Tom Wagner reveals major boost Birmingham City received from Amazon Prime documentary | OneFootball

A behind the scenes series on the Blues is coming out this summer.

Tom Wagner has stated that the Birmingham City Amazon Prime docu-series has played a big role, financially, in the club's success this season, allowing them to spend more money on players.

The 2024/25 League One champions ascended to their throne this weekend without having to actually play a game in that competition. The match that they played in instead, the final of the EFL Trophy against Peterborough United, didn't go the same way that the rest of the campaign has gone. City fell short at the final hurdle with a 2-0 loss to The Posh at Wembley.

Apart from the disappointment of not getting to see their side lift a trophy at the home of English football, the Bluenoses have had it pretty good this season. They're on track to break the League One all-time points record, they are set up to be a more than competitive Championship side next time out, and they will get to re-live it all when the documentary on the club is released this summer.

It will be great for the club's supporters to be able to always luck back on this season and go through the joy of it again, but the impact that the series has, and will, have stretches beyond just a good hit of nostalgia - it's had a tangible impact on the pitch, according to Birmingham's chairman.

Birmingham City's financial boost from Amazon Prime documentary

Even though his club have achieved such highs this season, the American businessman is still not wholly satisfied with what City have been able to do this season. For better or for worse, Wagner believes that Birmingham still need to improve on the colossus that they have been this season, such a powerful League One force that they actually might not have been were it not for the money earned from Amazon's docu-series.

Wagner was clear in what City need to be able to do going forward. "Figure out how to ******* win," he said, via Birmingham Live. "We’ve done a lot of it this season but we haven’t been able to win the match that matters the most.

"We need to learn to win at a higher level and we need to find a way to prepare ourselves for an even higher level than that. There’s a lot of work to be done.

"I’ll say the following. Without having had the tailwind of the documentary series distributed by Amazon to over 200 countries, we would have already been on a path to have the same level of revenue as parachute clubs next year in the Championship, which is something that has never happened before.

"With the tail wind of a doc series and so many global partners that we have, we’ve got a lot to come on the revenue side. People might say why do you keep talking about the revenue side of things, but without revenue we don’t get the players.

"We are focused on making this a commercially viable club. I will not rest until we are the most powerful revenue-generating club in the Championship by a wide margin, including those who get parachute payments."

Lofty expectations are no bad thing for Birmingham

The owner of a side who are averaging nearly 2.4 points per game this season saying that they need to learn how to win is a pretty bold statement on the face of it, but that's the ambition of Wagner.

He doesn't just want this club to be a middling Championship side. He wants them to be a totally dominant force. It should be no wonder, then, that a serial winner like NFL legend Tom Brady is also on board with the project.

Wagner is right, though. Birmingham will face a much tougher challenge next season and in the seasons to come after that. The good thing for Blues is that their owner has the finances to be able to continuously propel this club forward for years to come.