AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale has hinted at wanting to double his investment after purchasing the club from Elliott Management.
Cardinale’s fund RedBird Capital bought Milan from Elliott at the end of August in a deal that totals €1.2bn and it continues the trend of American investors wanting to own football clubs in Italy because of the great potential the league has.
Without much concrete action having been taken by RedBird since they bought the club due there not being a transfer window yet, there are understandably some questions about what their ambitions are like and how they stack up against the rather frugal but sensible Elliott Management.
Cardinale spoke to The Australian to discuss the strategy of his fund RedBird and seemed to suggest he is looking to double to value of Milan.
“We’re known for our sports investing, because sports today gets all the profile,” he told The Australian (via FI).
“We look to make a minimum of a double on our investments and we underwrite two and a half to three times our money over a reasonable period of time.
“Sports have a tremendous resiliency to it… what’s great about it is it is a real shock absorber that can withstand technological disintermediation. So even though the way fans and consumers consume this content is evolving and changing … that content is even valuable and is as omnipresent as it’s ever been.”
He also spoke about the idea of building a new stadium: “You’re kind of overpaying and then you have to find a way to work your way into the money. In the US it is real estate. That’s not as prevalent in Europe where the infrastructure is much older.”
This sucks. We are just a mill now. Bye bye milan.
Not really.
For him to make double on his investment, Milan will have to have success on and off the field.
That means new stadium, new improved facilities with the newest technology, new improved commercial contracts, tv rights.
The owner doesn’t make money of player sales. They make by raising the value of the club and then selling it. Elliott didn’t make a dime from Milan until they sold it. The club was/still is running losses and they didn’t sell a single player.
Most fans look at the owner just based on investment in players, but that’s just the final product of running the club in right way.
Look at CR7 interview where he says that ManUtd is stuck in time in the early 2000s and is behind the best clubs in infrastructure and facilities.
Milan under Berlusconi was the front runner when it came to that, Milanello was state of art training facility, Milan Lab was top of the line, he stopped investigating in it and it had a trickle down effect on everything else.
Liverpool owners are about to sell the club that they bought for 300-400 mil for probably 3-4 billion.
They invested in everything and that showed on the field and the success they’ve had.
I get business is intertwined in Calcio, but sometimes it just becomes the justification for everything and I am not a fan. I personally am not excited about this. I don’t like the celebrity-esque vibe that’s going on here with this group of owners. I couldn’t stand Elliot and I am not liking this so far. We’ll see where it all goes.
I’m sorry, but we can’t be anything less but super grateful for Elliott.
They were just a fund who loaned some clown money to buy a club. They had no intention of running or owning the club. Yonghong Li defaulted on his payments, Elliott stepped in , and in 4 short years, they turned Milan from a laughing stock and on brink of bankruptcy to serie A champs, books in order and they raise the value of the club twofold.
And Actually, based on everything, they are leaving the club in better hands than what Berlusconi did after loving and owning the club for 30 years.
Berlusconi only cared about how much money he can get from the sale and left it to someone who had no money or verifiable business.
Berlusconi was a great owner for about 20 years but the way he ran the club in the last 10 years was the reason why Milan was a laughing stock for a decade
See Chinese are super secretive for some reason I guess they even don’t trust their own shadows..its just something inside them. Berlusconi well he did what he had to..no complains on this guy he sold to Chinese after due diligence I am sure how this Chinese guy blew up remains a mystery….but what ever it is elliot did good job luck was on our side covid happened the big club spenders curtailed their wallet and inter had their own issues we manage to capitalise on their short comings…..cardinale is right when he says he wana double investment this shows ambitions..he will probably not spend much on transfers we might sell and buy but what he states is getting a go on stadium and commercialisation of club…increase revenue means more spending…remember american have different model to sports results….in Europe results are related to sponsors and in big apple you need strong footing to capitalise on good sponsors….see at MLS
You don’t feel excited to see Milan have better and stable financial where they don’t need to fear FFP, can give better salary for their players, and can compete with other big clubs in EU?
And you couldn’t stand Elliot, the owner who save Milan from bankrupt, because of what exactly???
Exactly this. I don’t mind owner buy us then looking to sell after they got double the investment – they invest €1.2b to us so they would sell again after minimum offer of €2.5b – the only way the club will worth that much, considering we are based on Italy, not Prem – is for the club to be successful, one of best club in Italy and Europe, regularly reach knock out phase in Champions league, having the best infrastructure and stadium.
If theyre able to brought us to such height I don’t see why not. Its not like we can be back to Berlusconi era again – so just adapt to circumstances and gain the best possible.
“The owner doesn’t make money of player sales.”
This! So many think the sales money go straight into owners’ pockets.
The thing is not a lot of people have that buying power and interest to own a football club.. speaking about selling so soon after buying is a red flag for me. time will tell what is what
Nah li appointed wrong people his intentions to make Milan a great club again were ment well but unfortunately he appointed to dombasses who somehow thought that buying shit ton of players in 1 transfer period wasn’t gonna have any consequences, I also like Cardinale way of building a new stadium going international and such at least he is not bitching like Juventus owner about joining the super league, I hope milan makes smart transfers also manages to keep the good players especially when Maldini is running the club we are going the right way
I love all of you guys who just love the finances of this. As I said I get that it’s very intertwined but how much you love theorizing with other people’s money is sad. Justifying everything because this is a great investment this or that is equally pathetic.
I don’t want milan becoming this celebrity cesspool… American media crap, Yankee, LeBron crap. I don’t like it and I don’t care about how much money it makes, it’s disingenuous trash. I choose to agree to disagree. Money isn’t everything.
In what way, what RedBird s doing is any different than what Berlusconi was supposedly doing because of pure love for football and Milan?
Under Berlusconi Milan was owned by Fininvest, an investment company just like RedBird. On top of the investment group was Berlusconi just like Cardinale is.
These celebrities have absolutely no say in any way how the club is run, but they help in promoting and expanding the Milan brand.
We can throw the 7 UCL titles in other fans’ faces, but in the current hierarchy of European football , Milan isn’t even in the top 20.
We are losing transfer targets to Bayer Leverkusen , Borussia Monchengladbach, Leipzig, West Ham, Newcastle etc because of lack of money. Florian Thauvin turned down Milan’s offer and chose to play in the Mexican league.
We can throw clichés like “Money isn’t everything” but without money you can’t compete with the best clubs in European football.
And before some of our fans try to act all righteous, complain and hate on the PSGs, ManCitys of the world they need to understand that from the late 80’s thru early 2000s, Milan was that era’s PSG and ManCity. Serie a was the Premier league .Milan was the club that was throwing money around and buying the best players every summer. Why do you think all those stars were coming to Milan, out of love? C’mon on.
If you don’t care about money, then you are saying that you will be satisfied just with Milan fighting for top 4 and maybe getting out of the group stages in Europe.
Football is a business. Milan can either adapt or just be satisfied with mediocrity
@zoro
Yes money isn’t everything but running a big football club like Milan NEEDS A LOT OF MONEY.
How Milan can survive if every year their financial is still in the red???
Milan can’t depend solely on scudetto prize money, Champions League participation money, or tickets and merchandise.
FYI. Last season Milan only got around 24 million euros from scudetto prize money. Do you think those money are enough just to pay all players salary? Theo alone have 4 million /year salary and it’s not including tax and bonus. We’re not even talking about Leao who’s asking 7-8 million euros /year.
If you don’t want to see Milan success and have financial stability then by all means you can support small clubs like Monza or Verona. Maybe they can satisfy your unrealistic ideal about running a football club doesn’t need a lot of money.