By Alex Dicken

Copyright birminghammail

Birmingham City could use St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park for non-football events to boost revenue streams. New chief commercial officer (new revenue streams) Stephen Haines, formerly of Meta and Yahoo, is just getting his feet under the table after being hired by Knighthead to boost the club’s coffers and explore sponsorship opportunities around the upcoming Sports Quarter. In an interview with Blues+, Haines hinted that the club could use its existing stadium for more than just football matches. Blues hosted a UB40 concert at St Andrew’s in April last year after a Championship game against Preston and local artist Jaykae performed before their FA Cup tie with Newcastle United in February. Both of those performances were attached to a Blues match but there is seemingly scope for musicians to bring their own audiences to St Andrew’s. Haines said: “My job, with the word ‘commercial’ in the title, Tom (Wagner) and Jeremy (Dale) have been very clear: we want to make the most money and provide the greatest revenue stream of any club outside the three parachute payment clubs and then on a revenue basis compete with those clubs. “But also, to bring value to the partners. How are we looking at them? What are we doing? Are those strategic plans different from the last 10 years? “How are we utilising the ground? Can we use the ground for different things apart from just playing football? “Brands are being really creative now, especially on social media, on how they are engaging with current fans, new fans, so I think it’s up to us to look at all those elements and what is the right way for us to bring those into the club but also they represent Birmingham . “Without talking about specific projects, there’s lots of things we haven’t been doing before that we’re exploring, that brands are getting very excited about.”