BRADY LEAVES ST ANDREWS FEELING BLUE

16-10-2006

The possible departure of Birmingham City MD Karren Brady might be bad news for local journalists - but not necessarily for thousands of Bluenoses who feel priced out of St Andrews. It could also signal the death knell for boss Steve Bruce's reign.

The Sunday Times reported yesterday that Brady is being wooed by the London-based radio group Gcap Media - who run Capital Radio - to become their managing director.

She already has a non-executive position on the board of Mothercare, and is a director of local rock station Kerrang. The Stirrer also understands that she was recently approached to take on a major role with a national newspaper group.

The high regard with which she is now regarded by the business community is in sharp contrast to the reception she received in her early days at Blues.

At the age of just 23 she became the first female managing director in football, and her inexperience showed. Brady angered fans by charging them a booking fee for buying away tickets. It was a move that was in breach of league regulations and which penalised the club's most loyal supporters but she was unmoved.

She also took a tough line with critics, and it was not unknown for outspoken journalists to be banned from the press box.

Her tough commercial approach, though, chimed with the new era of Sky football and sky-high prices. Backed by the considerable wealth of porn barons David Sullivan and the Gold brothers who took over in 1993, Blues finally won promotion to the Premier League in 2002.

Brady's great achievement during this era was to capitalise on the club's latent support in the city. On the way up to the top division, families who hadn't been for years - or who had never been at all - were tempted to the ground by “kids for a quid” offers that help fill the ground for less popular fixtures.

Her commercial nous has also helped transform St Andrews into an attractive modern stadium - it used to be a tip -but insiders say that she has been considering a fresh challenge for sometime.

She had life threatening brain aneurism last year, and shortly before that an ambitious scheme to regenerate a rundown part of the inner city with a supercasino and new stadium failed to win the backing of Birmingham Council. Following Blues relegation last May, there has been a growing suspicion that Birmingham isn't a big enough city to satisfy her ambition.

Having softened her PR approach since her early years, Brady has come to be a respected and popular local figure, although supporters still grumble about Blues' high admission charges - which are the highest in the division.