Original article written by Cary Estes for Business Alabama
Ah, Birmingham. A mid-sized city with an industrial, steel-making past that is in the midst of a 21st-century revival focused on food and entertainment. A city that loves sports, especially football. A city that served as the primary location for the television series “Peaky Blinders.”
Wait, “Peaky Blinders?” The show about a gritty 1920s British crime gang? That was set in Birmingham?
Yes, it was. Birmingham, England, that is. And the success of that show along with the popularity of the Birmingham City Football Club (aka soccer to most Americans) has helped increase interest in the city of Birmingham, England in recent years.
Considering the shared name and the similarities between the two Birminghams, the Greater Birmingham (Alabama) Convention and Visitors Bureau (GBCVB) saw value in teaming up with its sister city from across the pond. So, this past February, the GBCVB entered into a two-year financial partnership with the Birmingham City Football Club (BCFC) that will enable our Birmingham to promote itself internationally.
“This really came about organically,” says David Galbaugh, GBCVB vice president of sports sales & marketing. “We just started talking with the people with the Blues (the BCFC’s nickname) and realized we have a lot of commonality and bonds outside of our names. There was no talk initially about forming a partnership. It was just neat that you have two Birminghams with sort of parallel legacies and communities that are a lot alike.
“But we kept having these calls about once a month, and that eventually led us to start talking about how we could work together. From there it took a little while before we formulated an actual partnership.”
Under the agreement, the GBCVB logo is featured on the back of the Blues game jerseys, and advertising signage about Birmingham, Alabama, has been placed on the grounds of the team’s stadium. The partnership was signed near the end of the most recent season, so Galbaugh says additional promotional possibilities will be created over the next two seasons.
“We’re going to have opportunities to take clients over there for games,” Galbaugh says. “They have some big sponsors like Delta, Pepsi and Nike, and we love being aligned with those large corporations. It gives us access.
“But it’s really about global awareness of our destination. We see this as a real way to reach out to the U.K. market and even the international market. The Blues have huge fan support across the globe. We’d love to see those fans get a taste of what Birmingham, Alabama, is as a destination and what we have to offer and have them come visit our community.”
Former GBCVB President and CEO John Oros agrees. In a release announcing the establishment of the partnership, Oros said, “This collaboration is an incredible opportunity to showcase Birmingham, Alabama, to an international audience. … Sports has a unique way of bringing people together, and through this partnership we look forward to welcoming new visitors, fostering new relationships and positioning our city as a premier destination for global travelers.”
Galbaugh would not disclose what the GBCVB’s financial obligation is with the BCFC, other than to say, “They don’t just give that (sponsorship) away.” But Blues CEO Jeremy Dale says the reasons for this partnership go beyond just typical revenue generation.
“Our owners (which include former NFL quarterback Tom Brady) are American, and we just signed a partnership deal with (Atlanta-based) Delta Air Lines,” Dale says. “So, we felt like we needed to make more of an inroad into America and build our fan base there.
“As soon as we started speaking with the people at Greater Birmingham, we were all aligned in our vision. It was clear early on that we clicked. So, it was very easy to agree to this partnership. Since then, we’ve been working on a number of initiatives to help promote Birmingham, Alabama. We’re trying to showcase not only the common name, but also that the two cities are very much aligned.”
One of the promotions that took place during the offseason was a YouTube video in which BCFC players had to guess the meaning of certain Southern slang words and phrases. These included “Bless Your Heart,” “Yonder,” “Fixin’ To,” “Grits,” and, of course, “Y’all.”
“Our players didn’t have much of a clue. It was very amusing,” Dale says. “So, we created visibility about the type of city Birmingham, Alabama is, and we’re going to keep developing that further. We created 5.3 million social media impressions with them (through the first four months of the agreement).
“In today’s world, it’s all about the content. The content on the pitch (playing field) is important, but we’re also finding ways to talk about our team and our partners. So, we’re showcasing who Birmingham, Alabama is, promoting the ties between them and us, and encouraging our fans to experience the hospitality of Alabama.”
That exposure, according to Galbaugh, is the true value of this partnership. The primary objective of the GBCVB is to attract tourism, and Galbaugh says simply getting out the Birmingham, Alabama, name beyond not only the borders of the state but of the country is an important step toward that goal.
“We want to create awareness and drive economic impact, and this is an opportunity to drive more tourism to Birmingham,” Galbaugh says. “We haven’t ever really had a partnership like this on a global stage. You have a huge global audience that is interested in anybody that is involved with their club. I think this can be pretty special, and I can’t wait to see what happens over the next two years.”
One thing both Galbaugh and Dale hope will happen is an eventual exhibition game between the BCFC Blues and the local Birmingham Legion Football Club. Discussions already are underway about having the Blues make a stop in Birmingham during an East Coast tour of the United States next year.
“We look forward to coming over and having our players do a tour of the city and film that, so we can showcase it to all our fans back here,” Dale says. “We want our fans to know that if they’d like to experience Birmingham, England, abroad, then Birmingham, Alabama, is a great place to go, because we share that same heritage of an industrial backbone. So, hopefully next year we can come over and meet our brothers with a different accent.”
Cary Estes is a Birmingham-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.
This article appears in the August 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
