It was showbiz. And most definitely not Colchester at home in League One.
Birmingham City dimmed the lights just before kick-off and had a DJ perform rap music in the darkness whilst a few stray players wandered around.
No Tom Brady, maybe, but St Andrew’s – a place where they wondered, a few years ago, if there really was going to be a future - sparkled to the light of smartphone torches and echoed to the most cacophonous noise.
This match represented ‘a precursor for the future’, the club’s interim chief executive had said in midweek.