It was around one month ago that RedBird Capital Partners celebrated one year in charge of AC Milan, and with the recent news about the accounts it is a good time to take stock.
La Gazzetta dello Sport writes that after the Board of Directors meeting the other day, what emerged in financial terms goes beyond even the most optimistic predictions.
In view of the shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for the end of October when everything will be made official, figures are filtering in that generate big smiles for the Rossoneri management.
The balance sheet ending on 30 June 2023 – i.e. just under a year from RedBird’s definitive entry into the helm of the club – should in fact show a profit of €6m. The last profit Milan recorded was on 31 December 2006.
It is an almost 17-year wait ended, and in that time Milan went as high as losses of just under €200m (2019-20 budget), getting back to a loss of €66.5m last year before making a further leap in 2022-23.
The other data to underline is the projection on revenues which should be over €400m – an absolute record in the history of the Rossoneri, after years of stagnation in which there was seemingly no way to exceed €250m.
Last year the revenues were €297m so it means an increase of over €100m, thanks to new sponsorship deals and a run deep into the Champions League knockout stages.
Also noteworthy is the +€50m relating to the so-called ‘players’ performance rights’ which is the increase in investments in the team by the club compared to the 2021-22 season.
The other excellent news of the last few days is the formalisation of the new stadium project, with the club having delivered to the council of of San Donato Milanese the proposal for the urban planning variant necessary to continue with their plans.
It is a formal act which in practice puts the club’s intentions in black and white: a 70,000 seat stadium with better seats suitable for multiple sporting events, plus a new club headquarters, museum, show, hotel and an entertainment centre around it.
All will be managed and coordinated by Tim Romani, a stadium guru who has built over fifty facilities in his career and is an old American acquaintance of Cardinale’s. The timeline foresees the project approved by Spring 2025 at the latest, with work starting in October of the same year and inauguration for the 2028-29 season.
A stadium alone, without sharing with Inter (from which Milan has separated itself for several months now) would be a huge revenue-generating asset to truly compete with all the elite European teams.
