The purchase of the stadium land in the San Francesco area was officially confirmed by AC Milan earlier today. However, the price tag fee was nowhere near the previously reported €40m, coming in at under €20m.
Milan have taken some significant steps in their stadium pursuit in the last few weeks, getting the approval from San Donato’s technical committee and now purchasing the stadium land. The latter was confirmed today and as reported by Calcio e Finanza, the club paid ‘less than €20m’.
Many reports had stated €40m, referring to the capital injection that RedBird made in anticipation of this, but that also concerns costs for the planning and presenting the variant. The stadium land itself, therefore, cost under €20m while the rest was made up of other costs the project has incurred.
As added by Calcio e Finanza, RedBird also inserted a ‘safety clause’ of sorts when Milan took over the company Sportlifecity, which had already been granted some permits in San Donato. Essentially, even if the Rossoneri’s stadium project were to fail, RedBird could use the area for other projects.
“Hypothetically, if AC Milan were to have no interest in developing any project in the area, the company could freely transfer the shares and commitments to companies of the Redbird group, which has already informally declared to AC Milan its possible interest in this regard,” an excerpt of the agreement read.
In short, although a stadium would be a lot more financially lucrative, RedBird would not be left empty-handed and €40m out of pocket if the stadium project were to fail.
