Blues News: More wins, and maybe some merch to buy?

Birmingham City won two more games this past week. Boring. Let’s get to the cool news first.

Today the Blues announced that they have formed a partnership with the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau. Yes, that one. As in right here. Also known as BirmINgham. The GBCVB will serve as the official US tourism partner of the team. More importantly, the bureau’s logo will appear on the back of Blues shirts through the end of the 26/27 season – two and a half years. The new shirts are not yet available for purchase but if and when they are I predict a surge in transatlantic trade for the Blues.

The club already has extensive US ties, of course. The club is owned ultimately by American company Knighthead Capital Management, whose name is now on the stadium, replacing the old moniker, St. Andrew’s. The front sponsor of the shirt is American apparel company Undefeated and Delta Airlines is on the left sleeve. The club’s better-known minority owner is Tom Brady; wouldn’t it be cool if we saw him at a Legion game this season?

Back to the winning. Least weekend Birmingham City beat Rotherham United 2-1, coming from behind on the back of a Jay Stanfield goal and PK. The game was perhaps more notable for the 12th minute fan recognition of Leo Ross, a 12-year-old local boy who was fatally stabbed earlier this month. The referee also paused the game in his honor. While they were winning Wycombe blew a lead against last-place Cambridge United with a late tying goal after Wycombe went down to ten men. That put the Blues into a 4-point lead with two games in hand together with a 2-goal difference advantage. Wrexham are a full 8 points behind in third. Then on Tuesday Jay Stansfield scored again in the EFL Trophy to beat Stevenage 1-0. With that they move on to the semifinals. The draw will take place tomorrow morning. The potential opponents are Peterborough United, Bradford City and Wrexham or Bradford City (who play their quarterfinal this coming Tuesday).

This weekend it’s on to the big knockout competition: the FA Cup. It’s the fourth round and the Blues face a Premier League opponent: Newcastle United (currently 6th in the top flight). Which means they will be the second Birmingham team in a week not to face Miguel Almiron. The game kicks off at 11:45am CT and can be seen on ESPN+ starting at 11:15am. City has not lost a game in any competition since November 23rd; this will be a much bigger task than anything they have seen in quite a while.