How Birmingham City and Tom Brady offer unique chance to tap into multi-million pound opportunity A documentary will hit Amazon Prime Video this summer - charting Birmingham's return to the Championship. Tom Brady and other key Birmingham City figures at a game last season. On Thursday, it was announced that Birmingham City were set to be the subject of an upcoming Amazon Prime Video documentary charting the club's promotion back to the EFL Championship this season. The behind-the-scenes documentary will follow the club's exciting journey from the summer of 2024 to securing promotion to the second tier of English football, a feat achieved with with six games still to play - with the series to be distributed globally this summer on the Prime Video streaming platform. ‌ Article continues below The Blues are hardly the first club to have gone down the route of a documentary - with Amazon having focused on the likes of Leeds United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Newcastle United and, most recently, Liverpool. Birmingham's closest title rivals this season, Wrexham, have also seen a global fan-base attach themselves to the club thanks to the ownership of the club by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, with the club's Welcome to Wrexham series on Disney+ a runaway success that has transformed the fortunes of the North Wales team. The timing of the Birmingham project is no coincidence. The Blues, under the ownership of Tom Wagner's Knighthead Capital Management, and holding star power of their own in the form of minority shareholder Tom Brady, have their own plans for growth and to see the supporter base grow internationally. Having seen the success of Welcome to Wrexham, tapping into the interest that exists already - particularly in the US around Wrexham - is a smart move. It essentially gives them two bites of the cherry, appealing to existing fans and new ones, as well as piquing the interest of those who have been following the Wrexham journey internationally. ‌ It isn't just Wrexham who have been able to lean on expertise in delivering story-telling brilliance or having insight into what the US market seeks, the Blues have secured the services of lifelong fan Steven Knight, the creator of the wildly successful Peaky Blinders, to executive produce. They also have Knighthead's Matt Alvarez, a renowned film producer whose credits include Straight Outta Compton and the Friday franchise, on board as executive producer. Brady's involvement from the start always seemed a smart play to give the club some real sizzle in the US market, where Brady is revered as one of the greatest players to have ever played in the NFL, America's most popular major league. His attachment to Birmingham immediately makes the documentary more interesting to casual American 'soccer' fans, and with the World Cup in North America one year out this summer, and with interest in the game booming, particularly the English game, the timing is perfect for the Blues to achieve maximum impact. ‌ According to a report published last year by UK-based CLV Group, a company that connects sports teams with fan growth opportunities in global markets, as many as 88million people in the US are football fans, with 42 per cent of those as yet undecided about which team they support. CLV Group CEO, Neil Joyce, said: "A lot of opportunity lies in content, especially when it comes to monetising global fan-bases." In a year where the focus on football and America will be heightened considerably, the ability of Birmingham to tap into that, and on a global distribution platform as significant as Prime Video, offers them the opportunity to win some of the fans in that market over Premier League clubs who don't have the kind of leverage that the Blues do. ‌ As far as what Birmingham might be able to earn from the documentary, what usually happens is that the club are paid a fee by the production company. But the real value for the club is managing to tell the story of their club to a global audience - and tap into the Wrexham interest - potentially opening them up to generating more fans in the likes of America, or possibly more commercial opportunities due to the increased exposure, especially if it proves a success and can return for more than just one season. It is a longer-term play. An interesting note in the club's announcement of the new series was that; 'the project was conceived by Tom Brady and Religion of Sports co-founder, Gotham Chopra'. Brady will feature in the series and also likely be invested in its success. It will be the presence of the seven-time Super Bowl champion and five-time Super Bowl MVP that will be key to just how well that the show cuts through with the casual football fan in the US. Article continues below As mentioned, the timing of the show is impeccable. While the cutesy nature of Welcome to Wrexham has endeared the Welsh club to many a US football fan, the potential to tap into a rivalry between those two sides, both with prominent US ownership and both chasing down the dream of the Premier League, offers some US fans the chance to pick a side, to create a new rivalry. Football fandom has long leaned on the need for rivalry, and being direct competitors with Wrexham, which looks set to continue in the Championship next year, means that Birmingham have the chance to make the most of that opportunity. The Blues ownership have major plans for the club, and that can clearly be seen. Those ambitions, and how they realise them, will stretch far beyond the Midlands and tapping into a global opportunity, making the most of producing high quality, compelling story-telling, already puts them ahead of most Premier League clubs. If they can build up a head of steam on the back of the documentary and into next season, they will be well positioned to increase revenue streams and in a position to be more competitive on the pitch the higher they climb thanks to the improved ability to invest within the financial controls. It's all linked.