There are many reasons why transport tunnels are constructed, with the additional costs of conveyor belts, boring equipment and labour that are accumulated as part of the project, but exclusively connecting to a football stadium is somewhat unorthodox. 

However, according to a report by Tunnels and Tunnelling, this is the precise reason why the new chairman of Birmingham City Football Club has planned to build a tunnel underneath existing railway lines which connects New Street station to the new stadium in Bordesley Green.

Whilst transport infrastructure to sporting venues is not unheard of, it is rare for dedicated tunnels to football stadiums to be used for this purpose, especially for a club which currently plays in the third tier of the football pyramid.

However, the proposal and the context surrounding it are rather more complex, as are the chances of it happening.

An Unorthodox Tunnel 

The tunnel itself would be part of a larger £3bn proposed investment for a stadium, sports and entertainment complex catering to East Birmingham, with £60m having already been spent to secure the Wheels site in Bordesley Park.

This sports complex would need to connect to Birmingham New Street railway station, the biggest and most important in the Birmingham metropolitan area and part of the HS2 railway network, which itself involves the construction of several ambitious tunnels.

One solution that is preferred by the club is to extend the city’s network of trams to cater to the new area, similar to how both Old Trafford and the Etihad Campus are connected via the Manchester Metrolink and most football clubs in London have Underground stations.

However, if that was impractical or unfeasible, Mr Wagner proposed tunnelling underneath the existing railway lines and connecting New Street directly to the new complex.

His justification was that “subways” are complex and expensive, arguing that an underground tunnel using electric buses would be cheaper, estimating the cost at £20m, although it is not clear what this figure is based on.

What is clearer is that Mr Wagner would expect this cost to be paid for using public funds, similar to the model for sporting infrastructure seen in the United States, based on the argument that such a tunnel would regenerate Birmingham and the West Midlands.

It is an unconventional pitch, at a strange time for an unusual club.

An Unorthodox Club

What complicates the proposal somewhat is the current position of Birmingham City FC itself, which as of the proposal being publicised in February 2025 are in the EFL League One, the third tier of English football.

At the time they were at the top of the League One table and assuming no sporting catastrophe almost guaranteed to be promoted to the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, with the potential to be promoted into the Premier League in the following years.

The Blues were relegated from the Championship at the end of the 2023-24 season and it is unusual for huge stadium complexes with a seating capacity of 62,000 as well as matching infrastructure to be provided to clubs this low down the football pyramid.

The case for the infrastructure is hurt further by the fact that their local rivals Aston Villa are currently eighth in the Premier League but have struggled with their own Villa Live redevelopment project according to Birmingham Live.

However, whilst Birmingham City were struggling with a change in ownership from Carson Yeung to the Knighthead Capital Management group headed by Tom Wagner with former American football player Tom Brady taking an ownership stake as well, the Blues would reach an inescapable point and the club would be relegated to League One.

A League One club with ambitions large enough to require a dedicated tunnel system are often treated with suspicion, given the limits placed on the spending of teams under the Profit and Sustainability Rules of the Football League, which has affected stadium renovations before and could affect surrounding structures owned by the club’s owners.

Is The Football Tunnel Likely To Happen?

At present, the tunnel aspect of the overall sporting complex proposal is lacking in detail somewhat, and tunnelling under existing railway lines in a major metropolitan area is nowhere near as simple as Mr Wagner has voiced.

Given that tunnel boring projects can cost over £20m per mile for just the boring itself, let alone the portals, road construction, land costs and labour, completing such a tunnel for that price seems somewhat unlikely, although a full cost-benefit analysis would likely be undertaken before any serious construction work takes place.

It might be possible if such a route was created that served more than just the new sporting complex, and this could potentially even result in the use of public funds for the project.