It is no secret that Gerry Cardinale is fascinated by the media world and how it can cross over with sport, and his latest project is more evidence of that.
La Gazzetta dello Sport recall how the words of Paolo Scaroni yesterday underlined the difference between Elliott Management’s mission and that of RedBird Capital, namely how the former stumbled into ownership of the Rossoneri and the latter have broader plans about how to grow the club’s brand globally.
After having already made its debut in the USA, today ‘Air: The story of the great jump’ – the film on the historic agreement between Nike and Michael Jordan – is released in Italy, and Cardinale is personally involved.
The film will be distributed by Amazon and Warner Bros and it sees among the producers Artists Equity, the company founded in 2022 by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon (both Oscar winners) and RedBird. Damon plays the lead character, Sonny Vaccaro, while Affleck directs the film and plays Nike founder Phil Knight.
“This film is a perfect representation of the convergence between sport, media and culture, something that is at the basis of my way of investing. You cannot wait for change to manifest itself, you have to go and look for it much earlier.,” he said.
“I see a future in which sports clubs are ‘companies of culture’. A great fragmentation is taking place in sport and in the media which creates spaces.
“Sport today is only one leg of the stool, which is not sufficient to prevent it from falling. Hence the search for new models. I am convinced that Milan too can benefit greatly from this vision and from our commitment.”
In the recent period, Cardinale has entered into a partnership with the NFL in the USA for ‘the creation of EverPass Media, a new multimedia platform that will hold the exclusive rights for the distribution of NFL Sunday Tickets to bars, restaurants, hotels and other commercial venues in the United States starting with the 2023 NFL season’.
Launched in 1994 and consisting of all off-market Sunday regular season games (based on viewer location) broadcast on Fox and CBS, NFL Sunday Ticket allows fans across the United States to follow their favourite teams and players, no matter where they reside.
It should be noted that the NFL is the most popular live television content in all of sports and entertainment in the USA. Now, Cardinale wants to bring some of his expertise to Milan and to Serie A.
