Birmingham area has quite a few clubs (Brum / Villa, arguably WBA) and possibly Solihull.
I’d argue that Cov has huge potential support if you bolt on Nuneaton, Leam, Warwick etc.
I don’t think there’s many bigger cities than us with only one club that also has big satellite towns it can tap into. (Maybe Leeds is the only other)
Brum under Bruce played the “bigger club” card when we were both in the Champ and poached McSheff and King. I loathed them for their arrogance at the time.
Right now - we are a bigger club in terms of stadium, position and probably ave att and (just for the sake of a measure) registered fans.
To be fair to them they did help us out when we needed. They have potentially weakened their position by doing so. Places like - I dunno - Balsall Common - halfway between Cov and Brum might now and in the future (particularly if we are Prem) have kids coming through who will support us rather than them. They could have easily said “nope, off you trot” and we might have ended up playing in Burton or Walsall with even less gate receipts and income. Small variations often have big long term implications.
Robins went out of his way to praise how good Brum had been to us.