recognises the growth opportunity within a city of over a million people as he starts a long-awaited clean-up the club have needed for years following the absentee ownership of the past.
Why would Brady invest in them?
Well, it’s not because he grew up watching games on the Tilton (the name of one of the grandstands at St Andrew’s).
The simple reason is that he is an investor in Knighthead, and he is subsequently following on from the takeover at Birmingham.
His role, the club say, will be to “apply his extensive leadership experience and expertise across several components of the club, including working alongside the sports science department to advise on health, nutrition, wellness, and recovery systems and programs”.
It’s not clear at this stage how much money he has invested or indeed the size of his stake in Birmingham, and the main driver is surely seeing a financial return, but Brady is also likely to have been attracted by the buzz of playing a hands-on role in an investment following his recent NFL retirement after 22 seasons rather than just sitting back and waiting to see if the money rolls in.
Brady won his seventh and final Super Bowl in 2021 (Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Retirement from professional sport opens up windows of opportunity to athletes and, with plenty of time on his hands, Brady is expected to offer advice on how to get the best out of some performance-related departments at the club. Having played at the top level for so long (he turned 46 this week), he also knows a thing or two about longevity and will be able to share his expertise with players and coaches.
“The wider trend of superstars and celebrities investing into alternative assets is because they believe they can add value,” Ben Peppi, head of sport at JMW Solicitors and a commercial expert, tells The Athletic. “They’ve got profile, network, and industry expertise relative to some of the businesses they are becoming a part of and wider understanding in a market.
“With promotion and relegation in football, there is an opportunity for significant financial gain for these guys. Who’s to say that Birmingham can’t get promotion in the years ahead, too?”
What does his investment mean for Birmingham?
Birmingham are not going to benefit greatly from Brady’s considerable financial resources (Forbes estimated he was paid more than $530million — £417.1m — over the course of his NFL career).
This is more about his ability to help grow Birmingham City as a brand and increase commercial revenue. Bringing in a figure of Brady’s profile seems an astute move from their new owners, but what it means for the club’s future — and who benefits the most — will only be decided over time.
Shelby Companies have started investing in the facilities at the club’s Wast Hills training ground and improving the pitch at St Andrew’s, and Birmingham fans are — for what seems like the most time in years — optimistic about the coming campaign.
The rapper Jaykae, a lifelong supporter, has even released a track to coincide with the new season.
A statement of intent. ???? https://t.co/olDi7ZesUz
— Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) August 3, 2023
That said, cuts still need to be made in the squad to help balance the books and stay in line with football’s financial fair play rules. Birmingham are in an awkward situation where they need to bring in new recruits before the September 1 transfer deadline at the same time as moving on current players on big contracts, and manager John Eustace faces challenges when the new season begins on Saturday away to Swansea City.
Brady’s arrival will bring plenty of other benefits, though, as he has performed at the highest level in sport for decades and will be able to share some of that knowledge.
“Clearly, having someone like Tom Brady, who is supremely marketable and very powerful commercially, is going to bring an attraction to the club,” Peppi adds. “Brady is a media outlet in his own right, so that brings huge value. That’s not to say the club are going to sign seven-figure brand deals overnight, because that will be based on other factors, but there will be a longer, wider strategy. The global marketing efforts at the club will certainly be improved.”
Peppi highlights the effect of Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney taking over at Wrexham, who are even further down the pyramid having won promotion from the game’s fifth tier last season, as proof of what can be achieved.
Ryan Reynolds, right, and Rob McElhenney (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
“That (the Wrexham takeover) was a media investment vehicle, because sports documentary footage is on the up, so perhaps there will be a Netflix or Amazon-style doc (about Birmingham City) on the way,” he suggests.
“Ultimately, Wagner could have found someone else to invest at a similar level but perhaps with far more strategic expertise at growing a sports club. The value Brady is driving has nothing to do with financial resources. It’s his on-pitch strategic role that will be beneficial, plus his off-pitch commercial pull.”
What does this tell us about Brady’s post-NFL career?
A superstar of Brady’s level was never going to be short of future opportunities when he retired, for the second time after a brief time away from the NFL in early 2022, in February this year.
The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback has a deal to be paid $375million by U.S. TV channel Fox Sports as their lead NFL commentator over the next 10 years and he also has a growing empire of other business interests. Last month, he became a speedboat-racing team owner and will be a part of that sport’s E1 World Championships next year off Saudi Arabia. He has an agreement to buy into the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and in March this year bought a stake in the Las Vegas Aces women’s basketball team, but it doesn’t stop there.
Brady has a clothing line, a production company and a fitness and nutrition brand.
Not that his record is without blemishes.
One of the business ventures that didn’t work out for him was now-bankrupt cryptocurrency platform FTX. Alongside others, Brady faces lawsuits for endorsing the crypto exchange.
Why are so many U.S. stars investing in English football?
The list of examples is growing all the time. From NBA legend LeBron James at Liverpool to Brady’s fellow ex-NFL star JJ Watt at Burnley and former world No 1 golfer Jordan Spieth’s investment into Leeds United.
Wrexham’s Hollywood love story is the classic case study, as, like with Brady and Birmingham, similar questions were asked of what Reynolds and McElhenney wanted with an ailing lower-league football club in north Wales. The answer was to experience some of the jeopardy that football brings while also using the club as a media investment vehicle.
Celebrities, with all their wealth, are moving towards projects they have a passion for.
Ultimately, though, the bottom line is to look for a return on their investment, and Brady is unlikely to be an exception.
(Top photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
