- Blues & Red Dragons ready to meet in third tier
- Famous faces in the boardroom at both clubs
- Meeting in America would have attracted interest
WHAT HAPPENED?
Two Hollywood superstars have been calling the shots in North Wales since 2021, while the NFL legend with seven Super Bowl rings to his name joined the board at St Andrew’s in 2023 when deciding to invest in the British form of football.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
With Birmingham owned by Tom Wagner and the American-based Knighthead team, the Daily Mail reports on how the Blues were keen to take the high-profile fixture across the Atlantic. The prospect of playing Wrexham – stars of their own documentary series that has proved popular in the States – was floated.
DID YOU KNOW?
Said suggestion is said to have been swiftly knocked back by the English Football League. They are eager to build their brand in the U.S. after agreeing a new overseas TV deal that has boosted revenue in that department by 40 percent – with more North American personalities branching out into European sport.
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TELL ME MORE
Birmingham believed that they could take advantage of that – as a meeting with Wrexham would pull in more punters than the 29,000 capacity at St Andrew’s – and history would have been made had they been able to put the first competitive English or Welsh fixture to be held outside of the United Kingdom in place.
WHAT NEXT?
Those plans are now having to be shelved, despite the Premier League reportedly exploring the option of taking a top-flight game to America at some stage – with the NFL, NBA and MLB having already shown that international matches can attract plenty of interest and an entirely new fanbase.
